The first year that seniors at Batavia High School could paint personalized parking spaces was a big success, representatives of the Class of 2018 told school board members at Tuesday's meeting.
They recommended the board approve the same project for the class of 2019.
Not only were there no problems, the project raised $795 for the senior class.
“That’s probably one of the easiest fundraisers ever,” said Senior Mikey Lullo.
There were 35 spaces painted and 19 spots reserved by students.
Several faculty members wanted to get in on the act, offering as much as $200 to have their parking spaces painted by a student, but since that wasn't part of the agreement the senior class had with the board, the class declined to sell those services.
Mikey said that was one of several recommendations this year's class had for the Board of Education.
First, the biggest recommendation was that the Class of 2019 be allowed to move forward with the same program.
The students also recommended that seniors be given a whole week to get their spots painted. Two days isn't enough time when students have sports activities starting up that time of year, family vacations wrapping up, and jobs. Some students found it hard to fit in painting on just a Thursday and Friday. That meant some of them painted over the weekend, which technically was against the rules, but Lullo said the board should consider that there were no problems as a result and all of the students (many accompanied by parents) were respectful.
The few problems encountered by the students were minor, the students said. Lauren Leone said one time some garbage got left behind but other students took care of it right away. There was also an incident after the first snowfall where one student parked in another student's spot, but that was quickly resolved. Nobody purposefully caused a problem with another student over parking.
The project was also successful, Mickey said, because it helped raise senior class spirit.
"It was so great," she said. "Even though I didn’t paint a parking spot, I was just there helping other people, and it was so relaxing, just getting to paint and be with each other before senior year started."
Photo: Amand Patel, Lauren Leone, Mikey Lullo, and Kiara Cherry.
