Athletic Director John Geniti told the Scotia-Glenville Board of Education at the Monday, Aug. 25, meeting that he would stay as long as needed to come to a conclusion on whether or not turf will be added to the district’s upcoming building project.
Geniti got his answer when the board voted in favor of installing artificial turf as part of the multimillion-dollar project.
Turf is an immediate improvement that people can see. It will allow us to rest our other fields and improve their conditions, said Geniti.
Ken Nigh, a representative from Chenango Sports in Johnson City, spoke to the board about Field Turf, the company’s top-selling turf product. Nigh told the board of several other neighboring school districts also looking into installing the turf, including Schenectady and Shenendehowa High Schools.
He also mentioned that Stillwater, Johnstown, Perth Broadalbin, Hoosick Valley and Amsterdam are among the districts that have already switched to turf.
`Physical education teachers love it because they can get the kids outside and play on fields that aren’t being saved for football or band. Parents love it because the kids are always clean, and if it rains all day until 3:30, you can still have a game scheduled for 4 because the water doesn’t rest, it drains,` said Nigh.
Nigh addressed a number of the board’s concerns, including the state’s recent guidelines that require schools to shop for a 15-year warranty and a lead-free product.
Nigh said Field Turf is in the process of becoming lead-free and should be by the time Scotia-Glenville would be installing the product. He also said the amounts currently in the product are so minute they are almost undetectable. He passed out a report with more than 40 independent studies supporting Field Turf’s claim that the product is safe as is.
Nigh also reminded the board of the low-maintenance aspect of turf as opposed to grass.
`One of the beautiful things is it is very little maintenance, maybe twice a year you need to tend to it,` said Nigh.
School board member John Yaglieski asked Nigh about whether the turf would become too hot in the summer months because the materials tend to retain heat. Nigh said that is generally only a problem in more humid climates. He said that in the Northeast, the field can easily be cooled by watering and emphasized the fact that most schools don’t use fields in the summer as much.
Superintendent Susan Swartz said the cost of the turf will be included as part of the building project. The district expects to receive about $925,000 in state EXCEL grant funding and, by combining that with state building aid, will allow about $4.2 million of the project to come at no local cost.
The building project proposal will also include a new high school library, replacing the running track, the addition of bleachers to seat 500 at the high school, renovating the science, technology and family and consumer science classrooms at the middle school and technology classrooms at the high school, improvements to the middle school library, new elementary school roofs, all in addition to other maintenance improvements.
The board meets again at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8, in the middle school cafeteria.
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