CUSD going artificial with 5 football fields
Jul. 18—Chandler Unified School District officials say they want to do their part in reducing water use so they're planning to convert five of their six high school football fields to artificial turf by the time the 2024 prep football season starts.
The CUSD Governing Board on June 28 approved spending nearly $2.9 million to convert Basha High's field from natural to artificial turf. That school and Casteel will be the first two to see the conversion after the end of the 2023 football season.
The district plans to convert the football fields at Chandler, Hamilton and Perry high schools once work wraps up at Basha and Casteel, likely in late April, said Tom Dunn, the district's executive director of support services.
Dunn said Arizona College Prep High School is not getting an artificial turf at this time because it's a relatively new school, only 2 years old, and its field is in great shape.
He said that before they can make the conversion there, the district first needs to secure the funding.
Before the Governing Board voted, member Joel Wirth said he was unsure how to vote on this issue.
"I'm kind of struggling with this one because there's a bit of a movement out there to eliminate this and go back to grass," Wirth said. "The fields are extremely hot."
Superintendent Frank Narducci convinced Wirth to support the measure.
"We are doing our effort at conserving," Narducci said, noting the city of Chandler is "moving some of their parks to synthetic fields as well to try to do their part also.
"With the realization that water is an issue here in our fields take a lot of a lot of resources with water use," the superintendent said.
Narducci and Dunn argued there are other benefits to the conversion.
For one, other sports besides football use the fields, which are usually dead during soccer season. They also can't open the parks up for community use because they need to repair the damage done during football season.
"Soccer is played, for example, in dirt and mud with conditions that become almost a safety issue," Narducci said.
The district expects the conversion will likely save money as well, though that is hard to calculate.
It will lower the water use and maintenance time. The district will also not need to spend money on the chemicals its uses on the fields now.
Dunn said artificial turf has about a 10-year lifespan before it needs to be replaced.
However, he said that most of the high cost is in the initial installation, making sure there's a solid foundation and irrigation below. Replacement costs after 10 years are then significantly lower, he said.
As far as the safety of artificial vs. natural turf is concerned, Dunn said he and his team have looked at all the recent studies in engineering their fields.
He said the NFL has done a number of studies of the same issue.
Pointing to favorable studies on both sides of the issue, Dunn suggested that any study has to be considered in the context of who's paying for it and what their agenda is.
As far as the high heat, he said the district plans to use cork as its infill, which should retain water and release it similar to how an evaporator cooling system works.
Artificial turf can still get hot, he said, but has improved from the early days of fake grass.
CUSD Chief Financial Officer Lana Berry said the district would be using bond dollars to pay for the conversions and that will help lower its maintenance and operations budget.
She said the district expects to see a return on its investment in eight years.
Wirth also was concerned that some of the fields might have wacky colors, similar to Boise State University's blue field.
"Mr. Wirth, they'll be green," Narducci said. "There will be marching bands on green grass. There'll be highlights, we've seen some versions of what the logos look like and the highlights will have school colors in them, but the grass itself will be green."
