I’ve been hearing people clamoring for artificial turf for the Keller high school fields since I’ve moved here.  I’ve also been hearing how the Keller schools are hurting for money and how they might raise the (already outrageously high) tax rates to cover the budget problems.  It looks like the turf(obnoxious registration required) has won out over common sense.

Synthetic turf will be installed at the Keller Athletic Complex before the football season begins this fall, trustees decided Monday night.

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The Keller stadium is closest to Keller High School. Synthetic turf for Central and Fossil Ridge high schools will be included in a planned September bond election, trustees decided. Until the other schools get synthetic turf, the three will share the athletic complex.

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The synthetic turf will cost $432,000 and will be purchased with funds from the district’s exclusive beverage contract with Coca-Cola.

The contract, which guarantees that only Coca-Cola products are sold on district property, has generated a discretionary fund of $919,777, said Kent Morrison, assistant superintendent of finance. The fund will generate more than $1.3 million over the 15-year term of the contract.

The remainder of the fund will be used for a districtwide curriculum audit expected to cost $75,000 and applied toward the purchase of textbooks. The district predicts that nearly 2,000 new students will attend Keller schools in the fall.

If they’ve got money to spend on freakin’ artificial turf I’d better not hear any crap about raising the tax rates due to budget problems.  They should have applied this money to real educational spending before artificial turf. 

But, then what do I know?  I don’t worship at the altar of the sport of football (for those of you who might not be from Texas, high school football is more of a religion than a sport around here, with many of the larger schools having stadiums that would be more suited to semi-pro clubs).  I just seems like I end up paying for it…