KP Exploring Artificial-Turf Field

The King Philip School Committee discussed, at its meeting Monday night, the progress on changing the stadium field to artifical turf.

Committee Chairman Patrick Francomano said the members had received an update on the matter.

"In summary, they're currently looking for $25,000 from [the] excess and deficiency [fund] for the design," he said.

Wendy Robeson said the committtee's finance subcommittee had met to discuss the matter.

"The recommendation was to wait until there was an analysis on the return on investment," she said. "We will not have that recommendation until next week."

She said the committee had to look at how much the school was spending on the grass now, how much the replacement would cost and if the projected benefits were worth that price.

District Business Manager Paul Schaefer said that delay shouldn't effect the timeline too much.

"The proposed timeline is for our goal of having an artificial field in place for the opening of school next fall," he said. "I think we still have a couple of weeks of wiggle room — I think we can hold off the October milestones until November."

He said the plan is dependent on matters progressing smoothly. If they don't, he said, the replacement would happen the next year.

According to Schaefer, the replacement will have to be approved at the town meetings of the three towns.

"I assume this will go before the spring town meetings to go out to bid on time," he said. "We have to certify that 100 percent of the funds would be available by the time of the bid award."

The was prompted by the school's solution to its , which has limited the fields available to its athletic and music programs.