Parking fees aren’t a new idea. But, in Frisco ISD there’s a new parking policy.

This year, students have to pay to park.

“Students will have to buy a parking pass or a parking sticker and that will be $50 and without the parking sticker you won’t be allowed to park on campus,” Associate Principal Eric Green said.

Since Frisco citizens voted against raising taxes, the district had to find new ways of making money.

“It’s a revenue increaser. So there was a shortfall in the amount of money that the state was giving the district. So, what had to happen was we had to have more money to shrink that gap,” Green said.

If students choose to not pay the fee, they will face other fines starting at $10 per offense, which may lead to them pay even more money. Also, without the sticker, they give up the protection that parking on campus gives them.

“So, basically we don’t have a whole lot of jurisdiction over the neighborhoods, however when you park off campus you also park without out protection. So something could happen to your car and you won’t have the cameras to see who it is, or police could have your car towed based on a complaint from a person who lives in the neighborhood. You just don’t have our protection. So while I understand that people may not want to buy it you also get a measure of protection having your car on campus,” Green said.

Students are getting creative to avoid both the fee and not having the protected parking.

“I think a lot of students will find ways around it, like me personally, as I saw this morning the guy was going and checking it, and I was like, ‘what if I just printed out a fake one and just stuck it on my car to make it seem like it was real, so I don’t have to pay it,’” junior Ryan Bence said.

While some students don’t want to pay the fee, there may be some students who can’t pay the fee. For those students, there is a solution.

“If there is a serious financial need and we can document that need, then there will be a reduced cost, or a payment plan, or possibly even waiving the cost. But you have to demonstrate a financial need,” Green said.