Once there were two softball fields at the elementary school. One was a practice field; the other was a field along Mass. Ave. that was home to school and town youth softball games. When the weather was warm enough, softball enthusiasts and spectators in lawn chairs would gather at the Mass. Ave. field on Sunday mornings for an adult slow-pitch game. Both fields were removed when the new school was built.
The loss of those two fields is at the heart of a controversy involving softball players and their parents and coaches, the Harvard Youth Baseball and Softball Association, the School Building Committee, and the Parks and Recreation Commission. A group of parents and the HYBSA are asking the School Building Committee to replace one of the lost fields with a new softball field in front of the new elementary school along Mass. Ave. There is currently a small soccer field in that location.
The baseball and softball association contends that the softball field at Ann Lees Road, constructed a few years ago as a replacement for one of the lost softball fields, will be completely occupied by school teams in 2023. It is currently the only softball field in town, leaving nowhere for town youth teams to practice or play. HYBSA President James O’Leary told the Press interest in youth baseball and softball has increased over the past few years, and there are no suitable fields available at Devens to rent for town softball.
The Mass. Ave. location was considered for a regulation-size softball field in the initial plans for the new school. The field that was there was not full-size, but it was usable for high school games because it was considered a “legacy field.” At a May 19 meeting of the School Building Committee, Arrowstreet architects said once the playground design was complete, the site was too small for the full-size softball field, and it was removed from the plan. Toby Bazarnick, HYBSA treasurer, and Parks and Recreation Chair Bob O’Shea both told the committee the lot would be large enough for at least a practice field, and with the relocation of some playground equipment and a few walkways, it could accommodate a regulation-sized field.
Superintendent Linda Dwight presented two drawings of possible layouts for the softball field, commissioned from The McCarty Companies, a civil engineering firm in Leominster. The drawings showed two different orientations for the field—the first hitting toward Mass. Ave., the second hitting toward the school and playground (See diagram below). Dwight said the first orientation would require a backstop and possible netting. Because of the backstop, she said, the architect had to reduce the distance between the backstop and home plate as well as the distances between bases.
Also, the location of the dugout for the first plan would require a sidewalk near the school to be moved. The second orientation would require netting to protect the playground. The estimate for each was about $200,000.
Dwight said neither of the plans would provide a regulation-sized field for high school or middle school, but it could be used for practice and for younger town softball players. She added that moving part of the playground to another area to accommodate a larger field would not be ideal because the play areas wouldn’t be contiguous. She also wasn’t sure if that plan would be fully safe for kids on the remaining area of the playground.
School Building Committee members Nick Browse and Alice von Loesecke were opposed to both plans, saying it looked like a field was being shoehorned into the space. Von Loesecke suggested the town look at other land that could be turned into a field, although O’Shea said he thought that might cost the town “millions of dollars.” He contended that moving a few walkways and relocating the entire playground to the area of the unusable diamond field on the south side of the site would accommodate a full-size field. The diamond field ended up with a grade too steep to be practical for any sport because of the excess dirt placed there during site grading.
Shawmut’s Tom Ryan, school building project manager, said it would cost about $400,000 to move the entire playground and do the associated surface work; moving only a portion of the playground would be cheaper. School Building Committee Chair SusanMary Redinger told the Press a conservative estimate of unexpended funds for the school building project is about $600,000. She said there are no other proposals for using that money other than to build a $180,000 wall along Mass. Ave. in front of the school to keep soccer balls from rolling into the road. If the unexpended funds are not spent, they could be used for other projects in town according to Redinger, including constructing a field somewhere else.
Last week Redinger created a subcommittee of the School Building Committee to evaluate what it would take to fit a softball field, either practice- or regulation-sized, in the front yard of HES. School Committee member Sharlene Cronin chairs the subcommittee, which also includes building committee members Nick Browse, Ron Ostberg, and Carl Sciple. Cronin told the Press the group would like to hire a civil engineer to provide sketches of more layout possibilities for the softball field and intends to gather as much data as possible. It will bring the results of its fact-finding mission to the School Building Committee for a final determination later this summer.
Cronin said she would like to see data from the schools on which sports are seeing increased or decreased participation, so that a broader look could be taken for athletic facility needs. She added that the work of the Athletic Field Subcommittee created by the Select Board a few years ago showed that the town needs more rectangular fields because the existing fields were overused and needed time to rest. At that time, there were enough diamond fields, but since no one is monitoring school sports trends, the town is now short a softball field.
A Title IX violation?
Complicating the picture is the threat of a Title IX lawsuit against the town. The U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects against gender discrimination in any educational programs or activities that receive federal funds. Bazarnick told the School Building Committee, “You’ve taken away a field that was being used for the girls varsity and junior varsity teams and that is a textbook Title IX violation.” Cronin said the School Committee approved funding for a Title IX review and it is currently reviewing responses to requests for proposals. O’Shea said the replacement field on Ann Lees Road is not in good shape; it needs to be rototilled and resodded. In addition, he said the outfield fence is 20 feet short of regulation size.
The School Building Committee is still debating whether this is its problem to solve. At its last meeting, Ostberg said, “It’s not the responsibility of the elementary school project to meet the needs broadly of the town of Harvard.” Both Redinger and von Loesecke echoed that sentiment, saying this is an elementary school site. But should a softball field be built on the HES site, the committee is prepared to pay for a field it can afford from the project’s unexpended funds. Redinger said the schools don’t have the money to pay for it, and she added, “I think the town would consider this a school building expense because it’s on our site.”
The Softball Field Review Subcommittee is scheduled to meet again on June 10, and the field will be discussed at the next School Building Committee meeting, scheduled for June 16.
