Findlay City Schools Turf Project
It is an exciting time to be in Trojan country as Findlay City Schools continues to elevate everything we do through our mission statement of offering Excellence Opportunity and Belonging. We are on a mission to offer excellence in our extracurricular programming as well as excellence for our youth through clinics and we are in the planning stages of offering a Findlay City Schools Youth Athletic program in order to elevate to Excellence.
We acknowledge that we need to address some concerns with our athletic complexes. The first area of which we will be addressing is our outdoor fields. Currently our outdoor athletics and activities practice and compete on dirt fields. The fields are often muddy and deemed unusable. This results in canceled or relocated games or events our district prioritizes providing students with opportunities and resources to be competitive while being safe in their learning and extracurricular activities.
The condition of our current athletic and activities Fields pose a threat to that aim; as a result the Findlay City School Board has voted to move forward to purchase and install Turf. Athletic and activities Turf fields are a big investment so let’s take a moment to talk about how the project would be funded.
Schools utilize multiple funds in order to run a district. The most common fund that is discussed is a school’s general fund. The general fund is utilized for daily operations, salaries for teachers and staff, as well as supplies. Findlay City Schools has not had new money to support the general funds since 2004. An additional revenue opportunity for schools comes through grant funding. Grant funding can be federal, state, or local grant dollars. For example Findlay City Schools received ESSER funding in order to address strategically and aggressively any potential learning loss resulting from the pandemic. Findlay City Schools is also very fortunate to receive donations from local businesses personal donations as well as donations from organizations and we can already offer our gratitude for the preliminary conversations and support with our amazing Trojan Club who does so much for our students as well as National Lime & Stone and the City of Findlay.
Now let’s take a look at our future athletic and activities complex. This beautiful complex will be funded with an additional funding source called permanent Improvement. Permanent Improvement dollars are for capital improvements. No funds are diverted from classrooms or salaries and no money is utilized from the general fund. An additional grant that Findlay City Schools received allowed us to pay off the loan that we utilized to fund SafeDefend. As a result, the Permanent Improvement fund will be able to navigate loans for the turf while accessing no money from the general fund. Our outside athletic and activities turf complex will elevate golf, lacrosse, soccer, football, softball, baseball, and band opportunities as well as our Youth Clinics and our up-and-coming youth sports programming. The space will also provide revenue opportunities through hosting tournaments and areas that are accessible can be utilized for our community. Findlay City Schools will continue to operate through Excellence Opportunity and Belonging and providing memories for our students that will last a lifetime. (video: Touchdown Findlay oh my gosh, oh my gosh). Thank you for your continued support and as always Go Trojans!