Peering into the windows over the security desk in the front lobby of DHS, a student laughed hysterically as he watched his friend standing outside, flipping off the surveillance camera while standing on top of a large, newly-placed cement cylinder. The student yelled out a confirmation, reassuring his friend atop the barrier with his middle finger pointing towards the camera that he could be seen from inside.

“Now there’s a fun, safe activity,” math teacher Robyn Eusebio commented.

Last month, the front of the DHS building was remodeled, as three cement barriers were plunked, by crane, smack in the middle of the walkway of the only accessible entrance to the building. Costing $350 a piece, these barriers were purchased with this year’s student parking lot fees.

The majority of students were, and still are, under the impression that their parking money will go solely to parking lot improvements. “I thought it [parking fee] was going to snow blowers and whatnot so we could have clean spaces during the winter, which by the way my spot was full of snow as tall as I am,” junior Christopher Szala exclaimed.

“It’s disappointing,” senior Kristen Connulty agreed.

Dartmouth business coordinator Manuel Cordeiro said, “We are not improving the parking lot but rather preventing problems.”

Mr. Cordeiro refers to the walk-through that the Dartmouth Police recently made at DHS, claiming an unprotected front door to be a safety hazard. Although the police department did not comment on the issue, an anonymous DHS faculty member said, “Now we’re safe, they can’t drive through—now they just have to get out and walk in.”

Math teacher Jane Martin-Fortin agrees. “What’s the message here?” she asked.

In the near future, Dartmouth will be taking more measures to increase safety at DHS. Mr. Cordeiro said that additional surveillance cameras will be installed throughout the school over the summer. There may be nothing stopping administration from funding their installation with student parking lot fees, too, although DHS principal Donna Dimery mentioned that surplus money from the fees will be used towards “educational purposes.”

The student parking lot contracts fail to specify what the collected fees can and cannot be used for, nor do the student handbooks, but Mrs. Dimery stated that the student parking fees were put into place after the student handbook was published.

Mrs. Dimery also said that Massachusetts State Law dictates the usage of parking lot fees; however, Spectrum legal counsel advised that no such law exists, stating that the use of funds is “most likely devised by the school committee at town meetings.”

Whether or not it was ever specified by the school committee is questionable as well, for the 2007 Annual Town Report has yet to be published in book form, and the records made available online do not include the meetings of July and August of 2007, around the time of the first failed override when many students fees received the OK from town officials.

There is still much confusion over the usage of student parking lot fees, and a concrete wall seems to exist between commonly held notions and the truth. Mr. Cordeiro was unavailable for further comment on the subject at time of publication.