The football field at Lassiter High School in east Cobb is covered with artificial turf.
The plan, funded by the third installment of the Special Local Option Sales Tax, would be to give each district high school $800,000 to install the turf. In its original proposal, the district planned to give each school $1 million, but with the estimated reduction in revenue from SPLOST III, the district has had to make an adjustment.
Doug Shepard, the district's chief administrative officer of SPLOST, did say these adjusted numbers have no bearing on the amount of turf that can be installed in each playing field since the lowest bidder for the project has come in between $500,000 to $600,000 per field, which is well below what was predicted. Excess funds could be used for additional physical education upgrades, district officials said.
When asked why the district is planning to upgrade the fields now, Shepard said voters approved the project with SPLOST III in 2008. The board also voted to prioritize the project that year. He said the time was right since it does not require an overly costly design phase and the market is ripe for construction bids.
"We have funds available right now ... and we can turn dirt on it immediately," Shepard said.
Shepard assured board members that all the classroom additions in SPLOST III have been approved to be fully funded and that the turf project is not taking precedence over any of those construction projects.
District Athletic Director Steve Jones and McEachern High School Athletic Director Jim Dorsey also spoke to board members in support of the turf fields. Dorsey was instrumental in the planning of McEachren's turf field nearly eight years ago, when that high school received an endowment fund for the upgrade.
Jones, who has spoken to all of the high school athletic directors and most of the principals, laid out a tentative plan for the installation in two phases. Phase one installation would begin with a few of the district high schools in March, while the rest of the schools would not begin their installation until after the spring sports season in late May or early. June. The installation period would take about eight to 12 weeks. District officials hope to have all the fields done by the end of August or early September, in time for most of the school's first home football games.
McEachern, Harrison and Lassiter, the three high schools that already have synthetic turf, can use the district funds to upgrade their fields or install turf to their playing fields.
The new synthetic turf, the district claims, will save thousands of dollars per year in maintenance fees and also help the district with its water bill.
Board members and district officials both emphasized that this upgrade would not just positively effect the district's football and sports teams, but that the fields would also be used for physical education classes, band and ROTC.
Dr. Gordon Pritz, associate superintendent of operational support, said the community could also use these fields.
"We look at this as a quality of life improvement in our county," Pritz said. "I've heard one person describe it as adding six new parks to the county."
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2) In this economy, artificial turf should be on the list as "After all other projects are funded"
We've had numerous kids pass out from heat stroke and suffer injuries due to the excessive heat in the south. On top of that we're going to install a fixture that significantly increases the temperature of the playing field. Has anyone considered the athlete's health?
In this economy where we're increasing class sizes, furloughing teachers, and making drastic cuts in the educational budget, it appears we have our priorities misplaced. Who are the educated individuals making this decision? Perhaps it explains our ranking nationally in the educational systems.
I can just see it now - a family of four having a picnic on the football field under the goal post - heaven!
How many more injuries are more serious on the turf - I'm not talking about football because those precious boys are all padded up - I'm talking about soccer, lacrosse, other team sports that are supposedly going to use this. It has to hurt alot more hitting concrete then dirt.