REPAIRS SET FOR SCHOOL FIELDS MISSING STORM DRAIN HAS HINDERED DRYING AFTER RAIN.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Last year's extraordinary rainfall left its mark in many places, but none was nearly as woeful than at high school athletic fields.

Flooded fields caused some games to be canceled or rescheduled for sunny days that seemed nowhere in sight. Gone were the marching bands, mascots and cheerleaders. All the rah, rah, rah had succumbed to rain.

Hopes were higher at Santa Clarita high schools, where the William S. Hart Union High School District had installed synthetic turf two years ago on four campuses, promising stronger and better playing fields. A $14 million renovation in 2004 brought synthetic turf to stadiums at Canyon and Valencia and practice fields at Hart and Saugus high schools.

But even those fields have had problems.

Schools found out the hard way during rains last year that a piece of the storm drain was left out of the architect's plans when the fields were designed.

As a result, heavy rains can take up to 10 hours to drain from the multimillion-dollar grounds, much slower than the anticipated one hour. In some cases, runoff from the synthetic turf flooded nearby fields, because it couldn't percolate into the ground fast enough.

Now the district is stepping back onto the fields, this time to adjust the drains so rain will slide down them in no time flat.

The school board on Wednesday approved $20,000 for these changes and to move electrical boxes near the fields to higher ground so they don't flood and short out when rain strikes.

Repairs could start in May and should be completed in July, said Rory Livingston, assistant superintendent for business services.

Livingston said that despite troubles with the draining system, the district has not had to cancel games.

``During last year's rain, they flooded and it took time for them to drain,'' Livingston said. ``But every game was still played on them.''

Even with fields taking a few hours to drain, Livingston said, students can play on them a lot quicker than if they were made of grass, which usually has a 48-hour waiting period after heavy rains. That's because the muddy fields can get easily ripped up.

In January 2005, the board approved $2.3 million for repairs to the four high school athletic fields. In all, about $16.2 million has been spent on the fields, from installation to repairs.

Sue Doyle, [phone]

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com