Several cars leave the Clarke Central High School student parking lot at dismissal on March 27. CCHS staff members and students have long struggled with parking at CCHS. “I would park in the same spot, because I would get here before students and so different cars are parked next to me every day,” CCHS physical education department teacher Kasi Carvell said. “If you back into (the spot) your tires touch the (divider), you’re actually taking up space in the spot behind you. I had cars that backed in behind me that would bump the bumper, it happened a lot. Car doors open just because they’re parked so close. It was somebody different every single day.” Photo by Peter Atchley
With a growing student population and limited parking capacity, the CCHS student parking lot has created issues with overcrowding and safety for students and faculty alike.
Every school day at 3:35 p.m., chaos erupts in the Clarke Central High School student parking lot as hundreds of novice drivers attempt to exit through a single route.
With the CCHS parking lot being a melting pot of students with various levels of driving knowledge, traffic issues and congestion, the potential for car accidents is high.
Clarke Central High School Security Officer Debra Elder oversees the student parking lot at dismissal on May 8, 2025 from the guard tower in the student parking lot. Over her time at CCHS, Elder has observed the overcrowding in the student parking lot first-hand and has enforced methods such as towing to decrease traffic congestion. “(There are) so many students that don’t have a parking pass (and) shouldn’t be here. The kids that actually have a parking pass, when (they’re) coming in, don’t have anywhere to park,” Elder said. “That’s why I have to radio my superior and let them know, and that’s when we get tags and cards and have them towed.” Photo by Cesia Martinez
“Everyone is trying to get out at the same time (and) everyone has a certain sense of urgency for where they’re trying to go,” CCHS Associate Principal of Operations Tamika Henson said. “Oftentimes, people may be cutting off other people, not waiting their turn (and) not being patient.”
The CCHS campus itself becomes congested with parent pickup and drop off on South Millidge Avenue. The student parking lot currently has one guard tower stationed between the only entrance and exit for students onto Baxter Street. With the student population rising, exiting the lot is difficult.
“We’ve had issues where kids have driven on the curbs. Kids are parking (in) lots that were not designated for students, but for staff. Things that we’ve had to address due to (population) growth,” CCHS Principal Dr. Swade Huff said. “Safety is first and foremost our primary concern.”
The student parking lot consists of 239 parking spaces, including 10 handicapped spots and overflow teacher parking. During the 2024-25 school year, CCHS sold 277 parking passes.
As of April 3, the school has sold 295 active passes for the 2025-26 school year, according to CCHS Interim Security Team Lead Imani Jarrett. In an effort to address this discrepancy, at the start of the spring semester CCHS stopped selling passes entirely, although later that same semester passes began to be sold again like to junior Xavier Reyes, who has pass number 282.
“(The security team) wants to mitigate (the lack of spaces), which includes accounting for students leaving, graduating early, all that, (because that) essentially opens up spaces. (The Administrative Team) is overseeing (the lot), and (The security team) is enforcing it,” Jarrett said. “(Faculty and students) have families, they have a mode of transportation. They need somewhere to park. We just need more space.”
*Click on the buttons to learn more about notable areas associated with the student parking lot
A graphic shows notable locations of the Clarke Central High School student parking lot and near it, including the old bus lane, where overflow parking often occurs. Graphic by Peter Atchley and Lea D’Angelo
The teacher’s parking lot is forbidden for students to park or drive through and other additional gates are locked for security reasons.
“I’ve seen people have to park next to the curb, people parking in front of the Weight Room, on the sidewalk. After school, it’s super hard to get out, it’s hard to get in,” CCHS senior AJ Lonon said. “You might have to go across the street, go to Raising Canes (or) go park on the concrete, (and) because there are so many different factors of people parking, it’s hard.”
“It’s an issue that we need to address, hopefully sooner rather than later, because safety is first and foremost our primary concern, and we just don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
— Dr. Swade Huff,
CCHS Principal
The congestion felt in 2026 across campus is the product of years of population growth without expanded or updated facilities. In 1996 the student population was 1,398, while the fall enrollment for the 2025-26 school year was 1,907.
For CCHS Class of 1996 alumna Dr. LaKeisha Gantt, when she was a student back in the ‘90s the parking lot was adequately sized for the student body.
“I was not a driver, but some of my friends drove,” Gantt said. “I do remember feeling like everybody was out there (in the lot), but, I don’t remember (the parking lot) being full, I remember there being spaces for people who drove cars.”
