A focused field of view

Leveling the playing field is more than a figure of speech for

22-year Costa Mesa resident Mark Gleason.

Gleason, in his second year as president of the Girls Soccer

Boosters at Estancia High School, has been at the forefront of an

effort to get the Newport-Mesa Unified School district to do

something about what he and others say is poor upkeep of Costa Mesa’s

school sports fields.

He went as far as charging in a complaint filed Sept. 13 to the

U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights that the

district discriminates against Costa Mesa schools with large Latino

populations by neglecting upkeep of those fields while similar fields

in the mostly white Newport Beach are kept unspoiled.

Estancia’s soccer and baseball fields are spotted with ruts and

holes, and bleachers and benches are dilapidated, Gleason has said.

The disrepair of the fields is not only an eyesore but dangerous, he

said.

District officials have called Gleason’s charges of discrimination

“ludicrous,” though administrators said last week they are working to

resolve field problems at Costa Mesa and Estancia high schools.

At the heart of the issue is the district’s joint-use agreement, a

contract between the district and the city that governs the use and

maintenance of the fields. Two exist -- one with the city of Costa

Mesa and the other with Newport Beach. Gleason, and others lament

what they said is the Costa Mesa agreement’s complexity and it’s

unclear lines of maintenance responsibilities, which have led to the

city simply mowing the lawns and aerating them once a year. Newport’s

agreement with the district, on the other hand, is much simpler and

clearly delineates responsibilities for field upkeep, Gleason has

said.

Of course, Gleason, a marketing and sales director for a software

company, has more reasons for such zeal. His children are athletes

who play on the fields, and they and all others have a right to

expect better-maintained, safe surfaces, he said.

The Pilot’s Ryan Carter asked Gleason some questions about the

issue.

Why is maintaining the fields so important to you?

My kids and all the kids who have played sports with my kids since

they were 4 or 5 years old have to play on these fields. They play on

high school teams, club teams and recreational teams. Decent-quality

fields that are safe seem like a reasonable thing to expect.

Judging by the response after your discrimination complaint, the

district seems to be expressing an interest in solving some of the

safety and cosmetic issues on the field, sooner rather than later.

Are you encouraged at all by the school district’s effort to improve

the fields? Have you seen any evidence of this yet?

Yes, I am encouraged by the district’s response so far. Estancia

High baseball Booster Club President Dan Oliver and I attended a

meeting Thursday with Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot. Dr. Barbot

accepted responsibility for the current state of the facilities and

expressed his commitment to addressing both short- and long-term

solutions.

Several of the basic safety issues have already been fixed, things

like broken fences and bleachers, the sprinkler control box in the

long-jump landing pit, and holes in the baseball dugout roof. The

district is pulling together the pieces required to develop a

comprehensive solution plan and we have been invited to participate

in that process. The city of Costa Mesa has also begun to step up.

Would you withdraw your discrimination complaint if you saw

improvement? If so, what improvements would it take for you to be

convinced the district is trying its best? If not, why not?

I will withdraw the complaint once I am satisfied that a long-term

approach to better management of these facilities has been developed

and implemented. The current conditions didn’t happen overnight and

much must be done to change how the city, district and users

communicate and interact.

What would the ideal field look like? Would it have amenities such

as fancy scoreboards or all-weather tracks?

An ideal field has decent-quality turf throughout, is literally a

level playing field, has good irrigation coverage and no safety

problems. All we’re asking for are those fundamental basics.

Scoreboards and all-weather tracks would be nice, but nobody expects

those types of amenities.

Have you, other coaches or the kids you coach suffered injuries

specifically because of bad fields?

My daughter and one other player on her club soccer team both

suffered severe ankle sprains when playing on the Parsons field

behind Estancia this past spring. Both were out for several weeks.

Estancia players have had a number of similar injuries over the past

couple of years.

What do you make of part of the district’s reaction to your

concerns that classrooms and other academic requirements take

precedence over the fields -- that Measure A improvements come first?

As co-chairman of the Measure A Site Committee at Estancia, I

fully understand the economic realities that require academic and

structural requirements to take precedence over athletics.

Athletic facilities are priority no. 7 of seven on the Measure A

list and they will not get done as part of Measure A. However, “take

precedence” does not imply that the maintenance and upkeep of

athletic facilities can just be completely ignored, allowing the

facilities to degrade to the point where the safety of our kids is an

issue. In fact, Measure A is a perfect lesson to apply to the

athletic facilities. Measure A exists because we ignored the

infrastructure requirements in Newport-Mesa Unified School District

for 20-plus years and only responded when it became a crisis.

Assistant Supt. of Secondary Education Jaime Castellanos says the

high volume of field use in Costa Mesa and staff turnover contribute

to the differences in the field-use agreements. Given Castellanos’

claims, is it possible that it’s a futile exercise to expect the

fields collectively in Costa Mesa to be as pristine as Newport

Beach’s?

It is absolutely not futile. The problem is not the high volume

itself, but the management of that volume. The district and city need

to work out a carefully coordinated rest-and-rehabilitation schedule

for all the fields in Costa Mesa, both city-owned and district-owned.

Other cities manage high-use facilities quite successfully. It

requires clearly documented management and communication processes

that don’t currently exist in Costa Mesa. The district and city have

both said that they will address this, but we’ll see.

What efforts do boosters and coaches make to maintain the fields?

Boosters and coaches make extraordinary efforts at the Costa Mesa

schools, just like they do at all the schools in the district. The

coaches spend an enormous amount of their own time and money trying

to keep their fields respectable. But there is a line where the

boosters’ responsibility is separated from the district’s. Boosters

simply can’t make wholesale repairs to irrigation systems or grade

whole fields. The district has a fundamental responsibility to

provide the essential basics. Girls soccer at Estancia is a perfect

illustration of that. The boosters pay for absolutely everything --

uniforms, warm-ups, balls, goals, and extra coaching stipends. The

kids on the team don’t pay a penny. All the district needs to supply

is a decent field with grass on it, which it has not done.

How long has this issue been brewing?

For the last couple of years at least, longer if you ask some of

coaches who have been around for a while.

Should the joint-use agreement be amended?

The idea of the agreement is reasonable and in the interest of the

community as a whole, but the execution of the agreement is seriously

flawed, as is the document itself as a viable contract. Critical

roles and responsibilities are undefined. Terms as fundamental as

“maintenance” are vague. Communication is very poor. Coordination is

non-existent. There’s no accountability. The joint-use agreement

needs to be re-written or amended to fully describe the specific

roles and responsibilities of each of the parties. Language

throughout needs to be clarified and tightened up. Oversight,

communication, and accountability need to be formalized. I handle

contracts for a living and the current agreement is a pretty poor

contract.