Beverly High Students Stand Up For Lights, Stands At Turf Field

BEVERLY, MA — Dozens of Beverly High student-athletes stood together and spoke passionately in favor of a $1 million project to bring lights and stands to the turf field at the school this week ahead of the City Council's approval of the project that proponents urged will increase community and school spirit, as well as equity and accessibility for high school and youth athletes and members of the school's prolific band program, parents and fans.

The project, which was originally part of the plans for the high school as far back as 2010, will use $750,000 in municipal utility rebates and federal reimbursements from an airport easement along with $300,000 in COVID-era ESSER funding to cover costs. Superintendent Sue Charochak said that it was important for the City Council to move quickly on the project so the expiring ESSER funding — which was repurposed from other school programs where it was deemed expendable — could be used to purchase the equipment before the deadline to spend it.

Beverly High is the only school within the Northeastern Conference without lights for athletic contests or school activities on campus.

(Also on Patch: $1 Million Beverly School Lights, Stands Funding Allocation Sought)

"It is important to have a tight-knit community," said Beverly High junior girls soccer captain Ava Freitas — one of seven student-athletes or band members to speak out in favor of the project in front of the Council at Monday's public hearing. "Since starting high school in 2021, the school spirit has not been comparable to other towns, which I feel, is due to the lack of games to go to because of the minimal accessibility options.

"With the addition of the seating and lights, more students will come to games, increasing school spirit and bringing our community together."

Other speakers said it was more common to see Beverly students attending their friends' and classmates' games on the road than at home because of the timing constraints of contests — including fall playoff games that often have to start before the academic day ends because of lack of daylight.

Beverly High Principal Mark Thomas said the lights will help advance the goals of keeping more students in the district by providing an experience that matches options at regional private and technical schools.

Beverly Mayor Michael Cahill said the lights and stands are "a need that has always been there" and that "this will benefit every year hundreds and hundreds of (students)."

"It will be all of our fall and spring sport athletes, for the most part," he said. "It will be our marching band. And it will be all of our youth athletes. They can't get on the field until all of the high school athletics are done. Then they are chasing whatever little sunlight is left."

Cahill said he has had conversations with neighbors about making sure there are proper restrictions on the start and length of games at night, parking and student and fan behavior to ensure the lights do not negatively affect abutters.

He added that the focus of the fields will be high school and youth sports — as opposed to renting the field out for-profit activities for the city — and that Hurd Stadium should remain as an open recreational space whether or not the schools choose to use the lighted fields for football and the majority of other varsity sports.

The vote — which was ultimately unanimous — came amid an ongoing tussle between the administration and City Council on capital projects and the Council oversight.

But Councilors largely agreed that the lights and stands at the school were outside the greater debate about a renovated City Hall, public library and fire station. Cahill and his staff are scheduled to present an overriding view of municipal capital projects to the Council in two weeks as the mayor pushed for an immediate vote on Monday to expedite this project.

"I urge my colleagues to let the children play," City Councilor Kathleen Feldman said. "I share in a lot of the frustration that we have been experiencing about communication and priorities, and about having an overall plan. But a project like this I would like to see completed sooner rather than later because, frankly, it's embarrassing (the current lack of lights and stands) the more I hear about it. It's such an obvious win-win.

"I can't see how in two weeks any of us would be against this project. I feel like we might be possibly thinking of holding it hostage in regards with some of those issues that have nothing to do with what our community is asking for. In that framework, I think the adulting thing to do is to vote tonight."

The timeline for the project would be to begin preparation of the field as soon as the school year ends so that lights can be installed by the end of August and the stands could be in place for the middle of September and the beginning of earlier sunsets this coming fall.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)