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Plan for Baseball Field Must Wait, Says Board By J. DOUGLAS ALLEN-TAYLOR

Friday March 11, 2005

The Berkeley Unified School District Board of Directors voted 3-2 Wednesday to kill a proposal to consider a regulation high school baseball field for its Derby Street properties. 

Two members of the prevailing side said they cast their votes for procedural reasons only, suggesting that they might consider the baseball field option in the future. 

The board rejected pleas by members of Berkeley High’s three baseball teams to move forward with the construction of a new baseball field at Derby Street. 

Teams now practice and play on the city-owned baseball diamond at San Pablo Park in south Berkeley, about 20 blocks from Berkeley High. 

“San Pablo Park is a terrible place to play,” said Michael Durant, a senior who will be playing at Texas A&M University next year. “Before every game we have to get there early to put up a fence—that’s terrible. And last year, we could only practice there an hour a day because we got kicked off by an Albany Little League team.” 

Another player, Lucas Fogerty, criticized playing conditions at San Pablo Park, saying that “rocks in the infield make ground balls really superb. Going to away games at other schools is like playing on your dream field. It’s like heaven.” 

And D.J. Brooks, a sophomore, complained of the long walk from Berkeley High to San Pablo Park to get to practice. Brooks said that Berkeley High has “one of the best high school teams in the area, but we’ve got one of the worst fields in the area. The field should fit our team.” 

One East Campus neighbor told board members that while “we’d love to have [the baseball players] in the neighborhood,” he supported “the real compromise that’s out there that keeps Derby open and accommodates baseball on the East Campus site in some form.” 

Last April, the board of directors voted to tear down the abandoned East Campus buildings on the district-owned block surrounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Derby, Milvia, and Carleton streets and putting the property to different use. 

A month later, on a resolution introduced by directors Terry Doran and Shirley Issel, the board voted to “declare their support for pursuing the development of a large multi-purpose athletic facility at East Campus that would include a regulation-sized baseball field.” 

Included in that resolution was an acknowledgment that the proposed ballfield “would eventually require the closure of Derby Street” between the two district properties of East Campus and the Berkeley Alternative High School. The 2004 resolution also acknowledged that the Derby Street closure could not take place without approval by the Berkeley City Council. The resolution passed 4-0, with then-Board president John Selawsky abstaining. 

Meanwhile, the district moved forward with its plans to develop the East Campus portion of the two properties, creating an East Campus Site Committee and hiring WLC Architects of Emeryville to develop a proposal. Part of WLC’s charge was that it not consider closure of Derby Street at this time. 

This week, a week after WLC held its final community meeting on the East Campus redevelopment plans, the BUSD board rejected Director Terry Doran’s resolution for WLC to add the Derby Street closure and the expanded baseball field to its considerations of site plans. (Issel, Riddle, and Selawsky, no; Doran, Rivera yes; Student Director Dorman-Colby yes in an advisory vote.) 

Both Director Issel and Board President Nancy Riddle said it was the last-minute addition of the ballfield proposal at the end of the process—and not the ballfield proposal itself—which caused them to vote against Doran’s resolution. 

“I lean toward closing Derby Street and building the baseball field,” Issel said, “but to ask the Site Committee to change its itinerary at this point seems to me to be lacking in integrity. Maybe it was a bad decision not to include the Derby Street closure in our original charge to the architects, but it was our decision. Changing that decision at this point would be unethical.” 

Speaking to Doran, Issel said, “If we’d included this discussion when we started this process, I think you would have had my vote.” 

Riddle said that she “did support the vote we took last year to urge the city to close Derby Street. I haven’t changed my decision on that.” 

Riddle agreed following the meeting that it is “possible” that the district could pursue the Derby Street closure/baseball field option while still moving forward with the East Campus property plans. 

“My objection was in combining the two issues together at this time,” she said. “The Derby closure involves an entirely different set of criteria and if we were to do that, it might mean bringing in a different group of stakeholders, and possibly hiring a different firm to run the process.” 

In explaining his vote, Selawsky said, “While I won’t say [Doran’s resolution] is a slap in the face, I think it’s a disservice to the community to turn this project around at the last minute.” 

That contention was disputed by Doran, who said that his resolution “does not get us a baseball field. I merely introduced it in response to the fact that our community has been having informal discussions over the closing of Derby and building a ballfield, and we need to make it a formal discussion.” 

Rivera said, “I have been consistent in my support for a baseball field and the closing of Derby Street.” 

Adding the baseball field option to WLC’s charge “would correct the wrong that took place when we left this out when we started the planning process,” he said. “We may find out that we don’t have enough money to build a baseball field. But we should find that out sooner than later.” 

The sharp divide within the board and in the larger community on the Derby closure/baseball field issue was mirrored in the district itself. 

“While we need the fields, no doubt about that, we need to do this in stages,” said Superintendent Michelle Lawrence. “Unless you bring on more staff, we can’t take on the project of a new baseball field. It would not be my recommendation to do this at this time.” 

BHS Athletic Director Kristin Glenchur, in an e-mail to board members released by the district, wrote, “Not having a BUSD controlled [baseball] field forces us to rely on the use of the one regulation size field in Berkeley, San Pablo Park. So I support the consideration of a plan for a regulation sized baseball field. In addition to being close to the high school and convenient for our students, it is the only BUSD owned property which will accommodate a regulation size field.” 

BUSD baseball coach Tim Moellering, who organized a rally of baseball team players and adult supporters outside of the Old City Hall building before the meeting, wore a t-shirt reading, “Derby Street Park. If You Build It We Can Play.” 

Moellering told board members that he’d heard several reasons why neighbors don’t want a ballfield on the Derby Street site, including, “It’s only for 40 rich white boys who live in the hills.” 

Gesturing back towards the crowd of racially diverse players, Moellering said, “I think about four of them are rich, but rich boys should be able to play baseball, too.”›