High school baseball is set to start this spring and the Billings school board approved some extracurricular accounts that will pay for the first three seasons.
The Advocates for Billings Baseball posted about improvements to the field at Central Park on Central Avenue and 8th Street West.
The Education Foundation for the Billings Public Schools will hold the money donated for baseball teams at Senior, West, and Skyview high schools.
The advocates have raised more than 60 percent of the goal of $506,000 for the first three seasons.
“Scheels has generously donated the equipment for our teams to be able to practice,” said Kelly McCandless, the foundation’s executive director.
McCandless said uniforms will be purchased and preparation and maintenance done on the fields.
The advocates have already raised enough for the first season.
“They've got the plan in place,” McCandless said. “So all systems are go.”
The board’s budget committee came up with two campaigns for fixing Daylis Stadium: “Rennovating Daylis for Tomorrow” at a cost of $10.5 million and “Rennovating Daylis for the Future” at a cost of $25 million.
The board voted on Tuesday that the district would potentially contribute the lesser of 20 percent of the project or $5 million.
The foundation is also collecting donations that would be contributed to Daylis.
“It makes sense for us to sort of take some of these bigger projects off the district's plate,” McCandless said. “Hold those funds and then turn them over when the projects are ready to have done what the district does, what they're experts in.”
McCandless emphasized that donors may take a tax write-off when contributing money to the non-profit education foundation.
