Santa Barbara High Receives $5 Million Donation for New Stadium

Source: Santa Barbara Unified School District

Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education accepted a five-million-dollar donation from the Foundation for Santa Barbara High School (Foundation for SBHS) for the Peabody Grandstand Replacement, Stadium Renovation, and Site Utilities Upgrade Project.

“The Peabody Stadium capital campaign was a historic success for the Foundation,” said Greg Tebbe, Peabody Stadium Renovation Campaign Chair and current member of the Board of Directors. “We were deeply impressed by the magnitude of support from Santa Barbara High School Dons of all ages, including graduates, notable alumni, foundations, corporations and student organizations. Their
contributions helped leverage funding to ensure the success of this project.”

The Santa Barbara High School Peabody Grandstand Replacement, Stadium Renovation, and Site Utilities Upgrade Project is expected to be completed by April 2019. The project is funded by dollars restricted to facility projects and by the Foundation for Santa Barbara High School, Santa Barbara community bond measures, developer fees, and leveraged State of California seismic mitigation funds.

“We could not have done this project without community support and fundraising efforts like that of the Foundation for SBHS,” said Cary Matsuoka, Superintendent of Santa Barbara Unified School District. “Thanks to the efforts of the Foundation, we are able to leverage state funding to enhance athletic competition and physical education opportunities for students. Once complete, the stadium will be a place for the community; a venue for students and families to learn important life lessons in sportsmanship, teamwork, and ethics.”

The Peabody Grandstand Replacement, Stadium Renovation, and Site Utilities Upgrade Project design includes:

• Constructing a new 2,300 seat concrete grandstand and press box. This necessary replacement will bring the nearly 100-year- old facility into compliance with current State and regulatory building and accessibility codes.
• Expand the athletic sports field to create a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) regulation, synthetic surface track and artificial turf field to support competitive athletic events and daily physical education activities during school.
• Replace two failing storm drain conduits to allow for continued pass through of municipal storm water systems and to mitigate ponding or flooding within the stadium and surrounding residential areas during storm events.
• Modernize and replace the stadium sound and lighting systems for energy efficiency and to mitigate impacts on areas outside of the stadium.

For project updates and photos, please visit: www.facebook.com/peabodystadium/