District 308 School Board Approves Synthetic Turf Field for Third High School

One vote on the site plan and synthetic turf field for third high school turned into two Monday night.

After more than a year of on-again, off-again discussions, the board approved by a 6-1 vote a synthetic turf field for its third high school's stadium. Board Member Andrea Schweda, who cast the lone dissenting vote, insisted on a separate vote for the field after the issue originally was packaged with a vote on the school's final site plan, which passed unanimously.

Schweda said she doesn't disagree in principal with a synthetic turf field. It's that she feels the district's other two high schools also should have the fields, and now is not the right time for that kind of expense.

"If you're going to do it for one, you have to do it for all three," Schweda said after the meeting. "We just shouldn't be spending that kind of money right now, and it all comes down to what the taxpayers can afford."

Schweda, who along with board member John Graff is running for re-election in April, said she wanted to separate the votes because she didn't want a vote for both the site plan and the field to leave the impression that she supported installing the turf.

Board members did little to hide their impatience with the process.

"With all due respect, we've been talking about this for a year," Graff said. "... I got the sense in our last discussion that we were all basically on the same page. Now at the last second we want to separate it out again and continue to talk about it. From an organizational standpoint, I just don't get why we can't make a decision here."

And in what may signal a future fight, Board Members Laurie Pasteris and Dave Behrens said after their "yes" votes that they were in no way supporting going forward with plans for synthetic turf at and .

The price tag on a synthetic turf field has been placed at about $800,000, versus $450,000 for natural grass. At the , members insisted on finding alternative funding sources to pay for the added expense.

Superintendent Dan O'Donnell said Monday night he is developing a policy that would use sponsorships, donations and rental fees to cover those costs. Board Member Mike Scaramuzzi said alternate funding remains a critical part of the equation.

"We absolutely care, and we are absolutely guiding you to bring in that money," he told O'Donnell.

As for the next step in the building process, Executive Director of Construction Services Doug Gallois said the district will begin engineering work next month and go out to bid in May or June for work on the site at Plainfield and Ridge roads. Groundbreaking could take place in August, Gallois said.

Editor's note and clarification The opening sentence of this piece has been altered to reflect more clearly how the School Board voted separately on the third high school site plan and synthetic turf for the school's stadium. A vote on synthetic turf was on the agenda, but originally included in the vote on the site plan.