Major upgrade completed at Union High School's football stadium

Over the summer, Union High School's football stadium got a million dollar upgrade. And it's giving Union fans something to cheer about. <br><br>They rallied around their championship football

Thursday, September 4th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Over the summer, Union High School's football stadium got a million dollar upgrade. And it's giving Union fans something to cheer about.

They rallied around their championship football team Thursday. This year the Redskins will play on brand-new turf and sport a state-of-the-art video vision scoreboard. Several area high schools including, Jenks and Owasso, have traded grass for turf. But the new scoreboard is unique to Union; itâ€™s the only high school in Oklahoma with a scoreboard like this one.

The turf cost about $420,000 and was paid for out of the district's exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. The scoreboard was also paid for with soft drink money and several local sponsors including Southcrest Hospital.

The new additions to the 10,000-seat stadium come at a time when Union is putting the finishing touches on its new multipurpose activity center. The U-MAC isn't open yet, but is scheduled to be finished by November. Union officials say the new facility is cutting edge, exactly where they try to be with everything.

They also say they're not investing in extra-curricular activities at the expense of academics. Union Superintendent Dr Cathy Burden, "we couldnâ€™t have used this kind of money to pay teacher salaries what this gives us an opportunity to do is save our general fund money so we can support teachers in terms of salary and more teachers."

Dr Cathy Burden says the district is actually planning to hire about 20 more teachers to keep up with growing enrollment.