Leonardtown, Maryland — After months of waiting, Leonardtown High School began construction on their new lawn on November 29.

For those who don’t know, the St. Mary County Board of Education approved a $300,000 contract with Queenstown Sports Ground Consultants on August 11, 2021 for the design of artificial turf grounds at Chopticon, Great Mills and Leonardtown High Schools.

Scott Smith, the head of SMCPS, mentioned that lawns will be opened here in the 2021-2022 school year. He even wants to allocate more funds to complete the project as soon as possible.

In an emergency, the board hopes to minimize funding by building these fields at the same time, so if Leonardtown had already started, one might not expect it to be longer before Chopticon and Great Mills follow suit.

In addition, the lawn field construction of Leonardtown High School marked a turning point in southern Maryland. This effort has provided some Calvert County citizens with additional influence when looking for lawns in schools.

"As St. Mary County gets the lawn, I think it's time to push. We have a great sports team in Calvert County. We have won many state championships. We have won many regional championships,” Patuxent High School Sports Director Kei Said Powell. This statement was issued before Northern High School won their first state football championship in their department last month.

As previously reported, many schools want lawn fields because of their return on investment. Although they are expensive at first, lawn fields require less maintenance and cost.

"Although the upfront cost of the lawn field is high, it can provide greater value in the long run. The maintenance of the lawn field is much less than that of natural grass, and the number of hours that can be arranged on the lawn exceeds that of the natural grass. This makes the lawn field more effective. The hourly usage cost is greatly reduced," a citizen said in a petition requesting Calvert County to obtain a lawn field.

Although lawns can be seen as an investment, some people criticized the move, saying that schools should worry about more important things.

"Schools need heating and air, among other things," a citizen commented on the parent page of Leonardtown High School.

However, as many Southern Maryland sports teams have won championships and benefited from them, it is difficult for Southern Maryland schools to consider this.

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