The Tulare City School District (TCSD) officially opened its new Outdoor Education Complex with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The new facility, located at 2890 S. Foster Dr., Tulare, features eight soccer fields on 26 acres of green space with strategically placed lighting to accommodate night games. There is a new parking lot with about 100 spaces, and a building with restrooms that includes a concession stand. Another building for storage is still under construction.
“Today marks the grand opening of our outdoor educational complex, a place designed to give our students and our community a much-needed space to compete in organized sports and hold other community events,” District Superintendent Ira Porchia said at the Jan. 27 event. “This space has also given us the infrastructure for future projects as we make plans to keep up with the growth of a bigger and greater Tulare.”
The project, which was constructed on district property, cost about $10.5 million, according to David Lawrence, TCSD director of maintenance, operations, and transportation, who said the land had been a ponding basin.
“This expands on the notion of the city of Tulare as a place to work, play, and prosper, especially for our schools and generations to come,” Tulare Mayor Patrick Isherwood said. “To everyone who helped make this happen, congratulations.”
Certificates to commemorate the event were presented by representatives of the offices of Rep. Vince Fong, Rep. David Valadao, state Sen. Shannon Grove, state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, and Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo.
“There were no sidewalks, no power pulled in, no lighting, nothing,” Lawrence said after the ceremony. “Everything had to be brought in. It was designed and all the infrastructure was done – water, sewer, electrical, internet, bus drop-off, fencing.”
The new complex gives the school district a place to host playoff tournaments at the end of sports seasons.
“We were never able to host them here before because we only had one field, and they play multiple games at a time,” Lawrence said. “We’re now able to offer our kids the opportunity to have a playoff game here and not have to go to other places to play the sport.”
The fields can accommodate sports other than soccer.
“We’ll transition the fields for the girls’ football,” Lawrence said. “We’re also looking at bringing volleyball courts out here for the boys.”
The new complex will also accommodate community events – when it is available.
“It’s always geared to our students first,” Lawrence said. “This is for our students to have a place to participate, have a beautiful facility to come to. We will incorporate things that we can for the community, like if there’s a game or some tournament, if it can work out.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare opens new $10.5M outdoor sports complex with 8 soccer fields
Reporting by Steve Pastis, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
