By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The School Committee is looking to raise additional revenue by implementing new sponsorship opportunities at Lynnfield High School fields’ complex.
School Committeeman Jamie Hayman said during an April 16 meeting that the panel began discussing potential sponsorship opportunities at LHS’ fields’ complex in 2018.
“It was sponsorships around the fields specifically and not indoors, with the idea of getting some major sponsors to bring in some additional revenue,” said Hayman. “We made a little bit of progress, but it ultimately got derailed by the pandemic. We have had some fits and starts since then.”
Hayman said a working group has begun discussing sponsorship opportunities at the LHS fields’ complex. In addition to Hayman, the working group is comprised of
School Committee member Jim Dillon, Recreation Commission Chair Mike Cuddy, Town Administrator Rob Dolan, Department of Public Works Director John Scenna and Finance Committee Chair Tom Kayola.
“There is a lot of energy to get this started again,” said Hayman during the meeting. “The intent of this is to leverage public-private partnerships to frankly bring in revenue to the district. Given all that is going on, I think the community would appreciate that.”
Hayman said a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) would need to be developed for the School Department, Lynnfield Recreation and the town, which he said would outline a “monetary split.”
“That would be 75 percent towards the field replacement fund via Rec, which also benefits the schools,” said Hayman. “Twenty-five percent would go directly to the schools. We want to demonstrate an effort to take some burden off of the taxpayers. We would specifically be looking to identify a small number of sponsorship opportunities at the fields for major sponsors. We are talking about things like the field, the scoreboard, Snack Shack and the press box.”
Hayman said local officials do not want the LHS fields’ complex to resemble “a NASCAR track.”
“We don’t want a bunch of banners up all over the place,” said Hayman. “There is a lot of momentum and there has been some interest expressed by a high potential prospect, but we need to get a little bit further. The thing that we have to think about and we need to work quickly as a committee is this working group does not want to put in a lot of work if we don’t have a clear policy around sponsorships in place.”
Hayman recommended that the Policy Subcommittee present a “draft provisional policy” during the School Committee’s meeting before Spring Town Meeting on Tuesday, April 29.
“When I say provisional, it would be good for one-year at which time it would expire if it were not extended or made permanent by the School Committee,” said Hayman. “We could then vote at the May 6 meeting, which would give us a month runway to try and get something done before a potential (Proposition 2 ½) ballot vote. I think the interest is there and we have the right group together to really get something done. We just need to make sure we have the right guardrails in place.”
Hayman suggested that Superintendent Tom Geary work with Lynnfield Recreation and the town to develop the MOU “so that we have a documented split of the revenue and how that is going to work.”
School Committee member Kate DePrizio said the Policy Subcommittee was going to discuss the fields’ sponsorship policy on April 17.
In response to a question from School Committee Chair Kristen Grieco Elworthy, Hayman said the money that the schools receive from field sponsorships “would be unrestricted.”
“It would go into our budget,” said Hayman. “For those who don’t know, we are replacing the main stadium field this summer. That money has all been allocated. It has been collected through user fees and rentals. That amount has been exhausted.”
Hayman said the rest of the fields at LHS will have to be replaced “over time.”
“Being able to build that up as much as possible without having to go to the town and taxpayers is something we have an obligation to do,” said Hayman.
Elworthy asked if the School Committee will be able to sign off on which companies will be allowed to sponsor the fields.
Hayman said yes.
“The guidelines that we need to put in need to be clear about what we can and can’t have,” said Hayman. “We are all in agreement we don’t want tobacco and alcohol companies or vapes. We need to have some guidelines that align with our values as a school district and as a community. I think the other thing we should probably think about is what is the dollar amount threshold that we need to go over before it would require School Committee approval.”