Unit 40 School Board to Discuss All-Weather Field for EHS

The Effingham Unit 40 Board of Education is expected Monday to discuss a turf field for Effingham High School.

The Board's Facilities and Transportation Committee discussed the subject at their meeting Friday morning. The price tag for the project is estimated at $1.4 million. That price includes maintenance equipment.

Committee members discussed the various options as to how the facility could be used. The most obvious is for football, but the project would compliment the all-weather track at the high school.

Also, soccer matches, which are now played on an unlighted field north of the football field, could be played on the turf field and under the lights, if needed. Another use would be for the Marching Hearts Red Regiment, which now has to travel between the old field at the junior high for practices and the high school field for performances, meaning crossing Henrietta Street with their instruments, often at night.

First indications are that the turf field could be ready for the 2022-2023 school year, if work begins no later than December of this year. 

Committee members said fundraising for the project, if it's given the green light, would need to begin as soon as possible.

The Committee also reviewed bids received on roofing work on the transportation building and on the gym at Central School and will recommend vendors at Monday's meeting. There was also discussion of patching work and the repainting of the junior high school building, as well as work at South Side School.