SOLON, Ohio – The Solon High School softball team will be getting synthetic turf for its home field – possibly in time for its coming season this spring.
On Monday (Oct. 7), the Solon Board of Education authorized the purchase and installation of synthetic turf for the field, through participation in a contract with the Cooperative Council of Governments, in an amount not to exceed $365,836.
The softball field is located adjacent to Roxbury Elementary School, 6795 Solon Blvd.
“Our hope is to get it installed prior to the start of this season, if the weather works out well for us,” Superintendent Fred Bolden said.
In April, the school board approved a series of agreements with the City of Solon for an exchange of land and property use related to the city’s planned improvements to Solon Community Park.
One of those agreements was that the board will pay the city $250,000 for continued use of Cisar Field – the varsity field that Solon High School’s baseball team uses for its home games – for the next 25 years.
Cisar Field is being renovated as part of the city’s park master plan.
“We felt that was a great thing for our kids because synthetic surfaces enable you to play when it rains much more rapidly than when you have dirt infields,” Bolden said.
“It also enabled more events and more practices to happen there.
“As we did that, we kept in the back of our mind, what are we going to do about our girls softball field?”
Bolden described the softball field as “vintage.”
“We’ve also had years-long problems (on that field) dealing with things like drainage and playability when it rains,” he said.
“So what we have decided to do is to convert the infield to a synthetic surface, much like Cisar Field is a synthetic surface, so that our (junior varsity) and varsity girls will be able to play on that.”
Bolden said by installing synthetic turf there, the district will be able to rent the facility to other people or groups that want to use it.
“Tournaments will be able to come here because of it,” he said.
“By doing this, it’s a great benefit not only to our kids, but the entire community, and it will enable our girls to play in a safe environment regardless of the weather.”
Bolden said he sees the amount of money the district will pay for the turf as very reasonable.
“Just to put it in perspective, when we resurfaced Stewart Field (Solon High School’s football field) this past summer, that was $800,000-plus,” he said. “This is much less expensive because it’s much less area.
“But I think it’s important to understand that this is 10 years’ worth of playability that you get for this amount of money, and the man hours that are involved in maintaining that field and the specialized equipment that we have to buy and rebuy.”
Bolden said much of that equipment will no longer be needed with the addition of the synthetic turf.
“We’ll be able to utilize the same tools to maintain the softball field that we purchased to maintain the Stewart Field synthetic surface,” he said.
“And it enables us to play on that field more than we would if we didn’t have (the turf).”
Parking lot addition at Roxbury
In other action, the board authorized the business manager to advertise and secure bids for an addition to the parking lot at Roxbury Elementary School.
Bolden said when the former Arthur Road Elementary School was demolished in 2022, a nearby parking lot was also removed and converted to athletic fields.
“That parking lot was utilized heavily in evenings for the overflow for Roxbury,” he said. “Now there’s just a lot of street parking, which is not really safe whenever they have large events.
“We like to have our parents involved in the community for all those things.”
In addition, Bolden said, there has been a continual problem there that is “decades old” related to parent drop-off and pickup of students.
“Because of the way the building was designed, at a time when more kids were walking to school and less kids were being driven, there’s a missing (driveway) for parents,” he said.
“What they do to solve that problem is just queue up on Solon Boulevard.”
Bolden said about 12 years ago, the district engaged in a traffic study of the area, and one of the Solon Police Department’s recommendations was to develop an “on-property drive-up.”
“So this year, we’ve combined our need for additional parking with a way to get parents off of Solon Boulevard and onto the property, and we have created a new design that enables the parents to loop through our property so they’re not queuing up on the street,” he said.
The plan will also allow connect Roxbury School to the district’s transportation garage, Bolden said.
“So now there will actually be a driveway from the Roxbury playground into that, which ties into our master site plan about connecting all the schools together internally,” he said.
“So we think it’s a really solid project, and we believe it’s going to really enhance both Roxbury and the overall district.”
The parking lot addition is on the south side of the school, and the softball field is on the north side, Bolden said.
“But it all ties together in that we’re connecting Roxbury to the main campus in our overall master plan,” he said.
Unity Day Oct. 16
Also on Monday, Bolden said students and staff in the district will be wearing orange on Oct. 16 for Unity Day.
Unity Day is the signature event for National Bullying Prevention Month, he said.
Orange is the symbolic color for the day, as it signifies safety, he said.
“The day provides an opportunity for our schools to share positive messages of anti-bullying and focus on kindness and inclusion,” Bolden said.
“We invite everyone in our community to join us in wearing orange on Unity Day and promoting kindness and inclusion every day.”
Retirement accepted
In addition, the board accepted the retirement of Randal Davis, teacher at Lewis Elementary School, effective May 30.
Davis has taught in the district more than 20 years.
The board also accepted the resignations of Kim Brewer, food service, effective Sept. 23; Chris Syphrit, building and grounds supervisor, effective Sept. 30; and Blake Thomas, custodian, effective Wednesday (Oct. 9).
Work session set for Oct. 9
The board will have a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 9).
It will be a work session to discuss the district’s strategic plan, Bolden said.
The board’s next regular meeting will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 21.
