Benefield: Prospects brighter for field lights at Piner High

Keen observers of Piner High School’s fall sports schedules will notice something: five Saturday afternoon games for the Prospector football team and lots of?4:30 p.m. starts for the girls’ soccer team.

Translation: Piner still doesn’t have lights on its athletic fields.

“It’s frustrating for all the coaches,” said longtime girls soccer coach Barry Commerfield.

On a sporting level, lights mean the prospect of bigger crowds, greater concession revenues and a more lively environment.

“To me, it’s just a better atmosphere. You get more people coming to the games,” he said. “I think it would be a huge plus for Piner.”

On a fair-is-fair level, it would mean Piner is on an even playing field with its competitors.

Aside from Piner, every high school in Santa Rosa City Schools - the largest district in Sonoma County - has lights. Every other team in both the Sonoma County League and the North Bay League has lights on their home field. The only school with a similar “have not” problem is Maria Carrillo, which is the only Santa Rosa City Schools high school campus without a synthetic turf field.

Piner boosters have been grinding away for years to raise funds for a project that could top $400,000. Whether that effort, the improved economy, or what looks like an imminent move of girls’ soccer to the winter spurred a spate of action is unclear, but things seem to be moving forward.

The district has signed on AXIA Architects to steer the project, a timeline is in place for renewed neighborhood outreach, and schematic designs and design development are expected to be complete by mid-October.

Then the real dealing begins.

School board policy requires that lights be funded privately. That’s been a tough go for Piner, where 60 percent of the approximately 1,050 kids who attended in 2014-15 (the most recent records available) meet the federal definition of poor.

School Board President Donna Jeye called installing lights at Piner an equity issue.

“We are very concerned about making it happen,” she said.

To that end, a district loan - similar to the one that Maria Carrillo, the last district campus to get lights, received - is one of the options on the table.

“How it’s paid for is still under consideration, but we will be considering a payment structure like Maria Carrillo High School if necessary,” Jeye said.

For Piner boosters who have worked in the shadows for years to get this project off the ground, that statement will likely bring cheers, or perhaps sighs of “It’s about time.”

For perspective on Piner’s ongoing fundraising struggle, there’s this: I wrote about the fundraising efforts in November of last year. At that point, a GoFundMe campaign had generated $3,285 of the $271,000 goal. As of Tuesday, there was $5,160 in the kitty.

This is simply not going to happen without help.

And it’s not as if Piner is coming begging without putting the work in.

Piner’s Hall of Fame Committee has worked for years to raise money - they paid the nearly $63,000 bill for the environmental impact report that is still a guiding document for the project - and perhaps even more importantly, done the hard work of winning over neighbors, some of whom worried about increased noise, traffic and the unknown of having big campus events over their back fences on a regular basis.

Although renewed neighbor outreach is included in the district’s timeline, it does not mean a homeowner with a change of heart can derail the project, said assistant superintendent Steve Eichman.

“We just felt it was the right thing to do and we want to be open and transparent,” he said. “It’s, ‘We are going to proceed and we just want to let you know what the project will look like.’”

“We are going to proceed.” It’s hard to overstate the significance of that statement.

Lights have come to mean more than 7 p.m. kickoff times or more money in the coffers from candy sales at soccer games. Lights mean a place for kids and parents to go on a festive night to celebrate the Prospector community. Try as you might, but selling the idea that that same kind of ambiance happens at?2 p.m. on a scorching Saturday is a tough sell.

“I think it’s hugely important,” first-year Piner head football coach Tom Harris said. “Somewhere along the line, you start to feel like you are kind of left out.”

Final plans have not been hatched, but Eichman said the district is mulling LED lights that are cheaper to run and last longer, but - wait for it - are more expensive up front.

But every part of the project is still subject to board approval. A final price tag is tentatively expected in mid-December.

That said, Jeye sounded committed to getting this done. District timeline? Construction running May 10 to Sept. 1, 2017.

That’s not set in stone. There is the chance of a changed financial outlook, unforeseen issues with the design, or heck, foul weather in summer.

But the next best thing to having something written in stone is having it written in black and white in the district’s facilities master plan and showing up on the board’s public agendas.

“It feels more tangible because of that,” said Piner Principal Tim Zalunardo. “It’s been laid out publicly, which I appreciate, so there is common timeline.”

The district wants this done, Jeye said.

“We are considering this a priority because it’s the right thing to do,” Jeye said.

“The Piner community has been very patient and we all believe that moving forward on this is the right thing to do for Piner and for our entire community.”

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield.