AUSD Notes: Name sought for new athletic field at Alameda’s Encinal High
Alameda Unified School District board President Ryan LaLonde and Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi, Encinal High Principal Kirstin Snyder, architect John Dybczek and Senior Construction Manager Monty Patterson all said a few words at the ceremony.
They thanked Alameda voters for approving the city’s June 2022 school facilities tax Measure B; expressed appreciation to the designers, contractors and staff who brought the project into being; and extolled the benefits of having a beautiful, modern field overlooking San Francisco Bay.
The new venue features a multisport synthetic turf field, an eight-lane competition track and dedicated areas for shot put, discus, pole vault and jumping events as well as new bleachers, lights and a state-of-the-art scoreboard and public-address system. A sophisticated drainage system will also prevent puddling on the field, which reduces field closures and allows for more practices and games.
The new stadium confers a number of environmental benefits too. Using turf instead of grass, for instance, will save about 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons of water a year (enough each year to supply dozens or provide 3 to 5 million showers); eliminate mowing, fertilizers, pesticides and gas-powered equipment; reduce fuel use and chemical runoff; and avoid air emissions roughly equivalent to 100 to 150 cars per year for every year the field is in service.
Field name sought: At its Jan. 13 public meeting, the AUSD Board of Education announced the start of a formal process to name Encinal’s new field. Board Policy 7310 encourages community participation in school and facilitiy naming and renaming processes.
The steps to naming a new facility are for the board and AUSD to formally announce the search for a name; for the principal or designee to form a naming committee; and for the naming committee to review the community’s name suggestions and its top three choices to the Board of Education. The board will then hold a public hearing at one of its public meetings and vote on the name at its next public meeting afterward.
The same board policy mentioed above mandates that AUSD schools and facilities be named after individuals or entities that have made outstanding contributions to schools or the district; individuals who have made state, national or global contributions; the geographic area in which a school or building is located; or an educational value or area of curricular concern.
Students, staff, families, almuni and community members can submit names through an online survey at tinyurl.com/AUSD-EncinalFieldNames. The deadline is Feb. 20.
In other naming news, the public is invited to a ceremony at which the gymnasium scoreboard for Alameda High School’s Hornets will be formally named after Richard Bullock. The ceremony will take place in the school’s New Gym at 6:15 p.m. Feb. 6. Mr. Bullock, who was born in 1938 and died in 2022, lived in Alameda his entire life and was active in school and city athletics.
Bullock lettered in baseball and basketball at Alameda High, played Alameda Recreation and Parks Department basketball and men’s softball, coached Catholic Youth Organization basketball and Babe Ruth baseball and served as president of the Alameda High Athletic Boosters. He was called “the Voice of the Hornets” because he was also a longtime announcer for softball, football and women’s basketball at Alameda High.
Reach Susan Davis, the Alameda Unified School District’s senior manager for community affairs, at 510-337-7175 or SDavis@alamedaunified.org.