The construction taking place over the summer and fall will result in large-scale changes to student parking on campus. IHS is expected to lose 130 parking spots at the front of the school and 80 parking spots behind the old portables. Progress on a storm detention vault — which is designed to hold excess rainwater runoff — is projected to have a three-week overlap with the start of the school year. This will present a major challenge to IHS staff, who must establish a plan for bus, staff and student parking.
Campus Supervisor Sarah Beeson (she/her) has been coordinating with her fellow campus officials to ensure that parking is meeting its full potential in the next school year. However, without knowing exactly which construction activities will be happening at any given date during the summer, any plans they’ve devised remain uncertain.
“This is going to be an ongoing thing where every year we have to adjust to where they’re doing construction and just get to the building,” Beeson said.
In May, the campus supervisors sent out emails to students who had been approved for parking spots. Due to the parking constraints, the only students approved for parking spots were rising seniors, and rising juniors who need to leave campus for WANIC or Running Start. All other rising juniors who applied were placed on the waitlist.
Around three weeks into the fall semester, some of the spots lost to construction will be gained back, allowing campus supervisors to grant parking passes to the rising juniors who were placed on the waitlist.
The exact number and location of these regained spots will not be known until August, as the school attempts to officiate a parking lease with the neighboring Lighthouse Foursquare Church. This would open up roughly 60 spots to students during the school day.
As of June 1, that contract has not yet been signed because NSD needs to sign off on the contract to lease external parking. Additionally, campus supervisors are currently exploring the possibility of using the softball field lot and the space in between the tennis courts and the concert hall, which currently serves as parking for the construction crew, for student parking.
BnBuilders Superintendent Danny O’Brien (he/him) said the construction team hopes to make major headway on the framework and utilities for the buildings already erected over the summer, as well as several projects outside of the current job site.
“The parking lot where your buses currently drop off — all of that is going to be excavated down about 17 feet,” O’Brien said. “A large stormwater detention vault is going to be installed in the west parking lot the second you guys are gone.”
Afterward, BnBuilders will work to restore the area back to a parking lot. Despite the effort it takes to put a project like this into motion, BnBuilders is still prioritizing the quality of life and convenience of IHS students and staff to keep school life as normal as possible.
“Challenges now are logistical challenges,” O’Brien said. “We have one road in, one road out, and of course, it’s in the back of the campus. All deliveries — anything that comes and goes from the job site — has to be coordinated in time so that it doesn’t affect school activities.”
When students return to school in September, they can expect to see noticeable changes to the structure, namely roofing, weather resistive barriers and the installation of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems before the addition of insulation and main walls occurs.
“It’s challenging but also kind of cool to be on a campus with an active construction site,” Beeson said. “I hope the students can appreciate the big feat that’s happening right now and how much work is involved in all of it.”
