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Resident and boosters urge Ajo Unified District to open track for limited public use; administrators warn of safety and funding constraints
Summary
A public commenter and local booster-club members asked the Ajo Unified District board to open the district track and football field for supervised public use to qualify for grants; district administrators cautioned that safety concerns and the Auditor General’s high‑risk designation limit the district’s ability to use capital reserves and urged professionally managed grant and fundraising options.
A public commenter who identified herself as Sarah asked the Ajo Unified District governing board to consider opening the district’s track and football field for supervised public access during limited hours, saying shared use would support community health, strengthen school–community relationships and unlock grant opportunities.
Sarah told the board the track is “a valuable community asset” that is currently locked and inaccessible outside school activities and proposed limited hours, posted rules, gated access and volunteer or monitored supervision so the district could safely allow community use while maintaining student security.
The request was accompanied by a booster‑club presentation showing drone photos of the field, cost estimates and fundraising ideas. Booster‑club representatives said a natural‑grass field renovation was estimated at about $440,000, a rubberized track could add $300,000–$800,000 depending on surfacing, and the total project could approach $1.4 million. They told the board that some grants the district has pursued—including the Land and Water Conservation Fund—require facilities be made available for community use and that those grants could fund roughly 50% (about $700,000) of a project of that size; the boosters proposed brick‑path fundraisers and other community match strategies to cover the remainder.
District administrators raised safety and fiscal hurdles. An administrator recounted a June incident in which an individual carrying a pocketknife reached campus dining areas and was escorted off campus, and said the district has tightened fencing and gate access as a result. The administrator also highlighted the district’s designation as “high‑risk” in the Auditor General’s 2025 risk analysis and warned that using capital reserves for discretionary projects could trigger additional corrective action or funding withholdings; the State Board of Education previously withheld 3% of the district’s maintenance and operations allocation for 2025–26 as part of corrective action, the administrator said.
On funding specifics, district staff and the booster club said the T‑Mobile “Friday Night Lights” grant cycle is open and that the program may award up to $1 million to a selected applicant; staff signaled they plan to apply. Boosters and staff also said volunteer hours and community fundraising could count toward certain matching requirements for some grants.
Board members asked for more information about documented community demand, supervision models, and grant maintenance requirements (what standards of upkeep grantors would require before and after award). One board member suggested the matter should have been a standalone agenda item to allow fuller public and board review; another asked staff to prepare specifics about maintenance obligations, matching requirements and the operational model for safe after‑hours access.
Next steps: staff said they will pursue applicable grants, return with clearer cost and maintenance obligations, and discuss options for controlled access that do not jeopardize student safety or the district’s financial standing. No formal action on opening the track or committing district capital to the project was taken at the meeting.
