Children go to school to learn. Sports and all other extra-curricular activities are an important part of the school experience but the emphasis should always be on academics. For every Greg Paulus, from Syracuse CBA, there are many thousands of students from multiple districts who won't get a sports scholarship to college, won't become a starting point guard for a Division I team, won't make millions playing football in the NFL.

The Auburn school district must concentrate its efforts to help the vast majority of students who need an opportunity to achieve academic excellence, get a higher education and develop careers.

Here's a great chance for Joseph Pabis, our new superintendent, to prove that, unlike his predecessor, he's more interested in education than fake grass. So this is my once-per-year school board alert for taxpayers that whenever the board doesn't get their way, they just keep putting through the same thing over and over until they win.

Back in October, voters said no to upgrading Holland Stadium and putting in artificial turf at the Auburn High School practice field. So what did they do? What they always do - got together in January and decided to try again. Only this time they want to put the turf at Holland Stadium.

Forget that two different turf fields in the Rochester area have tested positive to being toxic; forget that right here in Syracuse the baseball Chiefs want real grass again because the players are complaining about all the injuries (how much more for a collision sport like football); forget that we just won a state football championship without it.

Forget everything. The board wants turf and they don't care what the voters think. And all of this while the Auburn district has been named by the state as being below minimum academic standards. Our board and committee meetings should be completely taken up with what we can do to help our students gain the education they deserve. The other stuff should be looked at after we've covered the most important part.

Not everyone on the board is being swept up in this turf craze. Joseph Leogrande and Frederick Cornelius voted no to having the board long-range planning committee continue to look at renovating Holland Stadium. They understand the need of setting educational priorities. The kids may want turf, but it's much more important that they learn how to read. Their job is to go to school and ours is to run the district.

So let's not make this about what the kids want. They may want a lot of things. That's why we have adults in positions of authority and responsibility to supervise and guide them. If this board wants to leave a legacy they can be proud of, why not make it they helped launch our schools into the highest academic achievements in our history and gave our kids their best chance for a successful future.

Ducayne's column appearsTuesdays in The Citizen, and she can be reached at

sacredheart6005@hotmail.com