Chandler school district buys turf, HVAC services

By Jason W. Brooks
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The era of Chandler Unified varsity football home games being played on natural grass is officially over.

The CUSD Governing Board approved a purchase of a new artificial turf field for Arizona College Prep High School’s Fred DePrez Stadium at its Feb. 25 meeting. ACP will be the last of the six CUSD high schools to have its stadium converted from grass to turf.

Initially, in 2023, district staff announced that only the five older high school stadiums would all be converted to turf as part of a $14 million plan using 2019 bond funds, with ACP's grass to remain in place for the forseeable future. That grass had just been installed prior to the 2021-22 school year.

But after seeing how much the district was saving in water and money, along with community goodwill from allowing various teams to use turf fields that needed to be preserved for football and a handful of other activities before, staff urged the board to reconsider turf at ACP.

CORE Construction was awarded a nearly $3.4 million contract for the purchase and installation of the turf, cooling infill material, a shock pad and a storm drain system.

CUSD Assistant Superintendent Tom Dunn said use at the five older stadiums has increased dramatically since turf was installed.

“Almost every weekend, we have community teams and programs using our stadium fields now, year-round,” Dunn said. “Before, we had to deny them, in order to preserve the fields for the high school programs.”

Dunn said he didn’t have hard numbers on the cost savings per gallon, but he does know that turf fields use about 2 million fewer gallons per year than grass fields.

He added that maintenance time and equipment needed for each field is much less, going from about $6000,000 to about $120,000 per field per year.
Some water is used to help cool the new turf before practices and games, he said.

Dunn said 10 years is the anticipated life of an artificial turf field. But the base layer and drainage system, once installed, should last far longer, so the first 10-year replacements of all six CUSD turf fields should all be one-third the costs of initial installations.

Dunn said while the ACP conversion uses 2019 bond funds, those are dwindling. He pointed out there were a few items on the Feb. 25 agenda that are already pulling from the $271.5 million in 2025 bond funds.

Dunn said no ACP programs will be able to use the stadium from the start of this month’s spring break onward, with plans to have the turf ready for the varsity home football opener, usually played in late August. That means the track and field athletes must practice elsewhere and graduation will be held at Hamilton High School this year.

Another item approved Feb. 25 was a $591,000 contract modification with a company named Emcor for HVAC replacements, repairs and preventative maintenance district-wide.

Dunn explained that staff typically have to go to the board at least twice each year with HVAC contract totals for CUSD’s 4.5 million square feet of indoor space. The first contract request is a year-ahead estimated total — $700,000, in the case of 2025-26, approved for Emcor last summer — along with an extension with the same company in late winter or early spring.

That’s $591,000 this year, with $391,000 for five specific projects, along with $200,000 built in for unexpected HVAC maintenance or repairs for the rest of the school year.

Email Jason W. Brooks at jbrooks@iniusa.org. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.

INDEPENDENT NEWSMEDIA

Jason W. Brooks
News Editor | Chandler Independent

Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.

Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.

Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.

Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.

Community: He supports animal shelters.