Spartans fans roar for Friday night football
Light poles coming down soon, but press made for short-term replacements
A light stand casts a long shadow in the afternoon sun at Brookfield East High School. Photo By Peter Zuzga
Aug. 17, 2010 | 7 comments
The poles are coming down, but is it lights out for Friday night football at Brookfield East?
Spartans supporter Bill Treacy, whose children both graduated from East, hopes not, and like many school parents, is calling on the Elmbrook School District to pony up $26,000 to erect temporary lights at the stadium for the football season.
Without them, the football team will have to either play home games at another school's field or schedule games in the afternoon, making it hard for fans and referees to get there on time.
The School Board decided to have the lights taken down within the next few weeks, at a cost of $13,000, because the poles holding them aloft are part of a nationwide recall - 10 of the 2,000 similar poles in operation nationwide have collapsed because welds have failed.
Two companies have inspected Elmbrook's poles, and both returned positive reports indicating no structural concerns. Some minor work, such as sanding and repainting, was suggested.
However, some School Board members cited concerns with potential liability in a 6-1 decision to remove the poles before the start of the school year.
Tradition at risk
Corey Golla, athletics director at East, said the school is looking at three options for its freshman, junior varsity and varsity football games: play at another site (most likely Brookfield Central), start games earlier on Thursdays (freshman and JV games) and Fridays (varsity games) or rent temporary lights for the season.
East's varsity team will play five home games this year, first on Sept. 3 and the last on Oct. 20.
Renting temporary lights would be the best option, Golla said, because it would allow the school to keep its varsity football games at their traditional time on Fridays.
"Culturally, Friday-night football, that's a big deal," he said.
Scott Miller, the district's facilities director, said temporary lights would cost about $26,000 for the entire slate of East's home games.
The school is working with the district and some of its own fundraising groups to talk about covering the cost.
The other options would require a lot of rescheduling, Golla said. Plus, moving varsity games to 4:30 or 5 p.m. on Fridays could make it tough for parents, coaches and referees to get to the games on time.
Moving offsite to somewhere like Brookfield Central would require coordinating schedules of two schools, Golla said. Plus, the fact that each of the schools hosts either a freshman or junior varsity game on Thursdays further complicates the issue.
Disappointed in board
Cheri Sylla, a former School Board member who has three sons at East, said she is disappointed with the board's decision because board members didn't think about "what a mess it would be" trying to reschedule the games.
"They didn't consider the impact," she said. "They really, really didn't."
Sylla, a member of East's booster club, said she and other parents she has talked to would have been comfortable with a proposal School Board President Tom Gehl made to leave the lights up through the football season and replace them later this fall.
"We realize they're recalled poles," she said. "Everyone understands that."
She questioned the rationale of spending $7,000 on two inspections if board members were going to base their decisions on legal liability issues. She said she believes the same liability existed concerning East and Central students who were going to school in construction zones every day for the last two years while the high schools were renovated.
"The (board) decided we needed to save our back end, we need to protect ourselves and to heck with the Brookfield East community," she said.
NEXT STEP
WHAT: School Board discussion of light pole replacement at Brookfield East
WHEN: 6 p.m. Aug. 24
WHERE: Central Administration Office, 13780 Hope St.
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7 COMMENTS
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Rent the temporary lights with money from Booster Club, donations. Not from taxpayers. We should not be paying for any "temporary" fixes to non-essential, non-academic programs. We are already paying too much for new and remodeled buildings, and now there's talk of closing schools. Wasting taxpayers resources is not what the Board was elected to do.
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It was reported to the Board during the July 13 Regular Board Meeting that our poles were confirmed to be under recall, that some poles given a clean bill of health by engineers had subsequently failed, and an engineering assessment was advisable as a step toward recouping expenses. On August 3 we learned that replacing the poles prior to the season would be impossible because significant excavation was necessary. Bleachers would have to be removed. Damage to the field was likely. Board members asked for information as to the possibility of leaving the poles in place through the season, specifically the engineering study (already in the works), a legal opinion, and an insurance opinion. On August 11, we heard that the engineers found no defects, but would not guarantee stability of the poles; the legal opinion was unfavorable; and the insurance coverage was capped. We also received confirmation of three more poles having collapsed and fifty poles having failed inspection. Reasonable people can disagree about the interpretation of this information, the degree of acceptable risk, and the best course of action. Speaking only for myself, I weighed the disruption of removing the poles against the possibility of dropping a light tree on my neighbors, and I voted to remove the poles.
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As a student athlete that helped raise funds for East to have home football games, I find this a travisty. This school board should have made a decision a long time ago, allowing the school and the community the time needed to raise money for the replacement lights. The fact that they wasted $7,000 on obtaining a recommendation, only to go against it, is pathetic and a complete waste. I really enjoyed reading about this waste of money after they sent a report out, outlining the budget deficiencies already in place. As a former accountant in the Milwaukee area who audited various districts in the Milwaukee area, I had always hoped that Elmbrook ran just a bit differently. This only confirms my worst fears.
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What has taken them so long to make a decision? The fact that they were recalled was public knowledge quite a while ago. Had the school board reacted in a timely manner, the whole issue could have been resolved by now. I drive past that field every day and wondered all summer when they were going to take them down. Who is footing the bill for replacements? When will permanent replacements be put in place?
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$7000 on 2 inspectors that they werent gonna listen to anyways. Complete waste of taxpayers money!
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Duhoyle is correct on this one. While the chances of a pole falling are slim, the liabilty if one did fall is astronomical. Ms. Sylla is quoted as saying that "the Board decided we needed to save our back end". Actually, the back end that she is referring to is the tax payers and I thank the Board for doing so. There is no question that it is unfortunate that East can't have night home football games this fall, but there are options. They can play at night at Central or during the day at East. I don't believe Marquette High School has ever had a home game and they seem to be doing quite well. I'm just thankful that Ms. Sylla doesn't have to travel all the way to Brookfield Central to see her children graduate. Just imagine all the scheduling problems that would present for her. I must admit, issues like this make me glad to live in Brookfield. I hope reality never sets in for our little darlings.
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Stupid decision. Not the removal--the inspection. Cheri Sylla has it partially
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Back to topWG - Aug 23, 2010 2:35 PM - Report Abuse
Kathryn Wilson - Aug 21, 2010 5:39 PM - Report Abuse
East2002 - Aug 19, 2010 3:10 PM - Report Abuse
53045parent - Aug 19, 2010 2:54 PM - Report Abuse
alwaysrocking - Aug 19, 2010 2:29 PM - Report Abuse
RealityCheck - Aug 19, 2010 7:27 AM - Report Abuse
Duhoyle - Aug 18, 2010 12:55 PM - Report Abuse
correct, questioning the inspection costs if the poles were deemed such a
liability either way. Where she and others have it wrong is to question the
need to take the poles down.
In this day and age the school would lose millions if someone got hurt or
killed. In that town lawsuits and threats of litigation are thrown around like
parade candy. I and three siblings went to school there--I know the general
perspective of many families there. Brookfield has many wonderful aspects,
but the main blemish is a communal attitude of thinking they're more special
& entitled than reality warrants.
If people want to see the earlier games, they'll go. To whine about 5 home
games being disturbed is indicative of the entitlement mentality Brookfield
fosters. Don't tell me for even one second if someone is maimed by a falling
pole there wouldn't be the biggest media and court frenzy since O'Donnell
Park went its spree this summer.