CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou High School Athletic Director Evan Graves discussed the need for future upkeep of the school’s athletic facilities during a Dec. 5 informational meeting at the Caribou Performing Arts Center.
He told roughly 25 attendees that Caribou High School has historically taken great pride in its athletic facilities and programs. He said that maintaining the quality of Caribou High School’s athletic facilities is crucial to not only the quality of the school, but also the local economy.
Graves said that roughly one quarter of the student body at Caribou High School participates in athletics, and that the school’s track team is among the largest, with nearly 80 students joining the team each year. And with Caribou hosting one of the two surface tracks in Aroostook County, he said plenty of neighboring schools will use their facilities.
He said that according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, athletics play a key role in student development, potentially providing an enhanced sense of belonging and school engagement, healthier behaviors, positive youth development and the development of better citizenship.
With this in mind, Graves explained that the school needs a new track, a turf field and that building both of these at the same time will provide the school with a significant savings. Currently, both projects are estimated at $1.9 million. While he gave no estimate of how much money would be saved, he said the majority of savings would be in having earthwork and other aspects of both completed simultaneously by a contractor.
The current track is 21 years old and only had a life expectancy of 18 years, Graves said. As a result, the surface is deteriorating and pieces have been patched. He said the field event runways are not wide enough, and that the track is not up to date. Modern facilities have turned to metric measurements and hold 400-meter tracks while Caribou’s track is 440 yards. The slight difference in length is meaningful in events where competitors are measured in fractions of a second.
Caribou’s track currently has six lanes, but modern tracks have eight lanes, which both PVC and MPA championship events require. They also have flatter and wider runways than Caribou’s current track.
Graves said that while Caribou hosted a PVC championship last year, PVC has told the high school that they will not return for a championship game until the track is updated.
One audience member asked if the school has placed any money in the annual budget for replacement of the track, as it is well over its life expectancy.
RSU 39 Superintendent Tim Doak explained that school budgets are a bit more strict than a city or business budget, regarding which money can be added to a capital reserve account.
In order to open a capital reserve account, Doak said the school would need authorization from the voters. Once the account is opened, the school would need additional authorization from voters to spend that money. As an example, he said the school renovated the gym in the past, and that in order to fund the project, they needed voter approval to open a capital reserve account, and then an additional election needed to be held in order to approve spending the money.
The superintendent said that, for the upcoming projects, he and other school officials feel strongly that “a number of alumni” would likely donate to the project, as Caribou has “a rich tradition” in athletics.
Graves said the soccer field is bumpy, not as wide as other regulation fields and still expensive to keep up. If Caribou were to obtain a turf field, he said it would be low maintenance, allow for play in all types of weather, and also allow the school to generate income by renting it out to neighboring schools, communities and colleges.
Since the turf field would qualify Caribou for regional tournaments, Doak said these events could bring in between $5,000 and $6,000 in profits to the local community.
“People coming here for the game will have to eat, and will need to get gas to return home,” Doak said, adding that the school will also profit from selling concessions during these games.
Doak said the Maine Principals Association has also informed him that if the school obtains a turf field, it would add Caribou to a rotation of schools that are able to host large games.
In addition to these two major improvements, Graves said the athletics department also needs to update it locker and weight room, resurface its tennis court, have new dugouts on the baseball field and a new storage building.
Both Doak and Graves let the audience know that RSU 39 plans to hold another meeting in early 2020, in either late February or early March.
