District 99 Breaks Ground on Athletic Field Renovations

District 99 school board members and administrators broke ground Friday on the first phase of a $13.1 million project aimed at improving outdoor athletic facilities at North and South high schools. 

In separate ceremonies held at each school, district personnel dug into the greening football fields, where synthetic turf will be installed this summer. "So many people have worked diligently to bring us to this point," said Paul McCarthy, school board vice president. "We are, at long last, ready to implement the Master Site Plan—and to literally start digging."

School board members, Supt. Mark McDonald and school principals donned hard hats and overturned sod with shovels to commemorate the start of the work.

"The groundbreaking today culminates actually two and half years of very intense work by the board, the administration, scores of staff members, coaches, parents, citizens and tax payers," McDonald said during the ceremony at South. 

"As we're all aware, our school campuses are located on small plots of land for their size. They're smaller than they need to be to support our physical education programs."

McDonald said the board saw the need to spend money in January 2009 to plan a major facility upgrade. It had the "wisdom" in July of 2010 to accept the Woodridge property settlement and the proceeds of that settlement to upgrade the facilities and had "the courage to move ahead with the project during an uncertain economy, understanding addressing the needs of present day students was worth that risk," he said. 

The remaining spring sports schedules have been adjusted to accommodate the construction work, which began this morning at North and will begin May 9 at South, said Jill Browning, District 99 communications director. Graduation ceremonies for both schools will be held inside this year to accommodate a timely start to the work.

The school board voted unanimously on Jan. 31 to accept the Master Site Plan, prepared by Wight & Co. engineers, and begin $8 million in Tier 1 improvements this spring. In addition to new football fields, both schools will also see their crumbling tracks restored.

The most extensive improvements are earmarked for the North campus, which has seen fewer renovations over the years. In addition to stadium improvements, the east field along Main Street will be replaced by an expanded parking lot. Meanwhile the west parking lot between Prince Street and Saratoga Avenue will be replaced by a grass field, although part of the project may be delayed pending acquisition of a final parcel.

At South, $3.8 million in improvements are planned. In addition to the synthetic turf and new track, the plan calls for reorienting the softball field, regrading fields to address drainage problems and improving a pedestrian walkway from the school to the stadium. Both schools will also get new public restrooms.

McDonald told the board in February the improvements are necessary to increase safety, enhance educational programming and maximize the utility of the landlocked sites, which are dramatically smaller than current high school standards of 75 to 80 acres. 

"The Board of Education, school administrators, architects, engineers, and members of our community have collaborated extensively over the years to create the vision for our outdoor environments," McCarthy said at the ground-breaking ceremony.

"Our plan needed to address obstacles such as deteriorating infrastructures, unsafe pedestrian and traffic patterns and storm water management issues. Our land-locked situations have also posed challenges," he said. "Fortunately, although the amount of space we have to work with is limited, our imaginations aren’t. The result is a plan that is both creative—and cost-effective."