Students at Hayfield Secondary School, start saving your pennies. And econ students, pay attention.
On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors took a step to thwart students who park for free along side streets near the Alexandria school, instead of paying the $75 on-campus parking fee.
In a motion offered by Supervisor Jeff McKay, D-Lee, parking along a half-mile stretch of Old Telegraph Road behind the school grounds would be restricted between 6:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., beginning soon after the current school year closes on June 21 (a parting victory for the class of 2011).
The school has taken other steps to reduce street parking, which it deems dangerous because it means kids darting across the road, either late for first period or rejoicing at the end of the day. It has already reduced the annual parking fee to $75, down from $200 last fall.
On-campus parking currently is “grossly underused,” McKay said. When the cost was $200-a-year, only 128 of 275 spaces were sold. Reducing the price to $75 brought the number up to almost 190 spaces – about two-thirds of the total.
The pricing conundrum sounds like it could be a good case study for Hayfield’s AP Econ students. Unfortunately, it looks also to be a lesson in Real World politics: The days of free student parking at Hayfield appear almost to be over.
