Field feud: Residents, BOE clash over facilities-use policy

The West Hempstead school district’s contentious facilities-use policy remains unresolved, even after a four-hour policy session during which people on both sides of the aisle aired their complaints.

At the heart of the discord is what Superintendent John Hogan termed the 80-20 rule. The Board of Education changed language in the facilities use policy in December to broaden eligibility criteria for permit applications. Under the new language, teams eligible to apply for a field-use permit must be 80 percent West Hempstead residents. The previous policy had required 80 percent of the organization to be West Hempstead-based.

Residents who oppose the policy change expressed outrage at the Feb. 8 policy session, claiming that the district’s fields are overused and overcrowded, and that allowing teams affiliated with organizations outside West Hempstead takes field time away from local groups.

Loraine Magaraci, a member of the West Hempstead Chiefs Soccer Club, has been vocal about her dismay with the policy. The conflict, she told board members last week, “has turned into soccer versus soccer club,” which only hurts the children.

“We want stronger teams, so we need more practice time,” Magaraci said. “We respect the fields — we police the fields and I’m not sure if [non-residents] would take the same care.”

School board President Pam Lotito said the board has received complaint after complaint about the limited facilities and overused fields. “It never occurred to me that we would be talking about outside members,” she said. “I would like [the policy] applied to West Hempstead groups and teams.”

Lotito stressed that the board needs to set a precedent in order to remain consistent.

There was confusion, even among board members and administrators, about the specific language of the previous policy and that of the modified one. Some, like Hogan, were working under the assumption that the policy applied to West Hempstead-based organizations only. Others, including board member Cynthia Di Miceli, believed the previous policy never specified that.