By Alex Malm
At the Oct. 18 School Board meeting, it was brought up by School Board member, Bob Slater, how they have a field study committee, however, they haven’t met in a couple years.
“The field committee hasn’t met since May of 2020,” said Slater.
He added that Londonderry High School Principal, Jason Parent, has some concerns about the fields at the high school, particularly with safety. Parent said they got a group together to look at the fields and Slater joined them.
“We took a tour and took a look at 5 or 6 of the main playing fields and practice areas,” said Slater.
Slater stated they have been maintaining the fields, however, some of the fields are starting to settle up to two feet, which has led to concerns. They don’t know what was buried underneath it around 20 years ago.
It was explained by Slater he wants Parent to reach out to the people who were on the committee before and have an advisory committee with the athletic director to determine what is needed and what needs to be done.
“This will help with budget reasons,” said Slater.
Slater said it will likely take some time to come up with the findings and if they need to do more than, they can consider coming up with an official charge for it.
“I think it should be activated as an advisory committee,” said Slater.
Parent stated some of the people that have looked at the concerns across the campus are generally the grounds crew who are working to address things in the short term, but want to get a bigger picture of what to do moving forward.
It was also pointed out that there are some concerns with the middle school field and the space there.
Slater said after two years he felt it would be good to look at the fields again and come up with a plan to address future concerns.
Slater explained he ultimately wants the group to get together and come back with findings for the school board, hopefully laying out a 10 year plan for the fields.
“Let them do their work and come back to us,” said Slater.
Slater added he wanted to see if the former committee members want to be active for the advisory group. If they decide to go further and have a more formal committee they will then already have the feedback from them.
The School Board agreed to have an advisory field study committee activated.
The next School Board meeting is slated for Nov. 1. The proposed FY 2023 budget is expected to be presented to the School Board on Nov. 22.