Our town is considering putting up a cellular transmission tower on school property. Anyone have this happen in their schools? To say parents are unhappy is putting it mildly. Your insights/info would be most welcome!

I would ask your superintendent if they are receving $$$ to allow this, and if so, how much, and from which company,and for what will the funds be earmarked, and how are parents guarenteed the funds will be used as proposed. just as background data.

all the other things surrounding towers near kids, needs to be checked out. we have not had this happen, parents will NOT allow towers to go up even in thier own neighborhoods, and i am sure would storm the board meetings, if one were planned for the neigborhood school. good luck.

As a former radio station engineer, maybe I can shed a little light on this.

The town can't be the entity that permits the cell company to raise the tower, unless the town owns the property. If there is an ordinance relative to such things the town may have the authority to prevent it, but the landowner has to enter into an agreement with the cell company. And it always involves money.

The land is either sold or leased (usually leased) to the cell company for a term of many years. There are many details to consider, such as lease renewal time and terms (more money), etc.

The cell company must do studies on safety (measuring the radiation levels to determine how far the tower can be from a public structure, where the fence has to be, etc). Note: By radiation I'm referring to radio energy - the same type as a regular radio station, TV station, etc. emits; NOT radioactive energy as in nuclear. There is NO such energy from a cell tower.

They also have to make a study of interference with existing radio & TV stations, interference, both radio-related and flight path related to nearby airports, and a few other considerations. All that is very involved, heavily regulated, and expensive - very expensive. One of the things that those studies determine is public safety. When I was still in the business (8 years ago) that was an area that money still could not "buy their way around".

If the school district owns the property, then I would suspect that the parents would have a considerable voice in the matter, to the point of possibly being able to stop it. After, wouldn't the school board have to approve it; and isn't the school board elected?

I can't offer any specific advice, and especially no legal advice, but you may be able to get more info from a local radio or TV station if you have one. Call and ask to speak with the chief engineer or station manager.

Usually when those studies are done, the cell company will investigate a number of alternate sites for a tower. So they may not want to tangle with an angry group who could delay construction. But if the proceedings are well enough along they won't want to stop construction, especially if that is their most desirable site. Remember, they might have a bigger "lawyer budget" than you do.

It all depends on how far along things are, how many people are pro and con on the thing, and things like that. I personally don't like the things either - where I live, I have a view of the night sky that is completely free of man-made light, until they put up a tower down the road - but there are worse things to have to deal with.

I hope I've helped.
Gene Allen
Educational Entertainment Specialist
Elementary School Assembly Programs - Library Summer Reading - Pre-School Assemblies - Gene Allen.

Thank you Gene for the information - very interesting.
It's soooo funny to me when I see such strong opposition to cell towers. EVERYBODY wants their cell phone to work no matter where they are but NOBODY wants towers constructed to make that happen.
By now every town/city should have a cell tower ordinance in place and as long as the provider meets the requirements of the ordinance, they should be allowed to install the tower. What is sad is that too often people get involved in the process in a reactionary manner instead of proactively when the ordinances/laws/rules are being drafted and enacted in the first place.

You need to attend your next board of education meeting to ask questions & find out additional details. Knowing my district, if the tower went up on one of the school's property, they would divide the proceeds among all the schools which is not fair. The money should go to the school that lost available property use and has incurred added risk.

My school is in a small town. When the school approached the city council for approval they said no. And offered there own property for the proceeds instead. Well it didn't happen for the city, but it did for the school 2 years later.