Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. board members on Monday night agreed to award a bid for athletic turf upgrades for the Columbus North baseball and softball on the fields at Southside Elementary.
BCSC received two bids for the project, which was awarded to Sprinturf, LLC for $1.5 million.
There was $2 million budgeted for it, made up of $1.5 million in Capital Projects Funds (CPF) and $500,000 in Build America Bonds (BAB). The latter must be used for high school improvements.
The new turf is projected to be finished in February 2026 and will have a life of “at least 12 years,” Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Brett Boezeman said.
Since bids were opened on the project in July, school board members Jason Major, District 1, Tom Glick, District 5, and Logan Schulz, District 6, have made quite a bit of hay online, dubiously alleging that their fellow school board members were choosing turf over providing free school meals to all of district’s elementary schools.
No free meals were taken away from any student as a result of BCSC deciding to add a limited number of schools offering free lunch for all students. Any student who qualifies for free or reduced lunch at any BCSC school still receives the benefit after applying.
Actually, the turf project was approved in October 2024 as part of the CPF budget that included a $1.5 million line item. Major voted in favor of the CPF budget at the time. Schulz could not cast a vote because he attended the meeting remotely, as required by Indiana Code. The three also said that the district shouldn’t be paying for artificial turf because of safety issues, asking the district look into natural grass fields instead.
In conversation with experts, Boezeman said that grass fields are only safer than artificial turf if they’re maintained to the appropriate standard, which can come with an exorbitant cost. Accomplishing that would cost an immediate $225,000, plus an additional $80,000 every year, Boezeman told school board members.
“That’s why I mentioned a major league baseball field, that sort of thing, that can maintain natural grass to that level, which we obviously are not going to be able to do that at a high school level.” he said.
The work at Southside follows a turf update the Columbus East baseball, softball and football complexes received in 2023, which Boezeman said is “very similar” to what Southside will receive.
Boezeman noted as well that most travel facilities at the high school level are turf, and that he asked the district’s trainers and athletics directors if they’ve noticed any additional injuries as a result of putting in new turf at East “and the answer was no.”
Those turf upgrades at East were included with the Parkside renovation, which the school board approved in September 2022.
Board member Whittney Loyd, District 3, asked if “these similar concerns were raised when East students were in question” to which Boezeman said “no.”
“I think the big thing is, it’s a different board today, asking different questions,” Major said, going on to read off factoids from sources he said he found online about how turf fields produce more knee and ankle injuries, concussions, and how artificial turf surfaces can be hotter.
Boezeman said he would not bring the turf request to the board if BCSC had ever experienced anything like that.
Regardless, Schulz said he believed “there is inherently safety issues and risks related” with the artificial turf.
Superintendent Chad Phillips said that “we are happy to take direction at the board’s wish to review all of our existing turf and or grass athletic surfaces,” including evaluating “the cost of replacing any of the surfaces with the most safe surface that’s available.”
Schulz responded that “no one’s suggesting a reflection of the entire portfolio overnight” and that “I think what I’m saying is as these questions come to the board, this is the proper time to evaluate them before you make a significant capital investment.”
Notably, earlier in the meeting during a quarterly financial update, BCSC Treasurer Jamie Brinegar noted that district revenue is expected to be flat next school year because of changes enacted last session through Senate Enrolled Act 1, which indirectly cuts funding to the state’s public schools.
“I appreciate Dr. Boezeman and the research, I just don’t know how we will be the exception to the rule on safety, and the data here didn’t present that we would be,” Schulz said. “And with Mr. Brinegar’s feedback of facing several headwinds, I don’t think this is the priority at the moment until we get through a budget workshop.”
Football fields in the district have had artificial turf for two decades, administrators said.