Photos from the 2015-16 renovation at Clarke Central High School, which is the most recent renovation and didn’t include any updates to the student parking lot despite growth in student population, are shown. Photos by Chad Rhym
According to High-Schools.com, which provides data about high schools across the United States, the student body consisted of 1,429 students during CCHS’s most recent renovations in 2015-16, when no major change was made to the student parking lot. Since this renovation the CCHS student population has grown by more than 33%.
A graphic shows data about Clarke Central High School’s student and faculty population relative to the spaces available in CCHS’ various parking lots. Graphic by Lea D’Angelo
“When I started (teaching) here in 2015 the school size was (over) 1,400 students. We’re now at over 1,900 students,” CCHS social studies department teacher Shauna Biggs said. “(That growth) impacts a lot of things. It impacts the cafeteria, it impacts the Media Center, it impacts classroom sizes, bathrooms, but it really does impact parking.”
The 2015-16 renovation focused on the West Wing science and math halls, with the largest parking change occurred in the staff parking lot, where the bus loop that used to pass in front of the school, limiting teacher parking spaces, was rerouted, allowing buses to exit onto Rocksprings Street. At this time, the staff numbered nearly 100.
In the present day there are 180 full-time staff, not including student teachers, parapros, and school resource officers (SROs), causing the teacher lot to be overfilled, which means faculty parking bleeds into the student lot.
“I park (in front of the Weight Room) because it is right outside where I teach. But also the teacher lot gets filled up, there’s not enough teacher spots at all,” CCHS physical education department teacher Kasi Carvell, a CCHS parent, said. “I have to get (to school) now earlier to be able to park over (in the teacher lot), because if I came in at 7:40 (a.m.) that lot is completely filled up. There’s a big spill right now of teachers having to park in the student lot.”
Former SRO Team Lead Officer Pecos Williams felt the parking issue needed to be addressed at the end of the 2024-25 school year, leading him to request that CCHS receive additional officers from Clarke County School District Chief of Police Terry Reid, with only three SROs currently serving.
“(In a) perfect world scenario, I would want at least four (school resource officers), just guys and gals with badges walking around,” Jarrett said. “Growth is good. It’s not that it’s a bad thing, but you need the support and space.”
This congestion of inexperienced new drivers poses a significant threat to student safety. According to the National Library of Medicine, United States drivers ages 15-20 make up 8.5% of police-reported motor-vehicle crashes despite representing only 5% of licensed drivers. CCHS’s student drivers fall within that age range.
“It happens about every week: a car bumped into another one, or (students are) speeding through here, head-on accidents, going up and down the (lanes) the wrong way, not doing what they are supposed to do, not following the rules,” CCHS SRO Debra Elder said.
The Clarke Central High School student parking lot is shown on Oct. 12, 2025. The CCHS student parking lot has struggled to support the student population with only one entrance and exit to the lot onto Baxter Street. “I’ve gotten stories secondhand from students and faculty members who are trying to exit the parking lot where kids are not being mature with operating their vehicles because of frustrations,” CCHS Principal Dr. Swade Huff said. “It takes a good amount of time for kids to exit a lot depending on the traffic flow on batch street during the afternoon.” Photo by Maypop Wren
Those incidents are not abstract for students like CCHS Class of 2025 alumna Adah Nackashi, who had her side-view mirror crushed, door dented and back bumper cracked in the 2022-23.
“I’ve been hit a few times in the parking lot and a lot of times people just leave, and they don’t do anything about it, and that makes (getting justice) really difficult,” Nackashi said. “We’re all students, we are not good drivers yet.”
The danger impacts both those driving and students walking through the student parking lot in fear of getting hit by another student’s vehicle, something Lonon has experienced.
“Even when I’m not driving, when you’re trying to get to your car, if you don’t look left, look right, look left again, you’re gonna see a car speeding down, and it might be too late at that (point),” Lonon said.
The overcrowding is especially felt by students arriving outside of the normal bell schedule, such as dual enrollment and Athens Community Career Academy students, who face a difficult decision. They either have to park in non-official spaces and risk being towed, or just drive home for the day, something that CCHS senior Sadie Miller, a dual enrollment student at the University of Georgia, has dealt with several times.
