Artificial turf fields will soon be installed at Atholton and Hammond high schools, if, as expected, the state Board of Public Works signs off on a new school board plan.
The Howard County Board of Education approved, by a 4-3 vote Dec. 20, a new list of projects for funding, through a one-time, $4-million allotment of state grant money generated from last spring's increase in the state alcohol tax.
That list includes the two artificial turf fields that have been debated heatedly in the weeks since the board learned in October, to the dismay of some members, that school staff had proposed the fields to the state without the board's go-ahead.
"We didn't plan on having this money, so how can we leverage this to the advantage of the community at large?" Board Chairwoman Sandra French said. "My back was up in the beginning, and I took umbrage, but I think now that this is a wise decision."
The school staff must resubmit its list of requested projects to the Board of Public Works by the end of January and the money gained from the alcohol tax revenue must be spent by the end of June. But board members were confident their requests would be approved.
The fields would be the first at the county's 12 public high schools and, under a plan proposed by County Executive Ken Ulman, would be shared between school teams and county recreation teams. The staggered conversions of the school system's other natural grass fields would take place at the rate of three a year, under Ulman's plan, and would be funded by the county. The fields would have to be replaced every 10 years or so, at a cost of approximately $500,000 per field, which would be funded through the county's Department of Recreation and Parks' budget.
Ulman said Wednesday he was glad the board voted to install the fields, and he would continue to work with school system staff to ensure that all 12 high schools will receive turf fields in the future.
"(I) believe that we are very close to finalizing this agreement," he said.
Because of vague design and contractual guidelines from the state, Ken Roey, director of facilities planning and management for the school system, said it would be unlikely that the fields would be ready for use by this fall.
With the remaining $2 million in alcohol tax funds, meanwhile, the board voted to fund a new $1.8 million roof at Dunloggin Middle School in Ellicott City, where the 26-year-old roof is leaking, and to refurbish the art and music suite at Wilde Lake Middle School in Columbia.
Decision panned
Not all board members were happy with the spending plan. Since the fields would be shared with the county, both in use and in funding, school board member Allen Dyer voted against them, citing a lack of a written agreement between the parks department and the school system.
"There is no joint-use agreement," he said. "You're tying things up with an agreement that doesn't exist."
Several board members took issue with the ranking of artificial turf fields at the top of the priority list of projects to be funded with the $4 million.
Even though one roof-replacement project will be covered by the alcohol tax money and other roof projects at Bollman Bridge Elementary and Howard High School will be expedited by the school system, board member Brian Meshkin said it was wrong to rank artificial turf fields as more critical than leaky roofs.
"We're trying to decide what our priorities are going to be … I have an ethical issue with it," he said. "Our priorities are the priorities of students and the parents who elected us, and we need to make decisions that reflect those priorities. ... It's going to be hard to pass the red-face test to parents in schools where there are active leaks."
Roey noted that during and after a severe rain, about 70 percent of the county's schools have leaking roofs.
Superintendent Sydney Cousin told the board that the county's buildings undergo regular state inspection and always received "good to excellent" grades.
"That doesn't mean the buildings are perfect," he said. "They're far from perfect in many ways."
In addition to Meshkin and Dyer, board member Cindy Vaillancourt voted against the spending plan. French, along with vice-chairman Frank Aquino and board members Janet Siddiqui and Ellen Giles, voted in favor of it.
The decision was applauded by at least one coach whose team will use the new fields.
"It's exciting that the county made the decision because I know it was a tough one to make, but it makes sense," Atholton football coach Kyle Schmitt said. "It's really going to make life easier for the coaches, but most importantly, the decision was made with the students best interests in mind, and that's not always the case."
Schmitt, who played on a turf field at the University of Maryland from 2001 to 2004, supported the argument that modern turf fields are safer for athletes to play on then natural grass surfaces. He said having a turf field on school premises will prevent young drivers from having to commute from the school to a turf field elsewhere.
"These fields are going to get a lot of use and I know we're going to use ours," he said.
Staff writer Andrew Conrad contributed to this report.