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Board reviews first draft of track-field lighting and sound policy; 30-day public comment planned
Summary
Trustees held a first read of a proposed policy to regulate field lighting and sound. The draft limits lit-season months, caps night contests, requires lights off by specified times, restricts soundtrack use to essential announcements and varsity announcers, and includes an annual review and community notification plan.
The Byram Hills Central School District board reviewed a first-read draft policy Nov. 4 to govern use of athletics field lights and amplified sound and agreed to post it for 30 days of public comment.
Policy lead Gina summarized the proposal as a four-part document covering lighting, sound, code-of-conduct, and an annual review process. "The lights will be used for the district's interscholastic athletic teams and contests...outlined here as August, September, October, November, December, April, and May," she told the board, and described event timing limits and a maximum number of night contests per varsity team. The draft would require lights to be turned off by 8:00 p.m. for practices on weekdays and allow contests to start no later than 6:30 p.m. and end so lights are off by 10:00 p.m., with limited allowances for injury-related extensions.
On sound, the policy would restrict amplified announcements to pregame warm-ups, the national anthem, safety announcements and varsity game announcers. The draft also includes a progressive code-of-conduct and a plan for Jen and staff to send letters to adjacent neighbors before implementation; the board plans to collect public input for 30 days and return the policy for further committee review in January.
The board did not adopt the policy at this meeting; trustees asked clarifying questions about athletic-advisory input and neighborhood outreach and moved the draft to public comment and committee review.