“As I’m driving into (the lot) around noon, there’s usually no parking spots in the parking lot,” Miller said. “I’ll either have to makeshift a parking spot on the concrete, or drive around for more than 10 minutes to see if someone leaves. It’s very inconvenient, and it’s made me late to class, but there’s nothing else I can do.”
A video of the Clarke Central High School student parking lot during dismissal on May 12, 2025 is shown. Video by Emlyn McKinney
Common non-official parking spots chosen by students include the concrete walkway near the Weight Room, the asphalt in front of the guard tower, the road for the old bus lane, and other nearby parking areas. Some students even park across the street at the Courtyard Condominiums to avoid the threat of being towed, although some students have been towed when parking there.
“There was one particular student who emailed his English teacher. He was very responsible and said (that) because he could not find a parking space, he was going home,” Huff said. “That was unfortunate, because we owe it to him, and other students, to make sure that we can accommodate all their needs, education and safety.”
“As I’m driving in around noon, there’s usually no parking spots in the parking lot. I’ll either have to makeshift a parking spot on the concrete, or just drive around for more than 10 minutes to see if someone leaves. It’s very inconvenient, and it’s made me late to class, but there’s nothing else I can do.”
— Sadie Miller,
CCHS senior
As parking grows more chaotic, parents and staff are questioning the fairness of the current school parking lot system.
“(We’ve) got more kids driving, more teachers and student teachers,” Carvell said. “As a parent, I get frustrated that I spend (money) every year getting my daughters a parking pass, and it doesn’t seem to matter, because there’s 50 kids (parking) out there that don’t have one. So why am I buying one?”
Immediate and easy to implement solutions include students carpooling with others to limit individual drivers, and encouraged use of CCHS and UGA buses. Changes have occurred, with SROs standing on the exit on Baxter St. to help direct traffic, but the total student-driver population is still felt by the CCHS community.
“If we didn’t, as students, (try to) go all at once and we let cars go one-by-one, I feel like it would be a lot more efficient,” Nackashi said. “There’s (students driving) who go around everybody and then cut off everybody, which literally makes more traffic. If people would just let people go, then it would really help.”
Williams believed a needed solution to help the parking lot is for the security team to be more aggressive in enforcing parking protocols and violations.
“I hope that we don’t have to tow more vehicles. It’s not fair for those kids to follow the rules and buy the parking passes and they don’t have a place to park,” Williams said. “Because (we have) tried to be lenient on some of the kids who haven’t received those parking passes, (but) it’s hurting the other kids who have paid for it.”
A juxtaposition of the Clarke Central High School student parking lot between before school and during school in December 2025. Photos by Peter Atchley and Maypop Wren
To seek out students without the proper passes to park, Elder patrols the parking lot daily checking that each car has a pass. This process is Phase One of Jarrett’s plan to resolve the student parking lot.
“With phase two, the next step is now a collaboration with administration,” Jarrett said. “(The Admin Team and security) have discussed overflow parking in areas that may not be favorable. But we also want to keep safety in mind.”
A video shows Clarke Central High School Security Officer Debra Elder speaking about possible future changes to the student parking lot. Video by Emlyn McKinney
Phase three of Jarrett’s plan to resolve the parking lot is unclear as of April. 19, 2026 although he knows that adding more parking and reorganizing the system is a must and is in process to do that. Other solutions consist of redesigning the current parking lot system, like numbering parking spots for specific drivers or opening up another gate for students to exit through.
“(Assigning spots) is hard when we don’t actually have enough parking spots for everybody,” Biggs said. “(The school will) probably have to end up reducing student parking (passes), which is frustrating, too.”
“I hope that we don’t have to tow more vehicles. It’s not fair for those kids to follow the rules and buy the parking passes and they don’t have a place to park.”
— Pecos Williams,
Former CCHS SRO Team Lead Officer
Huff believes that annual affidavits, which is a written statement of oath submitted by parents to ensure every student attending CCHS is actually zoned for CCHS, would help alleviate population growth.
“There needs to be a discussion about how we can resolve this matter, because we’re growing,” Huff said. “We’re one of the few (schools) in the district that is growing, and it is a safety issue. It is problematic with our students and our staff. I will welcome the conversation with district personnel discussing rezoning.”
No matter the solution, the CCHS administration has begun discussing solutions as enrollment numbers continue to increase. Students, parents and faculty alike await the implementation of these solutions.
