Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Some Broward high schools in need of new sports facilities
Some Broward high school sports programs are in dire need of bleachers, protective netting, new track surfaces and even entire stadiums, district officials said Tuesday.
School Board members reviewed a wish list of about $17 million, designed to improve health, safety and equity for students who participate in athletic programs at the district’s 28 high schools and 42 middle schools.
■ Seven high schools have no stadiums for football, soccer, lacrosse and track. They are Hollywood Hills, West Broward in Pembroke Pines, J.P. Taravella in Coral Springs, Monarch in Coconut Creek, Plantation, Fort Lauderdale and Stranahan in Fort Lauderdale. The cost would be about $1 million each.
■ Hallandale High has no baseball diamond. The cost would be about $1 million.
■ Hollywood Hills and Hallandale high schools don’t have scoreboards for their softball fields. The cost would be $377,000 to replace those and repair others.
■ A major storm in 2011 caused bleachers at 20 schools to “blow away and they never came back,” said Shawn Cerra, director of athletics for the district. The cost to replace them would be about $790,000.
■ Although the district used money from the $800 million bond to resurface tracks at 12 high schools and three middle schools, 15 schools have tracks that need to be evaluated and may need work, Cerra said. The total cost would be about $4.5 million.
■ Eight schools have washers and dryers that are “on their last legs,” Cerra said. These are needed, especially given that multiple wrestlers contracted MRSA recently, forcing the district to disinfect all high schools, Cerra said. These would cost $165,000.
■ A number of schools were also in need of sound systems for gymnasiums, which would cost about $480,000 total, a review found. It did not specify how many schools.
Whether the School Board will agree to pay for any of these remains to be seen. Board members said many items would have to be paid for through fundraising or business partnerships.
“We’re dealing with roofs and leaks. There are scarce capital dollars,” board member Robin Bartleman said “You have to prioritize what is most needed. Clearly scoreboards and sound systems are going be at the end. There’s no way we’re going to be able to do everything.”
Board member Laurie Rich Levinson said the district shouldn’t consider sound systems for gyms until intercoms are upgraded in middle schools. The district is currently improving high school intercoms so they can be accessed remotely and heard in hallways.
Protective netting for athletic fields generated the most interest among board members.
“We talk about safety being the most important thing we prioritize,” board member Donna Korn said. “Some of our fields don’t have netting or functioning netting. It’s a significant risk.”
Board members plan to consider facility needs further when they review the district’s capital budget this summer.