Lincoln Approves Track & Football Field Upgrades

LINCOLN — Lincoln athletes, other students and the community as a whole are set to benefit from an artificial turf on the football field and a new rubberized track surface around it.

Lincoln School Board approved the projects at its June 18 meeting with work to begin around July 1 and finish in time for the beginning of the school year. The board, minus member Kendra Moore, who left the meeting early, approved the project unanimously. Moore spoke in favor of the upgrades before leaving the meeting.

According to a news release issued by Lincoln Consolidated

School District, the new turf and track surface will be funded through a partnership between Wolfpack Foundation and the school. The Foundation is a nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) organization headed by a board of directors, many with ties to Lincoln.

Deon Birkes, Lincoln High School assistant principal and district athletic director, said the cost of the upgrades will be about $900,000, with around $90,000 due annually on a 10-year note. The school will contract with Geo Surfaces of Baton Rouge, La., for the project.

Mary Ann Spears, superintendent of schools, on Thursday said the district most likely will finance the projects with a loan from an area bank. She said the district would advertise for bids, seeking the lowest interest rate possible, and would finance $800,000 of the cost.

Lincoln spends about $30,000 annually for maintenance on the football field, Spears said. These funds will be dedicated toward the annual payment of the debt with the hopes the Foundation will provide the balance through its fundraising efforts.

Spears said the district does not expect to pay any new money for the upgrades.

At the meeting, Birkes told board members, “We’d like to be able to say we did this without taxpayer money.”

Birkes, who serves on the Wolfpack Foundation Board of Directors, said the Foundation already has secured $36,500 in annual sponsorships for what he calls banner ads, traditionally seen along field sidelines and outfield fences. The artificial turf, he said, offers a new twist for sponsorships because ads can be installed into the sideline surfaces of the turf.

He anticipates that businesses will want to get in on the turf ads.

Birkes, addressing board members, spoke energetically about the project and how it will benefit the athletic program. For one, Birkes said, an artificial turf will end the need to bus football players to the middle school field for practices.

He also shared that he would no longer need to “chase people off the field for fear they’ll damage the turf.”

Spears, in the news release, said the artificial turf and rubberized track will give the school the ability to offer additional programs for student-athletes, marching band, track and cheer. In addition, the community will be able to enjoy the new track surface, she said.

In other matters at the meeting, board members congratulated Michele Price and Stan Karber, Lincoln Middle School principal and assistant principal, respectively, for their school being selected as a Middle School of Innovation. This designation was sought as a way to gain statewide recognition for changes the middle school is making to its instructional pathways.

All students will continue to receive traditional classroom instruction, which is one of the pathways, but students may apply for admission to two other pathways with different approaches to learning, I-School and Wolf Learning Academy. Price said more information about these pathways and how students and parents may apply will be forthcoming.

Courtney Jones, high school principal, reported on several grants for her building. The school received grants to purchase a green screen and associated lighting for video productions and also received a $110,000 grant from United Way of Northwest Arkansas.

Jones also said Lincoln High School received a 2017 Beta Club School of Merit award. Beta Club offers group and individual academic competitions through testing, and Jones said a Lincoln student will compete in Spanish nationals this year.

In other business, five teacher resignations were accepted and seven new hires were approved.

Greg Ferus, senior project manager with Milestone, reported the new fieldhouse is complete and drainage and ditch work is proceeding on pace and going well on the high school campus.