Dad drops complaint

Marisa O’Neil and Jeff Benson

A parent who filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education

Office of Civil Rights about the shoddy conditions of student playing

fields in the city has agreed to drop it.

Mark Gleason, president of Estancia High School girls’ soccer

boosters, had accused the Newport-Mesa Unified School District of

discrimination for maintaining fields in Newport Beach better than

those in predominantly Latino areas of Costa Mesa.

He filed the complaint in September and brought his concerns, like

broken bleachers, falling fences and unkempt fields, to district

officials, who set to work making improvements.

Their progress has impressed Gleason.

“I’m in the process of dropping the complaint,” Gleason said

Thursday.

“The school district stepped up and did an outstanding job.

They’ve basically done everything we’ve asked.”

At Estancia High School, the fields have been leveled, aerated,

reseeded and fertilized, Gleason said. Fences and dugouts were

repaired and sprinklers fixed with plans to do the same at Costa Mesa

High School.

Gleason has been meeting with city and district officials to work

out the plan for improvements, said Jaime Castellanos, assistant

superintendent of secondary education for the district.

“I’m glad there was an amiable relationship between Mark Gleason

and the district,” Castellanos said. “He had some legitimate

concerns, and I think we did a good job addressing them.”

The school district and city have a joint-use agreement, which

outlines the use and maintenance of the athletic fields they share.

The fields may have fallen victim to a lack of communication

between the city, which in the past has mowed and groomed the fields,

and the district, Castellanos said. Over time, small problems in the

parks turned into larger ones, he said.

“Over many, many years we haven’t really had a good organized plan

of attack, and things have broken down,” he said. “There’s not a good

line of communication from the sites to the district. We didn’t have

a good process in place.”

Now, the district has ordered that someone from each school --

like a coach or other staff member -- walk the fields every day,

looking for maintenance problems, Castellanos said.

Any issues are entered as a work order in a district computer

system and addressed more quickly, he said.

The district will also likely take over the day-to-day mowing and

maintenance of the fields from the city, he said.

The city will split maintenance costs or work out some sort of

compensation once the district takes over the job, said Jana Ransom,

recreation division manager for the city.

While school fields are being repaired and are out of commission,

the city will help find other venues for practices and games, she

said.

Recent maintenance on fields at Balearic Park and rain have

wreaked havoc at all city fields, causing recreation officials to

scramble for available space the past couple of weeks, she said.

Gleason and the district have yet to hammer out the last few

details of the maintenance plan, but Gleason said he’s satisfied with

district officials’ actions.

“What I expected was nothing,” he said. “The response was really

very positive, and the quickness with which they approached it was

better than expected. They addressed the safety issues right away.

All of this work will bring Costa Mesa’s schools up to the same level

as Newport Beach schools.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at [email protected].

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].