Parents involved with the Walton High School softball booster club asked Cobb Board of Education members Wednesday when the district will come up with a plan to bring games back on campus.
It’s been nearly four years since the fastpitch field and fieldhouse, along with tennis courts, were demolished to make way for a new classroom building.
In a public comment session at the board’s monthly meeting Wednesday night, parents said they wanted to see a “replacement plan” in two weeks.
Parent Mary Littwin said that when plans were made in 2014 for what was described as a temporary move, “we were told that in 2-3 years” there would be a new outline for an on-campus home for Walton fastpitch. “Here we are, five years later, and what we would like to know is when a replacement plan will be put into action.”
Board members and school district officials did not respond to their concerns. Parents previously have brought the issue to new Post 6 school board member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters.
The original Walton softball facility, including a fieldhouse was built in 1995, with private funding and donations that parent Kelly Landroche said cost around $160,000.
Since 2015, the Walton softball team and boys and girls tennis teams, also displaced during the construction, have played home competitions at Terrell Mill Park.
John Holland, whose daughter is a rising 8th grader with the Walton fastpitch program, said softball equipment in storage there has been vandalized.
More than anything, the parents said, they want their daughters to enjoy an on-campus environment.
Chris Andriano has had two daughters play softball at Walton. His youngest, he said, is a senior who will be part of the first class who won’t play a game on campus.
“She feels cheated by that,” he said. “Please help us to get these facilities back on campus as soon as possible.”
Financing the construction of new softball and tennis facilities for Walton teams is included on the new Cobb Education SPLOST V project list.
The main problem is a lack of space. Walton is situated on 43 acres on Bill Murdock Road, and most of that space is already being utilized.
The new classroom building opened in August 2017 and a new gym and peforming arts facility is expected to open before the 2019-20 school year.
One possible scenario would be to build a new softball facility on an athletic practice field that is used by several Walton teams.
Losing that field, fastpitch booster club president Amy Hecklinger said, “would put Walton in a less than equitable” situation compared to other high schools in Cobb County.
Another booster club parent, Suzanne Crosswhite, suggested that acquisition of nearby available land would be “proper and equitable,” and that the land “is right across the street.”
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