PENDLETON — Pendleton Heights High School may soon join the majority of its fellow Hoosier Heritage Conference members by moving to a synthetic turf field at its football stadium.

Brad Morrison, owner of Maumee Bay Turf Center, described the company’s turf during the South Madison Community School Corp. Board meeting on Nov. 21.

The company, based near Toledo, Ohio, installed the field at Greenfield-Central High School and recently resurfaced the Pendleton Heights High School track.

Of the eight-member HHC, Pendleton Heights, Yorktown and Shelbyville are the only schools that do not have synthetic turf fields at their football stadiums.

“It’s something the board has been discussing for several years,” Superintendent Joe Buck said. “Right now, five of the eight schools in our conference have turf, so our team has been playing on turf. Anderson High School put in turf last summer and, unless they have changed their plans, Frankton-Lapel is scheduled to have turf installed.

“It’s something we have been considering, but the board just hasn’t thought the timing has been right to put it in in the past years, but they’re strongly considering it now.”

Buck said the cost for adding synthetic turf to the Pendleton Heights gridiron, officially named John Broughton Field, is about $800,000.

Buck said he expects the board to make a decision soon.

Marijuana ordinance

Board member Bill Hutton, who is also co-chairman of the Drug Free South Madison County Coalition, spoke to fellow board members about an ordinance, which had its first reading passed at the most recent Pendleton Town Council meeting, on the town’s stance on recreational marijuana if and when it is legalized in Indiana.

“The bottom line with this ordinance is we don’t want a business opening up in the town limits of Pendleton for recreational marijuana,” Hutton said. “The ordinance that we presented does not keep anybody over the age of 21 from sitting in their house or on their porch or sidewalk in town from smoking marijuana. All it does is to keep a business from opening up within the town.”

Hutton added concerns of potential businesses opening near the town’s schools.

“We’re not talking about medical marijuana or people over the age of 21 using it, we don’t want them to be able to buy it or sell it,” Hutton added. “That’s what the community doesn’t understand right now. They’ve seen the fact that we’re wanting to ban marijuana. No, we’re wanting to make it harder for kids to get their hands on it.”

Hutton had a letter of support for the town ordinance, which he left for members to sign if they wanted to. Hutton said he planned to bring the letter to the Town of Pendleton’s a special meeting to discuss the marijuana ordinance, which was set for Wednesday, Dec. 4 (after press time).

PHMS recognizes students, contributors

As part of the board’s academic spotlight awards, Pendleton Heights Middle School Principal Jennifer Chestnut recognized six students, one for each of the school’s six pillars of character.

Ryder Lawyer (caring), Nolan Souders (citizenship), Neleh Thompson (fairness), Abigail Davidson (respect), Eli Libler (responsibility) and Parker Brown (trustworthiness) were honored at the meeting.

Chestnut also acknowledged two others for their work at the school.

• Kevin Smith, a long-time volunteer for the school’s athletic programs, received a Community Partnership Award.

• Pam Blackwell, a substitute teacher who was one of the founders of the school’s adventure camp and a co-sponsor of Fellowship of Christian Athletes was recipient of the Above and Beyond Award.

Chestnut also shared the school’s academic performance and attendance rates — both scoring higher than the state averages — to the board along with information on students’ 102 hours of community service.

Approvals

The board approved the recommendation of Amanda Keegan as a social studies teacher at the high school.

It also accepted the resignation of three instructional assistants at Pendleton Elementary School Primary: Megan Emrich, Londa Bennett and Jessica Madison.

The board approved a trip to France from March 18-26 for the high school’s French students.

They also gave the OK for East Elementary School to accept a monetary donation from Main Street Pendleton, Pendleton Christian Church, The Shirley Fund and Kiwanis Club.

Up next

The next school board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, at the Administrative Services Center.