{"id":295492,"date":"2026-05-01T20:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295492\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T20:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:31:07","slug":"sacramento-school-will-get-natural-grass-instead-of-plastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/295492\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento school will get natural grass instead of plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The kids at Crocker Riverside Elementary School will not have to risk burns or staph infections when playing on the lawn, thanks to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/education\/article315486544.html\">parent pushback<\/a> against the installation of artificial turf.<\/p>\n<p>Sacramento City Unified School District announced  Thursday that the field will be redesigned to include natural grass instead of artificial turf, as the district facilities department had initially planned.<\/p>\n<p>The district was previously considering replacing the deteriorating field with artificial grass because of concerns about upkeep with an overcrowded school population. School officials said at the time that \u201cif a sustainable natural grass solution were feasible, it would already be in place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after parent outrage surrounding safety and environmental concerns, the district changed its tune. Facilities administrator Chris Ralston announced the shift in a message to families Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision reflects the strong input from the community and aligns with the District\u2019s commitment to environmentally responsible practices,\u201d Ralston wrote. \u201cIt also allows us to proactively adapt now, rather than face potential changes and added costs in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did note that the change would mean revised construction planning and a longer timeline to complete the changes. The new field will likely not be available for use until April 2027.<\/p>\n<p>At a board meeting Thursday night, parent Geoff Bardot tearfully thanked the school board for helping push for the change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the past few weeks, this board did something that does not happen in every school district \u2014 you listened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/287790450\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/050724_JV_JennahPendleton007.JPG\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Jennah Pendleton\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/287790450\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jennah Pendleton<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Jennah Pendleton is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered schools and culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in Orange County and is a graduate of the University of Oregon.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The kids at Crocker Riverside Elementary School will not have to risk burns or staph infections when playing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-295492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}