Augie Fontanetta
New Trier High School’s new Athletic Director Augie Fontanetta hopes to see extensive upgrades and newly constructed state-of-art athletic facilities at the east and west campuses, a vision he presented at the October 17 District 203 board of education meeting.
Fontanetta was hired as athletic director in January 2016, having previously worked as a teacher, coach and advisor at New Trier from 1994 to 2008. At the meeting he outlined a long-range, four-phase plan for state of the art facilities that can better accommodate the over 3,000 students that participate across three seasons of sports each year.
The first phase projected for 2017-2018 addressed more immediate deferred maintenance projects. Those include replacing the fencing around the perimeter of the tennis courts, resurfacing and repairing the track at the Winnetka campus and re-surfacing the competition tennis courts at the Winnetka campus.
But Fontanetta’s vision for phases two through four included significant projects that ranged from an extensive renovation of the Northfield campus football stadium to accommodate more fans, to a potential rehabilitation or reconstruction of the Gates Gymnasium, a new field house and a competition pool at the Winnetka campus. The field house and pool were estimated to cost nearly $55 million alone.
Gates Gymnasium was built in 1928 and according to Fontanetta does not meet the needs of the school presently. He envisioned potentially restoring the original building or demolishing it and rebuilding to include a new fitness and weight training facility, athletic conference room, kinetic wellness classrooms, as well as a new entrance with a Hall of Fame. While Fontanetta doesn’t have an estimate for a completely new building, he estimated an addition at about $13 million.
Fontanetta pointed to other schools in New Trier’s athletic conference, that have superior athletic facilities and fewer students participating in their programs. For example, he showed pictures of Deerfield High School’s new swimming pool, Loyola Academy’s stadium and Glenbrook North’s fitness center.
The board viewed the presentation as a launching point for a discussion of the long-range vision for the district’s athletic facilities. “This is the very beginning of a very long conversation about a vision,” board member Alan Dolinko said.
Dolinko further noted that it might be time for the board to reassess all of the district’s facility needs. “It’s probably time to take another long range 10 to 20 year look at the facilities needs on both campuses so that whatever is done fits together, is done in sequence and done in a way that makes sense,” Dolinko said.
But some of Fontanetta’s ideas are likely to be addressed sooner rather than later. The board viewed phase one projects that included repairs and deferred maintenance something that should be taken up at the next board meeting.
Board President Greg Robitaille was pleased with Fontanetta’s presentation that he viewed as a conversation starter on the topic. “This will start an on-going dialogue,” Robitaille said.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for November 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Northfield campus.