Point Loma High School athletes urge neighbors in the community to support the building of a new stadium. Its been a hot topic for several years; homeowners in the area are against installing stadium lights.
Jeff Leff lives a block away from Point Loma High School. He says the school will rent out the stadium to outside groups, commercializing his neighborhood. “They’re commercializing the school for the benefit of the district at the expense of the neighborhood,” said Leff. He added he fears the renovation will bring in outside traffic, trash and noise to the area.
The school's principal, Hans Becker explains the new project will benefit his students. He says his students are his primary focus. “To say that we're going to rent it out to outside groups, we don’t even have time for our own groups to use it,” said Becker. Becker claims Point Loma High School has more athletic teams than any other school in the district. And that contrary to other schools that have several fields, Point Loma High is limited. “We only have one athletic field, “said Becker. “The competition of amount of kids that can actually use this field is great.”
Becker stressed the school has permission to light 18 official events during the school year. Neighbors in the area argue Becker is not taking after-school practice sessions into account. The school will present a written environment impact report to the school board on Tuesday. Those against the renovations say their concerns were not considered in the report.
