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Trustees weigh fund-balance support for athletic projects; weight room estimated far above current allocation
Summary
Administrators asked the board to use fund balance to finish Crestwood field phases and to cover a large shortfall for an expanded Sumpter High weight room; trustees questioned scope, timing and whether to turf a campus practice field after coach testimony.
District administrators told the board March 9 they may seek fund-balance support to complete bond-funded athletic projects and address a pressing weight-room need at Sumpter High.
"We consider this a dire project," an administrator said about the Sumpter High weight room, describing requests to expand the current roughly 3,000-square-foot room to about 6,000 square feet with additional training and laundry space. The board heard an architect estimate of about $450 per square foot, producing a building-only estimate of roughly $2.7 million compared with $800,000 currently allocated.
Administrators also recommended fund balance be used to complete Crestwood Athletic Field phases three and four; the transcript listed a completion estimate totaling approximately $3,173,985. Administrators noted some projects do not yet have final bid amounts and that the Sumpter High athletic-field work cannot begin until January 2027 to avoid interrupting the football season.
Coach Drew Marlo, a newly hired head coach, urged the board to turf the on-campus practice field, arguing the practice surface is frequently unusable and that a campus turf field would be used daily. "If we turfed our practice field, just our football team would use it 220 days per year," Marlo said, adding that poor playing surface increases injury risk.
Trustees asked administrators to reconsider project scopes, whether existing buildings could be repurposed to save cost, and whether to delay noncritical elements (board members suggested tabling Crestwood phase four until permanent school leadership is in place). Several trustees raised the possibility of contracting project-management services while the district fills a permanent project manager role.
No formal vote to appropriate fund balance was taken on March 9; administrators said they will return with detailed bid estimates and funding requests once scopes and bids are complete.
