The Southlake residents who oppose installing lights for baseball and softball fields at Carroll Senior High School didn't lose their battle when the school board voted on the matter early Tuesday.
They won't lose it when the City Council hears the same complaints about what effect those lights might have on life in nearby neighborhoods.Their fight was lost before it began.It was doomed 11 years ago when the Carroll school district, with great support from the community, decided to have a single high school split between two campuses.There's a chance a case could have been made for restraints on what is now the upper-level campus had Southlake rallied behind the idea of two smaller high schools.Rather than create a second high school when population growth called for a change, the district kept juniors and seniors on the campus at 1501 Southlake Blvd. and renamed it Carroll Senior High.Freshmen and sophomores were sent to a site at 800 White Chapel Blvd., where a former junior high school was remodeled and renamed Carroll High School.One of the guiding forces behind the split-campus idea was the ability to create the community's best possible high school sports teams, with top players from throughout the district.That concept has become an unstoppable force. People from throughout the district are by now heavily invested in Carroll Senior High School and its sports teams.The people who live near the campus are a minority whose interests might be acknowledged and dealt with politely, but not at the expense of what is best for the teams.In this case, night games are a scheduling necessity for high school baseball and softball teams to avoid as much as possible pulling students out of class so they can compete.The options for lighting fields at sites away from the Carroll Senior High campus fell short of what's best and most convenient for the teams.The majority rules.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
