Copper Hills High School has one of the largest student bodies in the Jordan School District. The official website for Copper Hills states, “This modern educational facility opened its doors in the fall of 1995 and currently serves over 2,800 students.” With so many students attending this school, it’s only logical that parking is a major issue. This problem might have a solution with the addition of new teacher and visitor parking lots.

The problems with parking aren’t a recent development. Mark Halliday, an assistant principal at Copper Hills, said, “Ever since I was transferred here to CHHS I have been asking for more parking. I came from Herriman High School where they had twice as many stalls for student use than we have here at CHHS.” There had been plans to put a new parking lot in as far back as the summer of 2020, but these plans were postponed due to Covid-19.

One of the existing measures to assist with parking lot overcrowding is the school’s parking passes. Parking passes are required for any car that uses the school’s parking lots, though they can only be purchased by juniors and seniors. This year 1201 parking passes have been sold, with 194 of those being for the driving range. Parking range passes let students park on the driving range with the agreement that they’ll be out of the driving range by 3:00, and they’re usually given to students who have to leave early for JATC or work release. Despite this, the demand for stalls outweighs the mere 834 parking spaces that are available. The shortage of parking stalls has led to sophomores and late students being forced to park on the infamously dubbed, “Sophomore Lane,” and surrounding areas where it’s more dangerous. While not all students drive everyday, it does highlight the need for additional parking. 

When asked about the problems with the current parking lot, Halliday stated that, “It’s just too small.” The new parking lot can help remedy the issues though. “It opened up close to 100 extra stalls for students, plus doubled our visitor parking,” Halliday elaborated, “plus students that have baseball, softball, or tennis can park up near where they will be playing.” The new lots also allow teachers to park closer to the office or their classrooms. This allows teachers to leave for lunch or go to the store without worrying about their parking spaces being taken.

Overall, the new parking lots provide many benefits for Copper Hills. Whether it be the convenience of not hiking to school, less parking on dangerous roads, or the accessibility for teachers and visitors, a majority of students will experience some positives from the addition.