By JIM BUTLER

The School Board seems willing to go all in to pay for track and field improvements at ASH. The problem is after all is said and done, another $52,836 is needed.

The project is the last athletics-related ASH project under the District 62 bond issue, overlooked in initial planning but later added.

Completed are upgrades to the football, baseball and softball fields and the field house.

The track project and a classroom addition are all that remain of the ASH portion of the bond spending plan.

Bids are scheduled to be received June 18 on the classroom wing. About $2.3 million is earmarked for that 15,000 square feet add-on.

The board discussed the issue at length at its June session, eventually voting to wait for those bids before addressing the track resolution.

Members expressed reservations about jeopardizing the classroom financing in order to award the track contract, at the same time wanting to honor the covenant with voters on the bond project listing.

Of the $100 million raised, ASH got $14 million for construction after all fees., etc. were deducted.

Contingency accounts established with each category have been exhausted by specification revisions, pricing changes, etc.

If the classroom bid leaves enough for the track award, problem solved.

If not there is another possible option, though it wasn’t mentioned.

A committee of the superintendent and three District 62 members (Dr. Stephen Chapman, Wally Fall and Sandra Franklin) is to report in July its recommendation for how to revise the district maintenance fund spending plan as well as how to allocate the $2.3 million bond premium banked in late April.