SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/560546
34 SportsTurf | September 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com THE SPORTSTURF INTERVIEW: MIKE TARANTINO, CSFM THE INTERVIEW SPORTSTURF: What are your biggest challenges working for a school district? How are you meeting them? Tarantino: Without a doubt it is budgeting. Since the "Great Recession" school districts have seen their budgets slashed. My departments lost 30% of our workforce and millions in dollars for supplies, contracted work and project work. However, it is important to keep your eye on why we doing what we do, educat- ing children. With that said, money needs to be directed to the classroom: teachers, teaching supplies, textbooks and providing a safe, orderly and aesthetically pleasing environment. My sports fields are classrooms that provide the tool for PE teachers and coaches to educate children and these sports fields need to safe, orderly and aesthetically pleasing. I have been fortunate working here in the Poway Unified School District as they understand and support what I do to make the sports fields the best they can be for the benefit of children. There of course are other issues: drought, storm water regulations, pesticide use and renovations that loom large; however, most can be managed through proper budgeting. Meeting these challenges is not all that difficult with proper planning. For my high profile fields, I rely on my past Player Condition Indexes (PCI). When performing the PCI I record past practices, weather conditions and materials used. This information allows me to know what has worked and what hasn't and to budget accordingly. A working relationship with suppliers and contractors as well as internet use is another valuable tool for keeping up to date on new technology or products that provide me with information to include in my budgeting process. SPORTSTURF: How has social media impacted your work? Tarantino: It has increased my workload. Our work is con- stantly under scrutiny and now is available to the world to scrutinize! So now I must monitor emails and social media to see if there is a problem with any of the fields. I have created a social media "friends" group to be proactive if there is a concern my staff or the community or I have on particular fields or for field closures. And yes, it also goes out via email to our users as well. With this said, social media and email also provides me with information that I may not know about, i.e., events not posted on our facilities calendar or work we may have missed or sub- par maintenance. SPORTSTURF: What are the most important changes you've seen in sports turf management since you have been an STMA member? Tarantino: The use of social media, apps and the growing pro- fessionalism in our industry. I discussed social media and what that has done to change the way I work and communicate. With smart devices (is that an oxymoron?) and the use of the internet information to help problem solve, help is now literally in the palm of your hand! You no longer need to go back to the office or the shop to grab a reference book to problem solve you can do it right on the field, and if you determine the problem and need materials to remedy the problem the material can be ordered from the field. With my years in STMA this organization has always strived to be the very best and to promote our members as professionals. It is so important that professionalism is represented in our core values, mission statement and in our credo, "experts on the field, partners in the game." Our membership numbers keep growing, attendance at the annual conference keeps growing and the need for networking and education is very much in demand. It is important that our membership stays current on new technologies, new products, climactic conditions, and federal and state regulations. We also must include synthetic turf fields and the maintenance they require, and to be able to discuss synthetic turf field concerns to their communities and employ- ers; in other words, be professional. Editor's note: This month in "The SportsTurf Interview," we hear from Mike Tarantino, CSFM, director of maintenance and operations, Poway (CA) Unified School District. Tarantino is a long-time STMA advocate and former Board of Director member who has led the work on several important association initiatives. Mike Tarantino, CSFM