A multimillion building project is moving closer to reality as the Board of Education on Monday agreed to incorporate an artifi cial athletic turf field into the proposal.

The board has been discussing its building proposal for months. The project involves renovating science and technology classrooms and enclosing the open library at the middle school, and renovating technology classrooms at the high school. It has also added expanding the high school library.

On Monday, the board accepted the recommendation of district Athletic Director John Geniti to incorporate artificial turf into the project. Geniti said for $1.5 million the district could install an irrigation system to maintain its existing fields better. Fixing the track and bleachers would cost another $1.4 million and replacing the six grass fields would cost another $3 million. This brings the total package to $6 million.

One disadvantage of this plan is the grass would require one to two years of growth before they can be used, Geniti said. It would also not solve the problem of the fields being overused because of demand.
In contrast, the board could spend $1.5 million to replace the main stadium football field with artificial turf. This would allow the field to be used more without the fear of it wearing out and allow some of the other fields to be rested.

“It immediately reduces our other field use by 40 percent,” he said. That would improve the condition of the other fields.

“I think the $1.5 million is a solution to a $6 million field problem that we have,” he said.

One issue is that the state Education Department last week issued a decree stating that any turf fi elds should contain no lead and come with a 15-year warranty.

The board on Monday also heard from Ken Nigh, a sales representative from Chenango Sports, which sells the brand Field Turf.

“One of the beautiful things is it’s very little maintenance and you can be on it all the time,” he said.

Nigh said the product only contains a very minute amount of lead currently and they are planning the next generation of products that will have no lead. The company is working to improve its product to meet a longer warranty.

Superintendent Susan Swartz is going to obtain updated cost estimates and report back on how much of the project would be covered by state aid at a future meeting. She said the district is shooting for a Dec. 9 vote. It had originally targeted Dec. 2, but recently learned that no voting machines would be available on that date because there is a 30-day time period after the general election when the machines cannot be used.

In other business, the board heard a report from Joseph Kavanaugh, director of curriculum and instruction, about Regents and Advanced Placement exams.

Kavanaugh said the district is pleased that most of the Regents passing percentages are in the mid to high 80s and 90s. Some subjects like French, German and music had 100 percent passing rates. The lowest rate was “Math B” with a 76 percent.

In addition, he said 234 students took Advanced Placement exams in 2008, which was up from 41 the year before. In calculus, chemistry, English and physics, the percentage of people scoring 3, 4 or 5 on the five-point grading scale was 90 percent or greater.