Auburn school board returns turf money

By Alyssa Sunkin / The Citizen

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 11:50 PM EDT

AUBURN - The Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education hammered one final nail into artificial turf's coffin Tuesday.
In a unanimous vote, the board decided to return $150,000 that was to offset the taxpayer share of artificial turf installation at Holland Stadium. The funds had been donated or secured by local community members, business leaders, nonprofits and state officials.

Board member David Lansford was not present for the vote.

The action comes a week after the board's Long Range Planning Committee, chaired by board Vice President Sam Giangreco, decided to pull turf from its postponed capital project entirely while scrutinizing the remaining items that make up the near $15.7 million endeavor.

“I think it's safe to say the turf issue is dead,” Giangreco said at that meeting, “and we probably have to return the money to people who contributed. Maybe sometime in the future when things get better we can look at it, but for now I think we have to live with the way things are.”

The board earlier this year had intended to put a project - which dealt with school infrastructure, energy efficiency and technology, and renovations to Holland Stadium, including the installation of artificial turf - up for a vote in June, but pulled the project after the proposed 2008-09 school budget failed in May. That budget was voted down again a month later.

In other news:

* The board approved a new attendance policy, which calls for early intervention strategies and incentives to improve attendance while also solidifying a link between daily attendance and punctuality with course credits and grades.

Through this policy, the district and its building principals are empowered to potentially deny course credit to students who are absent more than 28 days during full-year courses and 14 days for half-year courses if the aforementioned strategies do not work.

This policy goes into effect Sept. 2.

* Fourteen Auburn High School seniors officially graduated on Tuesday.

* The next board meeting is slated for 7 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Auburn High School library.

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net

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