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Almost three months after the Berkeley School Board killed a proposal to consider a regulation high school baseball field for its Derby Street properties, the proposal is back on the table. 

On Wednesday, the board will vote on whether to ask staff to prepare an administrative plan for the combined Berkeley Alternative High School and former Berkeley Adult School properties “detailing a closed Derby Street option.” 

Derby Street runs between the two district-owned properties on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and closing it is necessary to have enough space for a regulation high school baseball field. 

While the district owns both properties, closing Derby Street can only be done by the City Council. 

The BUSD Board meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Old City Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. 

If the board approves the development of a closed-Derby Street plan, it would come back before board directors in August. 

Board directors will also be asked to consider a plan by WLC Architects to temporarily develop the old Adult School portion of the properties while the Derby Street issue is debated. 

The plan originally contained a multipurpose athletic field, a baseball infield, batting cages, basketball courts, and a community area which included a garden and a toddlers playground. 

BUSD Director of Facilities Lew Jones is recommending that the proposed basketball courts be considered only as an alternate, and says that “if the board proceeds with a plan that keeps Derby Street open, more discussion will be needed about [the] community spaces before the uses could be finally determined.” 

During the March meeting which killed adding the closed Derby Street option on a 3-2 vote, Board President Nancy Riddle and Director Shirley Issel said that they voted against adding the option at that time for procedural reasons only, and left open the possibility that they might support a closed Derby development proposal in the future.