School Co Needs to Hear from YOU!

The Mount Greylock Regional School District School Committee is eager to push through a vote to proceed with Title IX and ADA improvements and an artificial turf field at Mount Greylock Regional High School.  While we support efforts to meet regulatory requirements, we are concerned about this long term commitment to an expensive artificial turf field.  

Please join us in expressing your views to the school committee by sending an email to schoolcommittee@mgrhs.org by Friday, October 16th, 2020 at 12noon or as soon as you can.

Our concerns:

PROCESS

1. In September 2019 bids for athletic infrastructure improvements were received.  The lowest bid was $2.8 M.  The school committee voted 5-2 to reject the bids, change some of the design elements to reduce the overall price and include an option for a potentially less expensive grass field. At their most recent meeting (October 8, 2020), the school committee was unable to confirm whether these changes have been made to the design drawings.

2. Close to 70 community members have expressed their concerns to the school committee by writing individually or signing a joint letter.  In response the school committee promised to host a public forum (Jan 2020) and indicated a desire to put in place an advisory committee (June 2020).  Neither of these has happened.

3. Some parents have expressed their concerns about the health of their children and have urged to have a community discussion about these and other issues.  This has not happened.

FINANCIAL 

1. The school received a $5 million gift from Williams College.  This gift has grown to an estimated $6.2 M but expenditures for a new administration building and other building related expenses have reduced its value to an estimated $3 M.  It was expected that $1 M to $1.5 M of this gift would be saved as an endowment to pay for future maintenance items, similar to a Williams gift to WES. That would leave $2.1 M to $1.7 M available to spend on athletic field improvements. 

This means that there could be a shortfall that taxpayers will have to cover.  A member of the committee implied at the most recent meeting that taxpayers should be expected to make up the shortfall.  It is unlikely we will have an opportunity to vote on this item at Town Meeting.

2. At earlier meetings, the school committee had expressed a desire to wait until they knew definitively the value of the endowment and financial commitments made against it. Since the committee still doesn’t know and a financial plan has not been developed, or at least shared, and given the uncertainties due to Covid-19 a decision to proceed should not be made.

3. Artificial turf proponents argue that maintenance costs are lower for artificial turf compared to grass.  But numerous studies indicate that lifetime costs are higher.    The school committee has been asked to provide a financial management plan prior to making a decision.  This plan, if it exists, has not yet been shared with the public.

ENVIRONMENT

1. At the end of its useful life, in 8-12 years, the artificial turf will need to be replaced, at a cost of $400,000 to $600,000.  Despite claims by the landscape architect that the field is recyclable there is currently NO recycling facility in the USA.

2. There are many environmental issues associated with artificial turf fields: 

• potential existence of PFAS in the plastic grass and other contaminants in the crumb rubber infill (heavy metals, PAHs, etc.) that can cause water contamination, 

• microplastic contamination from the crumb rubber infill and broken blades of grass migrating to nearby water resources (Green River).  

There are methods to reduce the impact of some of these potential hazards (change infill material, provide better containment devices for crumb rubber, and maintenance practices) but the school committee was not able at their most recent meeting to say if they have been included in the most recent design.

3. Requests by the community to the school committee to investigate the possibility of designing a natural grass field have gone largely ignored.

We request that you express your concerns to the school committee before their next meeting on Friday, October 16 at 12 noon or as soon as you can.

You can simply say:

· I am concerned about this artificial turf project. Please don’t rush this decision.

OR

· I would like to know more about the environmental impact.

OR 

· I have a few questions about this project and I’d like to participate in a public forum that provides me with information from different viewpoints.

OR

· Can you tell me more about a natural grass option?

OR

· Can you show me the lifetime costs associated with each option?

SEND YOUR EMAIL TO: 

School Committee at schoolcommittee@mgrhs.org

Superintendent Robert Putnam rputnam@mgrhs.org

Copy to svigiard@mgrhs.org

Best regards,

Stephanie Boyd

Peter Low

Anne O’Connor

Wendy Penner

Molly Polk

Bridget Spann