SPRINGDALE : Board hears club’s idea of adding practice field
Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Springdale School Board is considering spending $ 250, 000 on an artificial-turf football practice field for Har-Ber High School.
The school’s booster club would have to raise another $ 250, 000. The club hopes to have the turf installed by the spring.
An artificialturf practice field would be a significant step toward a football stadium and field house at Har-Ber High, officials said.
That idea, however, comes at a time when the school district is under financial pressure and is cutting academic spending in some areas.
The board heard a proposal from the booster club at a Tuesday work session. Superintendent Jim Rollins said a board decision should come within a few weeks.
Tim Pruitt, a Har-Ber Booster Club officer, told that school board that the Har-Ber football team splits its time practicing on a shabby grass field near the school and at cross-town rival Springdale High School’s Jarrell Williams Bulldog Stadium, Pruitt said.
Those practices sometimes are held at 6 a. m. because of scheduling conflicts with Springdale High’s athletic teams.
The early morning schedule is a burden for players, Pruitt said, and the pockmarked field at Har-Ber has caused knee and ankle injuries.
The booster club, which has raised $ 100, 000 since the school opened in 2005, billed installing turf as the first step in a threephase plan to add a field house and stadium at Har-Ber.
Pruitt said the turf would cost $ 500, 000 and the field house $ 2 million. The club doesn’t have an estimate on the cost of a stadium.
Rogers High School is spend- ing $ 15. 6 million to build a new athletic complex, said Ashley Kelley, the district’s spokesman. That includes money for a stadium, field house, tennis courts and dressing rooms. The school district is paying for the project, Kelley said.
Bentonville spent $ 12 million on a similar athletic complex, said Superintendent Gary Compton, with about $ 3 million coming from private fundraising.
Springdale pioneered the new wave of athletic complexes in Northwest Arkansas.
The district became one of the first in Northwest Arkansas to invest heavily in its athletic complex, said district spokesman Rick Schaeffer.
District booster clubs raised about $ 2 million over a few years for artificial turf, a video screen and a field house at Bulldog Stadium. Construction started on the field house in 2000.
There are now similar athletic complexes in existence or under construction in school districts like Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville, Van Buren, Gravette and Fort Smith.
Chris Wood, the head coach of the Har-Ber football team, said better facilities will make his teams even more competitive.
The Wildcats are 9-2 in the program’s second year and are playing in the semifinals of the state playoffs Friday night against Russellville at Bulldog Stadium.
Playoff week for Har-Ber included three extra trips across town to practice at the stadium.
“There is an athletic war with facilities, not only in Northwest Arkansas, but across the country. Every time we turn around we are going into a facility that blows your mind away,” Wood said. “I want to be able to say, ‘OK, you want some of this Union ? Let’s go.’”
Union High School in Tulsa boasts one of Oklahoma’s premier football programs.
Rollins told the board that the district could afford to commit $ 250, 000 toward the project.
The district is in the final year of a 10-year contract with Coca-Cola Co. to stock soft drinks in vending machines in the district’s secondary schools.
The district has $ 330, 000 in reserve from the proceeds of that contract.
Rollins said it would be appropriate to spend the money on the turf field because the fund has been used to upgrade facilities for special activities in the district’s other secondary schools in the past.
Rollins opposes committing any taxpayer money to installing turf or any future athletic complex expansion at Har-Ber, in part because of the district’s current financial status.
Allen Williams, Springdale’s assistant superintendent for business affairs, said Tuesday that the district is cutting $ 250, 000 in teacher training costs and computer lab upgrades from the budget. Another $ 200, 000 in academic spending could be cut from the budget before year’s end, he said. The cuts come as revenue is declining due to slowing enrollment growth in Springdale. “If there is ever going to be a stadium at Har-Ber... that would have to be done privately,” Rollins said. “There were never any plans to pay for that, and it’s not on the drawing board today.”
To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
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