Students at GHS are annoyed with the increased traffic correlated with arriving and leaving the high school. Are these complaints justified?  Many students and staff at Goffstown High School argue that the traffic in the back parking lot is particularly bad this year. Many cars get congested in the back student parking lot, causing increased time in arrival and departure for school.  

According to Colin Buckley, a student at GHS, the traffic leaving the school is a “9/10”, 10 being the worst. The only way to make it out on time is “if you sprint to get to your car early and beat the buses, or else you will be stuck for 10 to 15 minutes”. The student added that people don’t alternate before the stop sign, which leaves some people waiting for a longer period of time. On average, it takes students 20 minutes to just get out of the parking lot to leave school. Coach Detjen is the head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at Goffstown and has been directing the cars in the student parking every day for two years. Detjen said, “All cars looking to leave, not including athletes staying after school, are usually gone by 3 p.m., giving them 20 minutes to leave”. He also stated that because there is only one exit to leave from the back, there has always been traffic. However, this year is especially bad due to Covid. Now, parents have chosen to pick up their kids from school, rather than allowing them to take the bus home. This creates more traffic in the back because the students getting picked up in the front may need to leave through the student parking lot. The cars in the back have also increased because the amount of parking spots have increased. According to Coach Detjen, over the past couple of years, Coach Perrin, an assistant football coach at GHS, has been working with maintenance to increase the number of parking spots in the back lot. 

Reducing the traffic after school may not be a simple task. One student suggested that another exit could be made to help cars get out on time. The disorganization in the back lot also increases the amount of time spent trying to leave. Coach Detjen explained that when directing the traffic “he tries to get as many student cars out as possible, before the buses come around”. Once a bus comes around the school to leave, he has to stop all student cars to let the buses through. Other students have expressed the concern that some cars parking in the student parking lot do not have a parking pass. Detjen said that “generally all cars have a pass, however sometimes he or Coach Perrin do not have time to check everyday”.