Lawton Public Schools implementing plans to upgrade fields with artificial turf

Lawton Public Schools has all the pieces in place that will allow it to launch an artificial turf installation project at the city’s three high schools.

The district has crafted a lease purchase agreement with Liberty National Bank to fund the work. The Lawton City Council agreed earlier this month to waive stormwater management requirements that would have slowed start of the project by weeks. LPS Superintendent Kevin Hime warned the council of the potential delay as he asked the council to help expedite work to resurface nine athletic fields at Eisenhower High, Lawton High and MacArthur High.

Hime said the final step before beginning the projects was securing construction permits from the City of Lawton. He said the district had approached city administrators in February about the stormwater management requirement, steps city planners said are required in any construction project larger than 1 acre to help water runoff and avoid making flood damage worse.

“Most cities do not need it,” Hime said, of the stormwater and floodplain management procedures, adding he had been told in February the district wouldn’t need the permits, then was told it would. “It would take some time to do.”

Hime said the district’s concern was the permitting process would slow the beginning of the turf installation when the district needs to be completing work in time for spring and summer sports.

Interim City Manager John Ratliff said because those nine fields total more than 1 acre, earth change permits are required under city code unless the requirement is waived by the council (state and federal requirements still must be followed, he said). Ratliff said city staff was willing to grant the waiver, but still expects the district to complete a floodwater study.

Hime said the project won’t worsen flooding because “the whole field is a detention area.” He said french drains will be installed as part of the turf project, while that turf will be placed over natural materials and not asphalt.

“They will improve the drainage,” Hime said.

Hime said district athletic and maintenance staff already have begun prep work for the fields, starting at MacArthur High School on the city’s east side. He said the work and timing of the artificial turf project is important because it affects more than the high schools’ football, baseball and softball athletes. The fields also are used by high school students involved in activities such as band and soccer, and by middle school youth.

District officials said their goal is to complete some fields so they can be used for spring sports, but Hime said the district doesn’t expect to complete all nine fields before school resumes in August.

The project is viable because of the district’s lease purchase agreement with Liberty National Bank. Hime said the agreement is long-term arrangement, providing $2 million a year to the district to fund its upgrades. The district expects to repay those funds from its Redbud School Funding Grant, a program for state revenues generated by the medical marijuana tax. The program was created by the State Legislature in 2022 to bring parity to school district funding by allocating funds to districts which receive less than the state average in ad valorem money. Using those funds to repay the loan from Liberty National Bank means the district doesn’t to use a bond issue, as it has with other high-dollar projects.

Hime said the school board was specific in its desire about how Redbud funds would be used.

“Let’s do something that impacts a lot of kids. That’s what we came up with,” he said.

District officials said the fields aren’t the only major project under way.

Construction has begun to convert the old baseball field of the former Tomlinson Middle School to an ag mechanics building serving students at the district’s new Life Ready Center. Work is under way on the building’s foundation, and Hime has said the goal is to be finished within six months. Funded in large part with a grant from McMahon Foundation, the building will be designed to help agriculture and FFA students grow their skills by providing training in areas such as ag equipment, safety, maintaining and identifying tools, and using wood and metal materials and hardware.