At the beginning of the school year, juniors faced a dangerous walk along Mulholland Drive in order to find parking near the Milken campus. At Milken the seniors are the only grade that are allowed to park on campus, and because at the time there was no official parking lot for juniors, these juniors decided to seek out their own solution. “They would walk 20 minutes to and from school and it is right near where all these cars are speeding. It was just not safe for student drivers,” said Noa Foruzanfar.
The walk to school from their parking spots motivated juniors Ryan Moss and Noa Foruzanfar to advocate for their grade and seek a safer parking solution. Because of their efforts, there are now five spots available for juniors at the Skirball parking lot, but some Juniors have become infuriated with the fact that there are only three spots currently being used.
In September of the 2023-2024 school year, Moss and Foruzanfar decided to take initiative and meet with Dr. Shulkind in an attempt to get the juniors a parking lot. In preparation for the meeting, Moss and Foruzanfar created an entire slideshow presentation with multiple suggestions for where the juniors should be able to park. “When we contacted Dr. Shulkind we came up with this slideshow for different options regarding parking for Juniors. The options included AJU, Skirball, and the West Lot,” said Ryan Moss. Moss and Foruzanfar explained that during their first meeting, Dr. Shulkind said that the AJU and the West Lot were not available, and that she wanted to encourage them to reach out to the Skirball on their own. “She gave us the idea of contacting the Skirball because that’s where the Milken teachers currently park,” said Noa Foruzanfar.
Moss and Foruzanfar were able to meet with Jessie Kornberg who is the CEO of Skirball, and they created a new slideshow addressing the reasoning behind the urgent need for junior parking. Unfortunately, the CEO of Skirball was not able to grant them their request at that time. Noa Foruzanfar said, “We made a slideshow and proposed a plan to the CEO of Skirball where we discussed what we wanted, and the reasons why we wanted parking for juniors. She thought about it and decided a few weeks later that the plan wasn’t going to work out the way we wanted, but she would continue to think about it and if anything opened up she would let us know.”
Fortunately, while Kornberg was deliberating whether juniors should be permitted to park at the Skirball, Milken managed to secure a rental of the West Lot at the Mirman school. This arrangement allowed juniors to park there, with shuttle services transporting them between the West Lot and Milken campus. Despite the relief among students for having a secure parking option, some encountered difficulties reaching the West Lot promptly, resulting in delays for shuttles and tardiness to first-period classes.
Juniors stopped parking at the West Lot when Milken purchased AJU. Now juniors park in the East Lot, a part of the AJU campus or what is now known as MIlken East. In order to ensure that students are no longer tardy due to the shuttle, juniors must be parked in the lot by 7:40 in the morning. If they are not there by that time then they will only be taken to school at 8:15, and they will not be excused from first period classes.
A little over two months ago, the CEO of Skirball contacted Moss and Foruzanfar with an update. She told them that she would be able to grant five parking spots for the junior class. Moss and Foruzanfar met with Dr. Shulkind, Mr. Sanchez, and Mr. Lindsay in order to discuss how they were going to distribute those five spots. Moss and Foruzanfar proposed that the best way to make the decision of who will get to park in the Skirball lot was to give four spots to the “Mensch of the Month.” The teachers decide who the “Mensch of the Month” will be by recommending students who have fulfilled all the requirements of being a mensch. The last spot in the lot is given to a student who is always wearing Milken Merch and has great attendance.
Unfortunately, two of the five spots in the Skirball lot were granted to two students who do not have their licenses. This caused an uproar in the junior class. Many students were angry at the school for not checking to see who is actually eligible to drive a car and park at the Skirball. The administration decided that they were not going to grant those two spots to Juniors who do have their license for the first month. “It is super frustrating that the school didn’t check to see who had their license beforehand. I am always in my Milken Merch and feel as though I hold the qualities of a mensch,” said an anonymous junior. There is a list of juniors who currently park at the East Lot and the Junior class is hoping that the school references that list when making the next decision for who can park in the Skirball lot.
The students who have been parking in the Skirball lot include Ryan Moss, Noa Foruzanfar, and Benjamin Hartman. “Parking at the Skirball lot was very useful. It helped a lot because I didn’t have to wait for the shuttle bus when I got to school. I have a free at the end of the day so I can leave early, so I am definitely grateful for this opportunity,” said Benjamin Hartman. All three of them have shown immense gratitude for the opportunity. The five who were chosen for the upcoming month include Ronya Diller Picard, Heely Cohen, Benji Feiner, Avital Hopenstand, Ali Silverstein, and Noa Sweet. There have been no student complications within the Skirball lot, and the students are hoping that the Skirball will be able to grant them more spots in the future as they continue to build trust with the Skirball.