Results were the same but the reasoning somewhat different recently when parents in two school districts — in Menlo Park and Woodside — successfully derailed plans by the school boards to install synthetic grass soccer fields meant for young children.
At Encinal School in Atherton, a grade 3-5 school in the Menlo Park City School District, parents complained about the tendency of artificial grass to get uncomfortably warm on hot days. Compared to real grass, the synthetic stuff also feels hard when fallen upon and is unfriendly to life given its hydrocarbon origins, they added.
Plans for the field fell apart April 3 when the City Council, citing neighbors’ opposition and environmental concerns, voted 3-2 against contributing $600,000 to the school district for a shared use of the field.
In the one-school K-8 district in Woodside, which is building one soccer field for middle-schoolers and another for K-3 kids, the school board voted 4-1 on June 18 to scrap a plan to use synthetic grass for both fields.
In that case, parents said they simply preferred grass for the K-3 field, considered a “green plastic carpet” an anti-ecological message to kids and other living creatures, and believed such a field to be inconsistent with Woodside values.
“I just have memories of when I walk in cut grass. It brings back memories of childhood,” said Susan Doherty, a parent of twins headed for pre-school in September. “It is what childhood is about if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where grass will grow.”
The K-3 field is also “a village green” not infrequently used during non-school hours for picnics, she said. “My children’s life is a picnic. When you have children, you always have a cooler (strap) on your shoulder.”
