No Board of Education member addressed the question directly. Trustee Nancy Kaplan, of Merrick, whose son is a quarterback for the Kennedy football team, said she regularly attends games on Bellmore-Merrick’s fields and has watched as conditions have deteriorated over the past year.

“It’s disgraceful,” Kaplan said. “We have to find a conclusion to this … Let’s try to come up with a solution.”

John Pinto, of Merrick, a former Bellmore-Merrick Central District trustee and a synthetic-turf proponent, said grass is not growing on the fields, in part, because they have not been properly watered. He spoke of Merrick Avenue Middle School, where he said the sprinkler system has not been working. Much of the field is now dirt.

According to knowledgeable sources, the district also did not lay down special blankets on the fields as early as previous years to keep seeds warm through the winter, allowing them to germinate and grow before the spring sports season begins. School officials did not say why.

The Bellmore and Merrick Heralds conducted an informal poll on Facebook, asking for people’s thoughts on synthetic-turf fields. The question received 74 likes and 83 comments, 81 of them in favor of synthetic turf. The majority of respondents were Mepham parents and student-athletes, many of whom said they feared field conditions were unsafe.

A Facebook page, “Bellmore Merrick Parents and Students in Favor of Turf Fields,” has been created. At press time, it had 1,145 members. A number of the parents said they planned to wear red and speak out for artificial-turf fields at the June 5 Board of Education meeting.

The cost factor

In 2009, the Central District Board of Education formed a committee comprising school officials, parents and community residents to examine options to repair and maintain all of the district’s fields. The committee offered recommendations to the superintendent, Dr. Henry Kiernan. After nearly a half-year of deliberations, the committee recommended a better maintenance regimen rather than artificial turf, citing cost as the primary reason against synthetic fields.