St. Charles East wants, gets equal treatment ... and new $1.2 million athletic field
St. Charles school board members in February said they fulfilled a need by spending $1.2 million on a new synthetic turf field for St. Charles North High School. Now the board will fulfill a want by installing the same turf at St. Charles East High School.
Board members approved plans this week to build an identical $1.2 million field at East. They also struck a new deal with the school's athletic boosters. The deal will see the boosters contribute $200,000 toward the cost of replacing the synthetic surface when it concludes its life span in 10 to 13 years. The boosters will place $50,000 in a district-controlled bank account in January 2019. They will then contribute $15,000 each year to that same account until they fulfill the full $200,000 promise. The deal is identical to an agreement inked with the athletic boosters at North.
Booster money won't help address the initial estimated cost of the field. School board President Kathy Hewell said the price tag gave her pause because she didn't want any new financial pressures to jeopardize existing construction projects.
District officials believe they will have enough money after completing renovations at Thompson Middle School, the new field at North and upgrading the Norris Recreation Center. The $20 million in bonds sold to help finance the projects resulted in a $2.8 million savings the district didn't expect. Construction bids for the Thompson work also came in about $2 million less than estimated. And contingency funds for the three projects - for which $50 million was budgeted - should have remaining balances once builders complete the projects.
"We expect to have more than enough money going forward," Hewell said. "That made me much more comfortable with this going forward."
Board member Ed McNally also had concerns. But the early success of the synthetic field at North went a long way toward easing them.
"My question is utilization," McNally said. "I asked for assurances that the field at North would truly be used for academic purposes, and it sounds like they've been using it in spades for that purpose. I'm still a big fan of grass over plastic. But there's a durability issue and community use issue that's just not possible with natural turf. A lot of my concerns have been abated."
School board members learned a synthetic field would allow for more than 10 times the use a natural grass field could accommodate when exploring the options for the field at North. It was at that time former Superintendent Don Schlomann told the board once North got a field, there would be questions about fairness and equal treatment for East. The board's approval of a new field for East should eliminate those questions.
Bids showing the actual construction costs of the field at East will be unveiled in March. The full school board must still vote on those bids before any work would occur.