We at Warrenton High School pay $35 a year for a parking pass, but where does this money really go? On September 2, 2022 we sat down with three different administrators to get their opinions. 

There were some similarities in the answers recorded. Fowler, the athletic director says, “It goes to pay for the actual drug testing. We drug tested the middle and high school, and those tests were paid for through a parking permit.” It was also mentioned that “We haven’t had drug testing for a couple years because of Covid” so where did the money go during those couple of years? 

Ross, the assistant superintendent, had no definite response as to where the money goes as he does not work with the budget lines. He did answer questions as to why students need these passes. “There is a lot of security level to it,” he followed by talking about how if the school grew to a size where people could not find parking, they could pull out the data and conclude if they should look deeper into the issue. “It gives us a data point to be like, well look we’ve only sold 400 parking passes so there should only be 400 cars parked, so then if there’s not we know we have a problem.” 

Alderson, the new principal at Warrenton High, was the last questioned. He, like Ross, was not positive as to where the parking pass money goes. He gave his best guess and said “The majority of the $35 goes to random drug testing… I think the other 10 goes into an account for where we can spend that money back on you guys.” 

All three of the administrators’ interviews had good answers, the similarities were in the randomized drug testing, but Ross and Alderson seemed to believe that at least a portion goes into an account to be spent back on students which is what we, as students, like to hear.