Coming on Campus

The Whitehaven Campus has three parking areas—two levels of parking beneath the Gymnasium & Performance Center, back-in diagonal spaces on the south side of upper Whitehaven Parkway, and the East Lot on the Foxhall Road end of the Church and Day School building—they are made available to different users. 

Parents and visitors should park in available spaces in the East Lot or in the diagonal spaces (although the diagonal spaces closest to the School are specifically designated for faculty and staff with very young children, admission visitors, and two Auction bidders). Placing your carpool card on the dashboard will help identify your vehicle as a St. Patrick’s car. Faculty and staff also use the diagonal spaces. All spaces in the gymnasium parking facility are assigned to members of faculty and staff. Parents should not seek spaces in the gymnasium facility except on certain special-event days. On those occasions, spaces will be set aside for parents and other visitors, and announcements regarding parking plans will appear in the weekly email newsletter, HoundsTruth. 

The District restricts parking along the north side of Whitehaven Parkway between Foxhall Road and the gymnasium during school hours. Two-hour parking is available, but limited, on the north side of lower Whitehaven Parkway. 

There is no parking in the School driveway, which is a fire lane. Parents who will be in the building briefly—to drop something off or to pick up a child, but not for a conference or any other purpose that could become more than a few minutes—should pull their car forward, as close to the top of the driveway as possible, and not leave it unattended for any period of time. 

The back-in diagonal spaces on lower Whitehaven Parkway, adjacent to the Lab School, are for the use of faculty and staff of, and visitors to, that school and should not be used by members of the St. Patrick’s community. 
 

All parents and other visitors to the MacArthur Campus must park in one of the building’s two parking lots: The front parking lot, accessible from MacArthur Boulevard, or the rear parking lot, accessible from Elliott Place at permitted times or from the public alley. Even if all parking spaces are filled, please pull all the way into one of the lots and let the MacArthur Campus receptionist know that you have blocked someone in. We have pledged to contain our parking on a day-to-day basis in these parking lots. Under no circumstances may a parent or other visitor park on MacArthur Boulevard, Elliott Place, Green Place, Clark Place, Q Street, or Potomac Avenue, whether in a legal space or not. 

There is limited parking available at the athletic field on the Foxhall Campus. Therefore, parents and other visitors should plan to park in our diagonal spaces on upper Whitehaven Parkway and enjoy the short walk to the field. Under no circumstances should anyone going to the Foxhall Campus field park in any of the neighborhoods adjacent to the field, including Colony Hill (Hoban Road and nearby streets), 1801 Foxhall, and Phillips Park.

Parents should enter through the main Day School entrance. Once they have had their licenses scanned, as above, and received a visitor badge, the receptionist will buzz parents through the appropriate door off the main entrance. These doors, and internal security doors at two other important locations, restrict access to all classrooms and other school spaces. Security cameras are also located at certain points throughout the building. Parents and other visitors should not attempt to enter school spaces through the Church.

Having parked in one of the two MacArthur Campus lots, presumably the front lot , parents and other visitors should proceed to the front entrance facing MacArthur Boulevard NW. The receptionist will monitor the secure door at that location and handle the sign-in process, as above.

As part of our efforts to keep students, faculty and staff, parents, and other rightful visitors safe, St. Patrick’s relies on the Raptor Technologies system to screen all parents, vendors, and other visitors to the Whitehaven Campus and MacArthur Campus. This visitor-management system searches sex offender databases nationwide and then prints out a nametag for the individual once cleared. Participation in this screening process is a mandatory condition for entry to the School. Parents and other visitors must access either building through the main entrance and present a driver’s license to the receptionist to initiate the search and obtain a visitor badge, which displays the date and the visitor’s name, photo, and destination.

All parents and other visitors should wear their nametags throughout their time in the building. On subsequent visits, parents can use the self-service kiosk to scan the barcode on their driver’s license to obtain a visitor badge. Parents should be sure to have their driver’s licenses with them when they come to St. Patrick’s. Please note that Raptor only uses the visitor’s name, birth date, and photo for comparison with sex-offender databases; does not gather additional visitor data; and does not share the data with any outside organization.

Parents should speak directly to the Head of School if they anticipate any difficulties with this protocol.