ADAMS TWP — Mars Area School Board saw early plans Tuesday, Aug. 8, to replace the high school’s aging tennis courts with five new $1.8 million courts.

“As Route 228 is being reconstructed, it’s going to push the existing courts back,” said Nancy Lonnett, principal at Pashek + MTR, a landscape architecture firm.

Lonnett and the firm was hired by the district to find space on the site to accommodate the courts, presenting “sketches” Tuesday of a proposed reorientation of the high school’s parking and courts along Route 228.

“We actually previously looked at several other sites but kind of came back to this and were hired to focus on this site,” she said.

The proposal would add two courts to the site, reconstruct the existing three, and shift parking alongside the school to accommodate a new bus lane, pickup and drop-off zone.

The firm also sketched an alternative site plan with only one additional court, saving the district an estimated $115,000.

Superintendent Mark Gross said the existing courts would last through the coming school year, but are past the end of their useful life.

“They’re almost irreparable,” he said. “They’re ‘Band-Aiding’ them right now. They’re sealing the cracks and painting the lines just to get us through, but they’re ultimately going to need replaced.”

Gross said the board hoped to make a decision on the courts before the end of the school year.

“Even though it’s not part of the enrollment and capacity study, they’re going to be on a sort of parallel time frame of making decisions,” Gross said. “Hopefully, sometime this year we’ll start to get things moving.”

Board member Megan Lenz added that the courts are and will be open to the community.

“It’s not just to benefit the tennis team; they’re courts that are being used by the community,” she said. “It’s a huge benefit, not just for sports organizations.”

With school starting Aug. 23, Gross said that the district is diligently preparing for the beginning of the year.

“With that being said, we need to have a meeting on Thursday, Aug. 17, at 1 p.m.,” he said, “because they’re working feverishly to fill some of the final positions, so every parent knows there’s a teacher in the room with their child.”

While the special meeting will be held for general board business, Gross said that it would predominantly be used to formalize new hires for the rapidly approaching 2023-24 school year.

“Time is flying,” he said.