Community members attended the Uintah School District budget hearing on Wednesday, May 30th, at the Vernal Middle School Auditorium to share their concerns about spending and the budget. On May 9th, the school board unanimously approved a $6 million dollar joint capital project to update the high school auditorium as well as add turf to certain athletic fields. Last year the school district was hit with an audit from the Office for Civil Rights in which the district was told that the high school auditorium did not meet ADA requirements and would have to be brought up to current standards. “So when this became part of our discussions, we looked at combining the auditorium project with the ball fields,” shares Uintah School District Business Administrator Derek Anderson. “We found that we could save money on the entire project by doing the ball fields at the same time as the auditorium because we would save on architecture fees and construction by using the same crew.” Anderson says the decision to have turf installed had to do with the durability and better payback in the long run than sod, stating that turf has a 10 year payback. The concerned community members expressed their opposition to these projects and other spending in the district during Wednesday’s meeting. James Drollinger was among those opposed, expressing that he and the others in attendance were there to show the school board that it matters what they do and that the community cares. Frustrated that the projects were moving forward, Drollinger expressed that the only recourse the community has is to vote in new members to the school board.
