The finance subcommittees of the Lowell City Council and School Committee met last night. They discussed the heating problem at Lowell High, the cost of teacher parking, and a $900,000 rebate from the amount budgeted for unemployment. Here's some background on the parking issue: several weeks ago the city council doubled parking rates to help pay the $22 million cost of a new parking garage to be built on the site of Barney's Delicatessen on Middlesex Street. The existing teachers' contract requires the school department to provide teachers at Lowell High with free parking. To do that, the school department leases a number of spaces in the city-owned Ayotte Garage. With the parking fee increases, the School Department will have to pay the city $400,000 next year for parking. Members of the school committee argue that the School Department should be given a substantial discount in recognition of the serious budget cuts already sustained - That $400,000 could be better spent on textbooks and science labs. Read tomorrow's blog entry to learn why the School Department should not be paying anything for the use of this parking garage.