One stadium for two schools works best

This is a rebut from Burbank High School Principal Bruce Osgood in reply of an articile ("A home field that isn't home," Aug.29)

MAILBAG: One stadium for two schools works best

Burbank Leader
Published: Friday, September 25, 2009

The students and staff at Burbank High School are thrilled to have a new athletic field and track, and are grateful to the partnership of the city of Burbank and the Burbank Unified School District that made this dream a reality.This durable state-of-the-art facility provides a safe and lasting play surface for our physical education classes, our high school teams and for community members as well.

A recent editorial (“A home field that isn’t home,” Aug. 29) lamented the fact that this field would not host home games for our varsity football team. While we would agree that it would be wonderful to have home football games, to suggest that this was overlooked or ignored is not true.

Burbank High School sits on a relatively small plot of land — less than 15 acres. If you have toured the facility, you would agree that the space was remarkably well planned and effectively utilized. When we discussed the new field, we investigated ways to add seating capacity, but no practical solution could be found.

Like many other districts, including our neighbors in Glendale, it was decided that one stadium would continue to host both high schools. This made both fiscal and architectural sense. With the upcoming renovation of Memorial Stadium at John Burroughs High School, we will have a tremendous venue for our varsity and junior varsity teams.

We are fortunate that we live in a city that is so deeply committed to its citizens of all ages that it has built two magnificent stadiums for football, soccer, track and community use. We, in the schools, are fortunate to have a governing board that has the vision and persistence to see these projects to completion.

Also, there is a new restroom facility at field level just behind right field of the baseball stadium. Our physical education programs, our athletic teams and our community teams have a great place to practice and play. In school and community terms, that’s a big win.

BRUCE OSGOODBurbank
EDITOR’S NOTE: Osgood is principal of Burbank High School.