“On Thursday, Oct. 8, the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) held a meeting to discuss a proposal to install permanent lights at high school football stadiums. If approved, the proposal would apply to Aragon, San Mateo, Hillsdale, Mills, and Capuchino — five out of the six schools in the district.
Parents from high schools in the district have advocated for the lights since the end of the 2014-2015 school year. David Solomon, parent of an Aragon High School student, Margie Tostado, parent of a Hillsdale High School student, and Alan Reynaud, parent of a San Mateo High School student, teamed up with athletic directors across the district to create a Change.org petition to the SMUHSD.
Aragon athletic director and football coach Steve Sell says, “[The parents] presented the petition at the school board meeting [on Oct. 8], and this new way of creating petitions was really effective. Almost 1,000 people signed the petition, and they were able to show the school board that [installing permanent lights] is something that matters to the community.”
Junior football player James Kilcullen says, “If the lights are installed, later in the season when it gets darker we won’t have to cut practice short. And earlier in the year when it’s 90 degrees, we won’t have to practice at 3 o’clock in the sun.”
The installment of stadium lights will affect more students than just those on the football team.
Football coach Steven Henderson says, “More that half of Aragon students are involved in sports. Many of those sports—such as soccer and lacrosse—rely on the field for practice and games.”
The wide array of students that use the field for sports often creates issues with scheduling.
Senior soccer player Alex Carrillo says, “The varsity soccer team has practice and games earlier in the day, but junior varsity is on the field later. JV has less time for practice before it gets dark, and some of their games have been cut short because it’s too dark to play.”
Senior baseball player Alex Athanacio adds, “Installing permanent lights would make the field more suitable for soccer players so they don’t have to play on the baseball field. That field isn’t meant for soccer, and [the soccer players] ruin the outfield grass.”
Certain members of the community also find issue with the outdated quality of the current lights.
Henderson says, “The lights are not very effective in illuminating the field, and there are dark spots during games. Also, the lights are loud, and because they run on diesel, we’ll have players on the sidelines trying to catch their breath and breathing in the burning fuel.”
Engineering and chemistry teacher Arron Apperson adds, “From a climate change perspective, any time you burn diesel, you produce greenhouse gases. Aragon is one of the leaders in using solar panels so using diesel lights seems like going backwards on what we’re accomplishing. New permanent lights would be connected to the California power grid, a large percentage of which is energy created with renewable sources.”
However, in spite of the inconveniences nonpermanent stadium lights may cause, some believe installing permanent lights would do more harm than good.
Sell says, “Some residents near Hillsdale are unhappy with [the proposal] because they think that with permanent lights, the games would go later. Certain residents have had bad experiences with kids littering on their lawns and driving around the area late at night.”
He adds, “Another fear neighbors have, and I think this is a legitimate concern, is that the district will rent the field to outside groups such as AYSO. At the school board meeting, the Aragon neighbors were extremely rational. They recognize the need for lights for the students, but if the lights are on, they want Aragon kids to be under those lights.”
The issue of stadium lights is especially controversial because many residents of the area surrounding Aragon are students at the school.
Senior Morgan Tietz, who lives in the Aragon neighborhood, says, “No matter what, there are always going to be lights and noise if you live near a high school. There are still going to be Friday night football games, and people should have considered that before they moved here because for most [neighbors], Aragon was here before they were.”
On the other hand, Tietz believes that renting out the field to outside groups is a less straightforward issue.
She says, “You can rent the field out during the day, but nighttime games shouldbe prioritized for students. Also, the neighbors should be shown that the proceeds from the rent are going to make our school better and that [renting] will benefit the community.”
Henderson adds, “The community around the school would benefit tremendously because with the lights on, many families could use the field and track in the evenings to do fitness. We have upgraded other facilities around Aragon, and having the field up to par with the other parts of the school is the next logical step.”
Taking into account the various perspectives on the lights presented at the Oct. 8 meeting, the SMUHSD board voted on the plan.
Sell says, “The plan cleared a major hurdle at the last meeting which was funding. If the district approves it, we could have permanent lights installed by as early as 2017.””
