Ed W. Clark High School’s students and staff celebrated the completion of their new football field last month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that featured the school’s football and flag football teams, marching band, and cheerleaders.
The Clark County School District (CCSD) Board of School Trustees recently approved a plan to reallocate funds in the 2015 Capital Improvement Program to address the aging infrastructure on CCSD campuses. As part of that plan, CCSD is in the process of making renovations to ensure the full-service life of schools’ infrastructure, including football fields.
Among those joining CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus F. Jara in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Clark High School Principal Kerry Larnerd, Athletic Director Janelle Halverson, CCSD Construction Management Director Jeff Wagner, Laborers Local 872 Secretary-Treasurer Tommy White and Congresswoman Dina Titus field representative Lilly Spinello. The festivities were emceed by Channel 8’s Nate Tannenbaum.
Dr. Jara called this a “community effort on behalf of our children” that demonstrated “the power of this community, the power of this school system.” He recalled conversations he had with Clark County Commission Chair Marilyn Kirkpatrick and Laborers Local 872 Secretary-Treasurer Tommy White to increase the pace of installing new fields. Dr. Jara also thanked another community partner, the Las Vegas Raiders, for their donation to help complete a new football field at Rancho High School.
White, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, announced that in addition to putting up a new Chargers sign at the Clark High School football field, that Laborers Local 872, on behalf of the local’s union contractors and its members, were donating $10,000 to Clark High School’s athletics department for new equipment.
Those schools whose football fields are scheduled to be completed in 2020 include:
- Clark High School
- Rancho High School
- Valley High School
- Arbor View High School
- Indian Springs High School
The schools who will be receiving an artificial turf conversion in 2021 and beyond include:
- Chaparral High School
- Shadow Ridge High School
- Foothill High School
- Centennial High School
- Cimarron-Memorial High School
The schools beyond the 2020 work do not have a set schedule for completion at this point but the District plans to utilize funds from the Statutory Reserve Funds for the projects.
The school district also will be working with community partners in search of grants and other funding that could help offset costs to the district to help stretch tax dollars even further.
CCSD has 35 high school football fields that are used by football, bands, flag football teams, physical education classes, community partners and others. All of the current fields eventually will be replaced by artificial turf.
The first phase of this program is replacing 10 football fields that have reached the end of their useful life with new artificial turf. Wagner notes there are a number of advantages to artificial turf, resulting in higher value to the District:
- allows for more student and community use
- uses less water
- requires less maintenance hours
The new artificial turf will use organic infill, providing a cooler playing surface, a benefit for student-athletes playing in a desert climate. The artificial turf also will allow teams to play during inclement weather.
In addition to the new artificial turf, the football fields will receive an upgrade to LED lighting, resulting in energy savings, lower energy costs, and a decrease in maintenance requirements.
