By Alex Costello
"It's really just a codification of our procedures that have been in place, but that I don't think have been totally outlined in policy," said Island Park School District Superintendent Dr. Edward Price. "I think that everyone wants to make sure that our facilities are being used properly."
"In essence, you don't want groups of people just coming over and commandeering the fields, trashing them, and misbehaving," he added.
The policy was initially proposed at the Aug. 25 Board of Education meeting, and had its second reading at the Sept. 22 meeting. It was tabled at the second meeting, and was finally passed at the Oct. 27 meeting.
"What we were trying to do is look at the wording and make sure the wording was proper," said Michael Hastava, the School Board vice president, about why the new policy was delayed for so long. "We wanted to make sure it was done properly once, so nobody would come back and say, 'Oh you didn't do this, you didn't do that.'"
The policy sets up guidelines as to what activities the school grounds can be used to host after hours. Free events are fine, as are events that require admission, so long as any money raised goes to "an education or charitable purpose." Any groups that want to use the field must obtain a permit, which they can get through the district's recreation department.
"Lets say a group of adults came, like a soccer team," said Price. "And they came and set up goals and so-forth, and they're out here picnicking with radios blasting, they will be asked to leave."
"They're asked to leave now," he added.
The policy was designed to stop large groups of people from using the fields without permission, or to stop them from leaving behind a mess after they leave.
"We were getting complaints that people were not using the fields in a respectful manner," Hastava said. "They were littering the fields and just leaving a mess for us in respect to just disparate groups coming in to use it for soccer or whatever."
"What we said was that the fields are open to everybody in the public, but they have to be used in a respectful manner," he added. "We have people coming in and running their dogs on the property, just letting them go and poop all over the place, and that's not a respectful use of the property."
Some of the school board members, as well as members of the community, were concerned that the new policy could be used to make children who are just playing vacate the premises. They were worried that if, for whatever reason, a person living next to a school didn't want children playing on the field, they could call the police and have them kicked off.
"I think we have to understand that the police will do what's correct," said Price. "If you have a couple of neighborhood kids playing soccer, or a small group of kids playing touch football, they're not going to be kicked off the field."
"We will send the policy to the police department saying that if there are organized groups of more than 10 [or] something like that, then certainly they should be questioned," Price added. "But if it's just a couple of neighborhood kids, then no, that's not going to happen."
Questions or comments about this story? ACostello@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 207.
