School district abandons discussions of middle school stadium
By BRENDA SOMMER news1@leader-news.com

L-N File Graphic Not Enough Room Although the new El Campo Middle School campus footprint includes room for several practice fields, a competition stadium on the site would be 'tight,' architects say.

Though no official action was taken, it looks like the El Campo ISD board is ready to give up the idea of building a competition stadium at the new middle school and instead put in artificial turf at Ricebird Stadium for all students to use.

The board has been trying to decide whether it would be better to put artificial turf in the high school football stadium for use by the entire district, or to build a separate stadium at the new middle school.

In May 2005, the board approved a set of recommendations from its facilities advisory committee that included numerous projects since created or planned but in need of funding: plans for buying land and building the new middle school on FM 2765, for building the new practice gym at the high school, and for major renovations to the high school science building, among others.

Also on that committee's list, which was approved by trustees, was a recommendation to place artificial turf in Ricebird Stadium "to eliminate the need for construction of a new middle school stadium; and to provide unlimited use for all football teams, soccer teams, band marching drill practice, and Derby Doll drill practice."

Money was set aside in last year's district budget to renovate the track at Ricebird Stadium, but bids came in much higher than expected, and led the board to realize that if it wanted to install artificial turf, it might be more cost-effective to link the turf and track projects and solicit more bids.

The escalating cost of the turf-track project, due in part to major drainage requirements, raised the question of whether it would instead be cheaper to build a football stadium at the new middle school.

But at Monday night's facilities workshop, board members quickly seemed ready to abandon the idea of a middle school stadium after RWS Architects showed them how the facility would fit on the new middle school property.

"I don't see where we're going to have the room," Trustee Ralph Novosad said.

When the school was designed to fit on its site along FM 2765, there were no plans for a stadium, and to add one now means a tight fit at a strange angle behind the school, according to the RWS drawing.

"It is really tight," said Malcolm Gaus of RWS. "It could be done, but it would be tight."

Superintendent Mark Pool answered a number of trustees' past questions about needs and possible reuse of items from the current middle school stadium. Among the new facts presented were the following:

• The five middle school football teams play about 22 games a year on their field over eight or nine nights. If all football games were to be played at Ricebird Stadium, it would add up to between 42 and 47 games. Soccer could be played on the field as well;

• Some 682 local and 211 Bay City fans attended football games at the current middle school stadium over the weekend, though "that's probably as large a crowd as we'd have," said Coach Bob Gillis;

• Reuse of existing light poles and lighting fixtures is not recommended, due to age;

• The existing stands could be cut apart, moved to the new school and reassembled, but the man who build them said he wouldn't recommend doing so;

• Moving the existing turf to a new site probably wouldn't go well;

• The fence around the stadium is 1,371 feet long and to replace it would cost at least $11 per foot; and

• The existing scoreboard could be reused, as could the PA system.

After hearing from the architects and artificial and live turf specialists, Novosad said he'd heard enough about what a new stadium would entail.

"I would just like to put that to rest," he said.

Trustee David Hodges agreed, saying artificial turf seemed to be the way to go.

"Our main thing right now is to figure out how to pay for this," Hodges said, noting the $1.3 million to $1.6 million estimated cost.

The board has already directed RWS to put together bid specifications for an artificial turf-track project for Ricebird Stadium. Those will be let out to bid and results won't be available until later this fall.

No action was taken at the meeting, which as a workshop was merely meant to gather information.