Ankeny School Board Approves High School Athletic Fields Project

The Ankeny school board gave the green light at Monday’s meeting to a $4 million project to improve athletic facilities at .

The decision was back in front of the board after members . Despite the project’s approval, not all board members supported the motion after an earlier discussion .

“We’re desperately trying to find funds right now,” board member Todd Shafer said. “I’m not willing to commit $4 million to this if we need $1 million of that to complete phase two (of Southview).”

In a 5-2 vote, the board approved a bid from Oakview Construction of Waukee to transform practice fields into suitable competition venues for Ankeny athletics. The work consists of adding lighting, scoreboards and seating areas to the existing football, baseball and softball fields.

Shafer and board member Stephanie Jorgensen cast the dissenting votes.

Superintendent Matthew Wendt told the board there is no reason not to go ahead with the athletic fields project because it already is figured into the four financing options for completing the district’s facilities plan.

The board also was warned that if a bid was not accepted Monday, bids could expire by the next regular meeting. Rebidding the project could cost the district an additional fee.

“We approved the creation of these athletic venues before and I don’t think we even sneezed at them, we just did it,” Wendt said. “If we don’t have a special meeting, we have three weeks before we meet again. … I think the board needs to seriously think of this, we can’t wait until Nov. 7.”

Board president George Tracy said the decision wasn’t about putting athletics before academics.

“It’s never been an either-or decision, this is all part of what we’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “Everything (in the plan) intertwines.”

Wendt said it's important to the community to complete the athletic fields.

“We have to think about the whole system,” he said. “We’re fulfilling the need in a gap we created.”

In other news, the board set the date of a public hearing to be held for phase three of improvements to . The project will cost about $1.7 million.

“We definitely need to lock in East as part of these projects,” Shafer said.

The board also approved a contract with Septagon Construction of Grimes to construct a maintenance equipment storage building on Southwest Pleasant Street. The project should cost about $1.1 million.