Santa Barbara Unified School District officials decided to shut off the irrigation of all nonplaying-field lawns last week, so every campus will start showing the impacts of California’s chronic drought.
“You’re going to see a lot of brown around a lot of schools,” district facilities director David Hetyonk said.
He said the conditions will be very noticeable when people drive by the historic campuses of Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota St., and Santa Barbara High School, 700 E. Anapamu St., although SBHS’ school colors are already green and gold.
As a pilot program, district staff have also started pulling out “ornamental turf” between classroom wings and replacing the lawns with mulch and drought-tolerant plants, with a welcome reception so far, Hetyonk said.
Some campuses have a lot of lawn area that isn’t used for sports or other student activities.
SBUSD trustees and the Santa Barbara City Council discussed the drought and shared efforts to provide after-school programs in a joint meeting last week.
Water customers in the City of Santa Barbara have cut down on usage by 22 percent, just short of the 25 percent Gov. Jerry Brown is asking for, water resources manager Joshua Haggmark said.
The school district uses recycled water for most outdoor irrigation but it’s important to cut back on usage now while the recycled water treatment plant is offline for repairs, officials said. The district has cut back its water use by 19 percent, Haggmark said.
Hetyonk said the use of “smart” irrigation controls helped the district reduce outdoor irrigation by 30 percent.
In addition to the joint effort to curtail water use, the city and the school district intersect with sports and recreation.
SBUSD and municipal fields are shared for adult sports leagues, school sports and student after-school programs, including the After-School Opportunities for Kids (A-OK!) and the Recreation After-School Program (RAP!).
The district and city run a free after-school sports league together, providing flag football, basketball and soccer for students in grades two through nine.
SBUSD took over the junior high school after-school sports leagues from the Santa Barbara Police Activities League, and has seen attendance more than triple to 853 kids, Santa Barbara Junior High Principal Lito Garcia said.
Teachers are coaches in the new program, which gives students more of a connection, and participation increased almost immediately, he added. Youths can compete in six sports, up from the two previously offered.
“If we don’t have things for these students to do, they will find something to do,” said Ben Drati, assistant superintendent of secondary education.
Taking advantage of the two money-allocating groups at Friday’s meeting, Drati and Garcia said more money would help expand the program by bringing on more coaches and creating more teams.
For the current year, the City of Goleta pitched in $13,000, Santa Barbara gave $20,000 and the district budgeted $52,000, though it ended up spending more to keep up with demand, Drati said.
Garcia said extra funding of $10,000 to $15,000 would help expand the sports offered as well as the number of students participating. Money goes toward coach and referee stipends, bus transportation to games, and equipment.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.