The Palo Alto Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the budget, scope, and architect contract for major sports field upgrades at Palo Alto High School and discussed a 20-year plan for high school improvements during its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

The field project at Paly will involve updating the softball and baseball field, installing synthetic turf on the El Camino field, and renovating the bleachers by the football field. The board moved unanimously to approve a contract with Verde Design Inc. to design the Paly fields and work on other projects in the district.

The bleacher project will involve replacing the 1,100 seats by the football field with 1,600 seats designed specifically to fit in the Paly football stadium. Other updates to the football field will include the renovation of the bathrooms, concessions stand, and lighting system.

Paly principal Jacqueline McEvoy said that as the Paly student body continues to grow in size, the updated bleachers will not be able to hold all of the students. McEvoy expressed the hope that the bleachers could eventually be expanded to hold 2,200 to 2,300 students.

One possible solution the board discussed would be to move the concessions stand out of the stadium and put in more bleachers.

“If the long range plan is to move concessions, then that’s what Paly wants,” McEvoy said.

Synthetic turf is preferable for the El Camino field because the turf is more durable than natural grass, according to Supt. Kevin Skelly. Paly athletes must battle potholes, torn-up grass, and mud puddles when practicing on the El Camino field, according to members of the Paly girls’ lacrosse and soccer teams, who spoke at the meeting. Head coach Jen Gray of the Paly girls’ lacrosse team also spoke in favor of the field project.

Other improvements to the El Camino field include lengthening the field, including areas for spectators to watch games, and building fences around the field. The fences will be implemented to ensure that lacrosse balls will be contained within the field.

In addition to student athletes, an estimated 800 or 900 students taking physical education at Paly will benefit from the field project, according to Chirag Krishna, Paly’s student representative to the board.

The money for the Paly field project will come primarily from a Measure A Bond fund. In addition to this money, board members Melissa Baten-Caswell and Barbara Klausner recommend using money from interest accumulated by funds in 2008 and 2009. The board plans to apply for a state bond, although these plans are tentative.

While the school board will focus on the Paly field project in the short term, the board also discussed the 20-year plan for the improvement of both Paly and Gunn.

Improvements to Paly discussed at the meeting included renovating the quad, Haymarket theater, the Student Center, as well as building a media center.

Board member Camille Townsend thinks that the 20-year plan should include a focus on high school curriculum.

“The very first item [to be discussed by the board], before the master plans, is the fields,” Townsend said. “And we haven’t even had a discussion about curriculum. And that’s frustrating.”

Townsend hopes that renovations to the Paly library, the theater, and the career vocational education department would will be given more attention in the future.

Plans for the field project and the master 20-year plan will be refined throughout the month of January and resubmitted to the board in February.

The Palo Alto Board of Education’s next regular meeting is planned for Jan. 13, 2009. The meeting will be held at 25 Churchill Ave., Palo Alto, Calif.