New scoreboard purchased at Decatur High

— A new scoreboard will soon be in place at the Decatur High School football stadium.

School board members voted 3-1 to purchase the $18,000 scoreboard at the July 16 meeting. Work on the new scoreboard was under way this week, with large metal posts already in place on Monday.

The former scoreboard worked intermittently last year. It was repaired several times, at a cost of $800 for each repair visit, only to quit working again, according to superintendent Larry Ben.

Ben said the large expenditure on the athletics department generated quite a bit of discussion at the July school board meeting.

He explained that the district is not spending money on athletics while ignoring academics. While the scoreboard cost $18,000, the school recently spent $60,000 to purchase iPads and laptops for classrooms and teachers, he said.

Because Decatur has a policy that items over $5,000 must have board approval and the individual iPads and laptops did not cost that much, the purchase did not have to go before the board for approval, Ben said.

News, Pages 10 on 08/01/2012