The district is considering expanding athletic facilities but is still working to balance community and student needs.
At the last board meeting in June, Board President Andrew Caplan and Board member Anne Peters expressed concerns about paying $7 million on baseball and softball fields as only around 120 students participate in the two sports. So, many parents and students went to the board meeting Tuesday to advocate for softball and baseball facilities.
The problem is the fields don’t have artificial turf so they can’t be plowed if snow is on the ground during the season. And project architect Scott Later said even when the snow melts, it takes around two weeks to get the fields prepped for players.
Parent Shannon Michaels said her son does not have equal playing time because of this.
“We went the farthest we've been since 2018 last year. We had no play time on our field,” she said. “We had a playoff game. We could not even practice before the playoff game because we didn't have a field to do it on.”
Other parents and students joined Micheals in urging the school board to support improving the baseball and softball fields by adding artificial turf.
Caplan clarified that the board fully supports the cause. He said the parents and students are right to ask for these changes, but other teams also need facility upgrades. Nine outdoor sports in the spring must coordinate field use. Students who play lacrosse and soccer also don’t get a lot of playing time because there aren’t enough fields.
Caplan mentioned the board's previous effort to upgrade athletic facilities in 2015. Voters at the time did not approve the around $65 million bond and the board doesn’t want that to happen again.
“We just need to make sure that it doesn't blow up in all of our faces,” Caplan said. “If we roll out something that's half-baked, people will get mad and they'll reject it.”
The board still wants information on the Kearns campus soil since much of Park City’s soil is contaminated from the mining era. The board also wants to look into splitting up facility upgrades.
Caplan said the combined athletics facility upgrades could cost upwards of $50 million and would require another bond. Those who advocated for facility upgrades will eventually have to convince the rest of the community that it’s something worth investing in.
“It's going to really come down to you guys, as parents and athletic supporters, to convince your neighbors and the other taxpayers to vote for this,” Caplan said. “We agree that kids have better outcomes when they're playing sports, when they're doing extracurricular activities. However, we don't have the power to simply raise taxes to pay for this.”
The board will discuss the athletics master plan more at its next meeting Sep. 17.
