Testimony of Sheldon
Fishman
Before the Montgomery
County Board of Education
November 12, 2015
Good evening,
members of the Board of Education and Superintendent Bowers. My name is Sheldon Fishman. I am a member of the Safe Healthy Playing
Fields Coalition (http://www. safehealthyplayingfields.org/
) and the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County...
...I appreciate the
opportunity to offer a suggestion for using capital funds to improve MCPS
sports fields. The primary objective is
to get more playing time from existing land. To achieve this objective, the Superintendent
has recommended “putting a stake in the ground” and committing to convert every
high school football field to an Artificial Turf field.
I urge you to investigate
the assumptions in that approach and I offer a suggestion on how to investigate
those assumptions. Right after a heavy
rain storm, a brand new Artificial Turf field is more playable than current
MCPS grass fields. That leads to the assumption that the only way
to get more playing time is convert all grass fields to Artificial Turf. It is assumed that after six inches of
rain, you could never have a soccer tournament on a grass field in Montgomery
County. But that assumption is
wrong.
In October 2013, “the vast majority
of the Discovery Cup youth tournament went ahead as scheduled on eight of the
facility’s natural-grass fields despite more than six inches of rain in some
areas.
“We played on [Fields] 4, 6, 7, 8,
10, 11, 14, 17 and [synthetic]turf [Fields] 18, 19, 20,” said SoccerPlex
executive director Trish Heffelfinger ….
“It is remarkable in view of the
amount of rain, 5.85 [inches] in five days…. Not only did we have a significant
accumulation of rain but we also had no drying. It was cloudy, cool and
continued to drizzle or mist the entire weekend.”
I urge you to investigate
the assumptions underlying Artificial Turf.
Experts disagree if Artificial Turf is the most cost effective way to
increase playing time and some experts ever question if Artificial Turf even
provides the most playing time. My
suggestion is:
Please make an evidence-based
decision built on a pilot comparing an Artificial Turf field with a state of
the art real turf field, a sand capped grass field.
My understanding is none of MCPS fields
currently is a sand capped grass field with drainage. It would be prudent to consult with available
experts who have already created and maintain durable grass fields.
I think you have a
fiduciary obligation to investigate the cost assumptions of the AT policy since
three top-line natural fields can be installed for price of one synthetic
artificial turf field in Montgomery County.
The US Department
of Education urges you to implement “what works”. “What works” 1. is not a cute slogan but a
specific set of criteria for what is reliable evidence on which to implement a new
policy such as county wide implementation of Artificial Turf fields at every
high school. In this case, there is not
reliable evidence that an Artificial Turf field provides more playing time than
a sand capped grass field.
- Criteria for evidence based policy, “What works” : http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/
DocumentSum.aspx?sid=19
Dear Santa, Please send us a new BOE Policy. One that requires our BOE members to ALWAYS publicly review the fiscal, health, and safety impacts of a proposal before voting on the matter. And Santa, while you're at it, please send some gifts of courage to the members of the BOE.
ReplyDeleteSome common sense would suffice.
DeleteIf there ever was a time for courage at the BOE , this is it. They are allowing the poisoning of children. They have been informed and are NOT acting. This then.. becomes a criminal act. They have a duty to care for children's safety --as their highest priority. Ignoring the facts does not mean the facts are not the facts --nor that children will not be sick due to such negligence.
ReplyDeleteClick here for the most recent list of State, county, and municipal PIA representatives. The PIA representative for the Office of the Maryland Attorney General is:
ReplyDeleteBarbara Bond
200 St. Paul Place
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 576-6405
bbond@oag.state.md.us
www.oag.state.md.us
New Public Information Act Manual can be found here along with the most recent list of PIA representatives: http://www.oag.state.md.us/opengov/pia.htm. Hard copy version of the Manual from the Office of the Attorney General makes a nice stocking stuffer.
Delete