Should SSBC Reconsider Building Softball Field at New High School?

Right now, the plan for the new high school calls for keeping the current baseball field and building another one. The plan does not include a softball field. Should the Secondary Schools Building Committee reconsider that decision? The local group North Reading Citizens for Equality thinks so.

For the last 12 years, the high school softball teams have practiced and played at the Little School. According to School Committee Chairman Mel Webster, the committee had never heard any complaints about the situation until recently. Members of the North Reading Citizens for Equality group believe that the softball team is not being treated fairly and hoped that with the construction of the new school, a softball field would be built on campus. That was the original plan.

The Little School Fields and Title IX

Webster believes that the fields at the Little School are good quality and that the players, parents and opposing teams like the field. Even Softball Coach Walter “Rusty’’ Russell likes that there are three fields so all three teams, freshman, junior varsity and varsity, can practice and play at the same time, Webster said. 

However, according to the Boston Globe, Russell now has mixed feelings about the situation.

“As far as I was concerned, I was very happy just staying down there,’’ Russell said of the Little School in the Globe article. “But the more I thought about it, and I expressed this to the athletic director a few months back, that it really shouldn’t be my call. I’ve been there for 28 years coaching, but I don’t know how long I’m going to be and I think eventually the team should end up back at the high school. I’d hate to leave it, but I do believe in the long run, [the softball field] belongs at the high school.”

Regardless of any opinions, it is possible that a complaint will be filed due to the lack of a softball field at the new high school over violations of Title IX, which is a federal law that requires equal treatment of both male and female athletes.

Members of the group North Reading Citizens for Equality do not believe that the players on the girls' softball team are getting proper treatment. The group feels that the fields are subpar as they do not have dugouts, bathrooms or locker rooms for the girls to use. They also believe that the girls should not have to pay for their own transportation to their practices or home games. The Little School is located 2.5 miles from the high school. 

“The reason we haven’t referred it to the Office of Civil Rights yet, is we’re just trying to work with them, especially with the high school project in such an early stage,” member of the group Jennifer Casoli said in the Globe article. “We don’t want to hold that up. So we’re going to give them some time to make the decision. But if they vote to keep the baseball field, we will be contacting the OCR.”

When asked if the SSBC considered the possible Title IX complaint when making the decision to have two baseball fields, Webster said that it "didn't come into play at all."

It just wasn't in the thought process, he said, as no one had ever complained about the Little School fields before.

"The feeling was they had a really good thing over there," he said of the fields.

This situation has been going on for years, but that does not mitigate it, Casoli said in the Globe article.

“Absolutely not,” Casoli said. “It shows that they have been, at best, ignorant and at worst outright willfully in violation of Title IX.”

Title IX expert and law professor from Western New England University Erin Buzuvis has been involved with the issue.

“It’s not equitable for the girls to have to pay for their own transportation off campus or to not have fields of comparable quality,” Buzuvis said. “And it’s even more egregious that at a moment when the school is adding new facilities, it’s not seeking to correct that inequity but is perhaps going to exacerbate it.”

Changes to the softball fields

According to Webster, since the complaints arose the School Committee has made changes to the fields to accommodate the softball players. The players are allowed access to the Little School to use the bathrooms and a new porta-potty was recently installed near the field. Superintendent Kathleen Willis worked with the Little School principal to ensure that the elementary school students were not playing on the varsity fields during recess to preserve the field, Webster said.

"We've made improvements on what we believe is already a good field," he told Patch.

However, Webster still plans to ask the SSBC to reconsider having two baseball fields at the new high school, and to build a softball field instead. That way, there will be one of each.

Why did the School Committee recommend two baseball fields and no softball fields in the first place?

The original plan for the new school called for a softball field. However, the School Committee recommended two baseball fields instead after NRHS Principal Jon Bernard, Athletic Director Dave Johnson, Baseball Coach Frank Carey and Russell presented the need for two baseball fields at the high school, given that they would be losing a baseball field to provide extra parking. The School Committee voted to accept the change, 4-0, according to the Globe.

“Our recommendation was based on, we had a presentation from the athletic director, the principal of the high school, with input from the softball coach, all recommending strongly that the new field at the new school be made a baseball field because we’re losing a baseball field with the construction of the two new schools,” Webster said in the Globe article.

They also had input from the Parks and Recreation Department, Webster said. The Parks and Recreation Department was concerned about losing a baseball field as well. They looked around town for another area for the baseball field for the youth leagues in town, but could not find one. 

Reconsideration

"I want to take a complete look at the whole situation," Webster said.

While he can't force the members of the SSBC to change their minds, he does think it's worth another discussion. We have plenty of time, Webster said, as the fields are the last part of the project to be completed. The fields are not projected to be complete until 2015, he said. 

"I'm not saying that it is going to be changed, but I plan to bring it up for reconsideration," Webster told Patch.

The decision is "far from set in stone,” he said.

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