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The Portland Public Schools Board will vote Tuesday on a proposal to wrest control of the shuttered Grant High School athletic field from Portland Parks & Recreation and repair it in time for this year’s fall sports season.
Unlike other PPS schools, Grant doesn’t own its field, known as Grant Bowl. It’s city property, and it’s managed by the parks bureau, which closed the field last month, just days before fall training for football and soccer was set to begin. The crumb rubber and sand in the artificial turf have become compacted, making it unsafe, the parks bureau said.
The bureau’s plan is to replace the 10-year-old field in time for fall sports next year, a solution that has riled Grant parents. The School Board will consider a resolution to turn the field over to the district under a long-term lease so PPS can repair it immediately. The resolution would also turn the Buckman track near Benson Polytechnic High School, another city-owned property that isn’t in use, over to PPS.
The resolution “directs the Superintendent to identify financial and other resources to replace the field and tracks and to work with Parks to engage in an emergency procurement process to secure a contractor to repair and/or replace the field in fall 2023.”
The Grant Bowl Community Coalition, a group of parents who organized after the closure to try and salvage their students’ seasons, said they support Portland Public Schools’ move.
“The Grant Bowl Community Coalition believes that turning over operations of the Grant Bowl and Buckman Track to PPS is the best means of achieving equitable athletic facilities for students,” the group said in a statement. “Parks has repeatedly communicated that they have no maintenance funding and a $600 million maintenance backlog with no end in sight. Parks currently issues a long-term lease for Buckman Field to a private soccer club. The club maintains and replaces the turf at the end of its useful life, thus the precedent for a long-term lease exists and should be extended to PPS.”
The coalition of parents has been hounding Portland Parks & Recreation for answers why they weren’t informed of the closure of Grant’s field sooner. Emails obtained through a public records request by the coalition show that parks staff and PPS discussed a possible closure as early as May.
“Our risk department is wanting to have the field tested before football in the fall so I wanted to check in,” Dana White, director of planning and real estate management at PPS, wrote May 30. “If we need to move football, I’d like to start working on that as soon as possible.”
Dylan Paul, property and business development manager at the parks bureau, wrote back the next day.
“Here is the unofficial news so you can start preparing, please don’t share it widely yet we are working on a statement that you will be able to share with your users,” Paul wrote. “I don’t think we are going to permit the field out to the public, but PPS will likely be given the opportunity to evaluate its own risk and continue to use it if desired. We added 6 tons of crumb rubber and some areas passed and others did not. Recreation is elevating the issue for field replacement again, as the alternative is not acceptable. There is no money in the budget for this field replacement, so it will be a difficult sell. If PPS is interested in finding some money, it may help accelerate the replacement, but I am not asking for that as it is our responsibility.”
The resolution will be considered at the PPS board meeting Tuesday at 6 pm at 501 N Dixon St.