District 214 talks turf, but needs $3 million
Two years ago the Rolling Meadows High School marching band preformed only one football half-time show all season because the school’s field was always so torn up.
While that’s not the only reason officials hope to install artificial turf at all six Northwest Suburban High School District 214 schools, it’s certainly one of them, according to Superintendent Dave Schuler.
“There have been so many Friday nights where it rains so the kids hardly preform at all,” he said. “They’re bummed and disappointed.”
While district officials like the idea of artificial turf, they’re less enamored with the price tag — estimated at as much as $1 million per school.
That’s not a figure the district can absorb right now, which is why Schuler is looking for a business or organization to split the $6 million price tag.
He said the district would not ask for a tax increase to support the project and the district’s share would come from a capital improvements budget, not the educational fund.
“Right now it’s pretty clear we can’t pay for the entire project ourselves, but our school board likes the concept so we’re trying to find a way to split the cost,” Schuler said.
One group that Schuler mentioned as a possibility is the Arlington Heights Youth Athletic Association, a volunteer, not-for-profit organization that offers baseball, softball, football and cheerleading programs.
However, they don’t have the kind of money Schuler is talking about, said Bill Spicer, president of the AHYAA board of directors.
“We don’t have the deep pockets to drive the deal,” Spicer said. “I think he’s going to have to look at larger, tax-supported groups like a park district or a village. We buy baseballs on sale, not fields.”
Still Bill Dussling, president of the District 214 school board, is hopeful.
“You never know,” he said. “Four or five years ago, a parents group at Buffalo Grove High School raised a lot of money in a short period of time to install lights at the football field.”
And it’s been done before. The Libertyville High School Wildcats began playing football on artificial turf in August 2005 after a community group raised $650,000 for the project in the six months.
Parents are behind the push in District 214. Last summer the school board received a letter from parent-run athletics and music booster groups asking the board to look into adding artificial turf.
According to a 10-page report prepared by Schuler, the six fields are one of the “most underused facilities on our schools campuses” since they are used less than 45 days a year. Gym classes rarely use them and marching bands are often pushed to the parking lots. Marching band invitationals hosted by several of the schools are losing participants because band directors prefer turf fields where the event will for sure take place and their band members will be safe, according to Schuler’s report.
The 12-year cost of an artificial surface would be about $927,000, including $900,000 for installation and $27,000 for maintenance. Maintaining a grass field for 12 years costs about $660,000, according to the superintendent’s report.
The full 10-page report on artificial turf at District 214 can be found at www.d214.org. Schuler will update the school board on the search for funding partners in February.