As you may know, we have finally begun renovations of our high school stadium. You may remember that this is a part of our 2013 District Wide voter approved capital project. Our stadium renovation portion of this project was originally scheduled to be started and completed last year at this time. However, as we reviewed the original plan last year, we were concerned that proceeding with that plan would not have properly met the needs and expectations of the students, parents, staff, and community. Furthermore, we were concerned that the late approval of the project by NYSED would result in the bidding process being too late in the construction season to realize companies and products that would meet expectations. In short, we felt we could do better for you. As a result, we decided to delay the renovation for one year and take that time to ensure that every detail of the plan including the bidding process and timing would meet or exceed the needs and expectations of students, parents, staff and community.
The original plan included tennis court resurfacing, track resurfacing, a new scoreboard, turf field, new 500 seat bleachers and press box.
We took the year to review the plans in more detail and assessed the area to be renovated. We also sought out feedback from students, staff, and community. After gathering this information, we found that there were areas where the original plan could be improved. The field needed to be wider to better accommodate soccer and lacrosse. We needed a more efficient plan for bathrooms and concessions. The tennis courts and track surfaces had deteriorated from 2013 to the point where they needed to be replaced. In addition, community members and students were asking if we could add back a basketball court. Finally, all were asking for additional parking.
Throughout the year, we worked with our architect and construction professionals to develop a plan to better meet the needs and preferences of students, staff, and community.
Since we had to replace the tennis courts, it provided us the flexibility to think “outside the box.” We uncovered that if we relocated the tennis courts adjacent to Liberty Street and tucked the concession stand and bathrooms underneath the bleachers, we could widen the field to accommodate an 8-lane chute for the 6-lane track and widen the field to better accommodate soccer and lacrosse. This new plan even provided the opportunity to add a basketball court, which could also be used for snow removal storage during the winter. In addition to providing us with more space, tucking the bathrooms under the bleachers was also more cost efficient, which provided us savings for some of the additional work.
We finally had a much-improved plan, and we were on track for a May 1 start date this year. On April 11, I presented the plan to 11th and 12th grade students as well as high school staff. While the feedback from students and staff was very positive, they asked if we could please find additional parking. I listened and brought that information to our final meeting before our May 1 start date. The architects worked some more of their magic. They informed us that if we seated our guest spectators in our bleachers and removed it from the far side of the field, we could shift the stadium over enough to add 19 parking spaces to the plan and save over $360,000. This plan also provides our guest closer access to bathrooms and concessions. Although the bad news was it delayed our start date until Friday May 26, I believe you will agree that it was worth the delay.
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