Outdoor Athletics Facilities-Community Survey and Next Steps

Community-led Outdoor Athletic Advisory Committee Delivers Unanimous Recommendation to School Board; Community Survey to Follow

After nearly two decades of community interest in improving Mount Vernon School District’s outdoor athletic facilities, a milestone was reached last week: the district’s Community-led Outdoor Athletic Advisory Committee presented its final report and unanimous recommendation to the Mount Vernon School Board.

Committee Chair Flora Lucatero and committee member Tony Tewalt delivered the presentation at the board’s September 16 meeting, on behalf of a committee of more than 25 community members, parents, faculty, coaches, district staff, and local civic leaders who met throughout spring 2026 to study the district’s outdoor athletic facilities.

A Long-Standing Community Priority
“Mount Vernon’s athletic facilities have fallen far behind those of our peer districts,” the committee noted in its presentation. “It’s no one’s fault — but it is our responsibility and our opportunity to address.”

For nearly 20 years, community members have raised concerns about the state of the district’s outdoor athletic facilities. The committee’s work, convened by Superintendent Dr. Vergara, was the district’s most comprehensive effort to date to study the issue and chart a path forward. As the committee emphasized in its findings, students and the community can no longer afford to wait while facilities continue to fall further behind those of comparable schools.

“As a parent, I’ve watched my own kids compete on facilities that just don’t measure up to what other communities offer their students,” said Lucatero. “Sitting on this committee made it clear this wasn’t about creating a wish list — it’s about safety, access, and giving our student-athletes and this community what they’ve waited far too long for.”

What the Committee Found
The committee’s review identified a number of significant gaps between Mount Vernon’s outdoor athletic facilities and those of similarly sized schools in the district’s athletic league and region, including:

No covered stadium seating — Mount Vernon High School is one of the largest high schools in the region without a covered stadium.
Inability to host graduation on site — increasing costs for families to travel and decreasing local economic impact.
Limited turf capacity — a single turf field is being asked to absorb physical education, football, soccer, lacrosse, and community use, accelerating wear and driving up replacement costs.
Only one all-weather track, limiting student and community access and hastening costly surface replacement.
Outdated, inefficient stadium lighting and a lack of additional field lighting that severely limits access for students and the community.
ADA accessibility challenges at the current high school site.
Inadequate storage, forcing programs to rely on shipping containers.
Facilities that fall short of the standard needed to host regional tournaments, increasing travel costs and missing the positive economic impact tournaments bring to local businesses.

The committee was charged with comparing MVSD’s facilities to peer schools, researching funding mechanisms used by other districts, and developing pragmatic, durable capital improvement solutions prioritized around: student and spectator safety, facility deficiencies, student access, community use, current and future programming needs, and local economic impact.

The Committee’s Recommendation
The committee’s work concluded with a unanimous recommendation. Improvements under consideration include a covered stadium and ADA-accessible bleacher upgrade, new restroom, concession, and storage facilities, a stadium lighting retrofit, a turf multi-purpose field with lighting, and a six-lane middle school track.
The committee presented the board with two funding approaches:

Option 1 — $14.45 million (a 28-cent capital levy over six years): covered stadium/bleachers, restroom/concession/storage facilities, stadium lighting retrofit, and a turf multi-purpose field with lighting.
Option 2 — $17.95 million (a 34-cent capital levy over six years): all Option 1 improvements plus a six-lane middle school track.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend Option 1 to the district, while also recommending that the district engage the community on the viability of Option 2. The 26-cent levy, if approved, would cost taxpayers about $140/yr (or about $12/month) for a $540,000 assessed value home. For option 2, the cost would be about $184/yr (or about $15/month).

Next Steps: Community Survey
The recommendation was well received by the school board, which has asked the district to survey the community to determine which of the two options best aligns with community priorities.
“This recommendation reflects nearly two decades of community voices, and I’m deeply grateful to Flora, Tony, and every member of this committee for the time and care they put into this work,” said Dr. Vergara, Superintendent of Mount Vernon School District. “This is exactly the kind of community-led process that will help us make the right decision together, and I look forward to hearing directly from our community through the upcoming survey.”

The survey launches on September 22 and closes on October 4. Community members, staff, and families are encouraged to weigh in. The School Board will review the results at their October 7 meeting and determine next steps based on feedback. The survey can be accessed by visiting the district’s website, through the following link or via the attached QR code.

Click here to get to the Survey

About the Community-led Outdoor Athletic Advisory Committee
The Outdoor Athletic Advisory Committee was convened by the Mount Vernon School District Superintendent to study current outdoor athletic and activity facility conditions across the district’s middle schools and high school, compare them to peer districts, and develop pragmatic, equitable capital improvement recommendations.