It might be summer, but many Scarborough High School students are already worried about school in the fall – or at least about how they will get there. To make up a $50,000 budget shortfall, the school board has proposed a $100 parking fee for students, or $25 per quarter.

But many students and parents have refused to accept this. More than 350 individuals now comprise a Facebook page protesting the fee, with plans to picket the Aug. 16 school board meeting at which the board is expected to approve the fee.

Many complaints revolve around the fact that students already pay $100 per sport and $50 per club. Protesters worry that the proposed implementation of a parking fee is the gateway to more increases in student fees.

A popular protest idea is to have a large group of students take the bus to school, and “boycott the lot,” suggested senior class member John Wheeler on the Facebook page. “This will cause chaos and panic among the administration as the current bus system wouldn’t be able to transport everyone in due time.”

The school board, however, maintains that raising this revenue is a necessity. The budget passed in the spring did include the $50,000 shortfall with plans to cover it through student fees.

“As with any fee or tax increase, the school board did not make the decision lightly,” school board member Robert Mitchell said in a press release last week. “The proposed parking fee will help generate revenue to fund the essential programs that we are slowly trying to restore during these difficult economic times.”

Administrators also hope that this will help with decreased parking space at Wentworth Intermediate School as construction for the new school begins by preventing students from parking in that school’s lot.

Dean Auriemma, principal at the high school, said that he is waiting to see if the parking fee passes before figuring out how to enforce it. If it is approved, he “would have to develop some accountability structure.” It would involve a sort of placard that could be hung inside a car, and not attached to a specific vehicle.

Superintendent George Entwistle could not be reached for comment.

For now, opponents of the fee are working to come up with alternative methods of raising revenue, led by the senior class school board representative Katie Elliot. For example, the parking fee could be halved to $50, with the remaining shortfall covered the sale or auction of unused or unnecessary equipment. Fee opponents also plan to sign a petition in the days before the school board meeting and then speak at the meeting itself.

“I agree that it isn’t fair that raising the money is being placed on the student’s shoulders,” said Eliot on Facebook. “Now it is our turn to come up with a better solution.”

Ali Pelczar is entering her senior year at Scarborough High School.