It all started when the oddly shaped track at Santa Barbara High’s Peabody Stadium was deemed unfit to run on because of cracks and potholes in its hard, paved surface. Thus began 12 years of visions, planning, fundraising, and construction that resulted in the complete transformation of the 1924 vintage stadium and track into what SBHS principal Elise Simmons called “a state-of-the-art sports complex” during a dedication ceremony last Saturday.
The costs were significant — $39 million and four years when the stadium was off limits to Dons athletic teams — but this fall, the investment will begin to pay off with the practices, the games (football, soccer, lacrosse), the spirit-inducing bands and cheerleaders, the workouts, the track meets, and the assemblies that generate strong bodies, aspirations, friendships, and loyalties that students will carry on for the rest of their lives.
Attesting to the value of that experience were 900 donors, most of them SBHS alumni, who supported the renovation. A partnership of the Foundation for Santa Barbara High (represented by director Katie Jacobs and capital campaign chair Greg Tebbe) and the Santa Barbara Unified School District (president Kate Ford and past and present superintendents Cary Matsuoka and Hilda Maldonado) pulled everything together.
