FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
New Title IX Charge Hits School District
By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Sitka School District is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights because of a Title IX complaint related to equal access of Moller Park for girls softball and boys baseball.
Sitka sophomore Minh Iwamoto pitches at Moller Park during a softball game this spring. Team officials remove the pitchers mound for softball games in addition to shortening the base paths and using a temporary outfield fence. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
A month ago, Sitka school officials received a letter from the Seattle branch of the education department’s civil rights office regarding a complaint from someone in Sitka about equal access to sports facilities. The letter reads:
“The complaint alleges the district is discriminating on the basis of sex by failing to provide practice and competition facilities for the girls’ interscholastic softball teams at Sitka High School that are comparable to what is provided for boys’ baseball.”
The letter did not disclose the name of the person originating the complaint.
Late in 2012 a $2.6 million remodel of Moller Park was completed, resulting in a brand new turf field, as well as a new Title IX issue for school administrators to deal with. Title IX was a part of the Education amendments of 1972, the federal law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities which receive federal financial assistance. The Office for Civil Rights enforces the provisions of Title IX.
The School Board first took up the Moller Park issue in November of 2012 when members hosted a work session with coaches and concerned parents. During that work session they advised coaches to agree on a practice schedule that would let the softball and baseball teams have equal time on the field.
Additionally, the district paid around $17,000 for a second pitching mound that could be more easily moved on and off the field, making the field adaptable for softball as well as baseball.
In the two seasons since, the Sitka softball team has played multiple games and tournaments on the new turf field. As for baseball, Moller Park was the venue for the Southeast Regional as well as the state championships, both of which were won by Sitka.
Superintendent of Schools Mary Wegner said the district is unaware of when the latest complaint was made or what the specifics of the complaint are.
“I don’t know how long it had been in the OCR process (before we got it),” Wegner said.
Anyone can file a complaint online but the process requires that the event generating the complaint occurred within the last 180 days. Complaints that reach back farther than that require a special waiver. Wegner said the district filed the information requested by the Office for Civil Rights in advance of the Aug. 11 deadline. It includes a complete report on the district’s extracurriculars.
“It is in the hands of OCR. They did ask for quite a bit of documentation, which we provided that is not only on the baseball-softball issue but on all of the sports,” Wegner said.
That information includes old emails and documentation about sports for the past year. The full OCR request is for:
– a list of all on- and off-site facilities used by boys and girls teams.
– details about those facilities such as age, locker rooms and whether or not the facility is used exclusively by a boys or girls team.
– practice and game schedules and the facility used for those events.
– district policies for determining the availability of practice facilities.
– all documentation regarding the Sitka High sports during the 2013-2014 school year.
Wegner said the district is now awaiting more information about the specific complaint. The softball and baseball teams had been working to share Moller Park complex. The girls softball team played the majority of their home games there this season.
“The softball and the baseball teams have been sharing the facilities,” Wegner said.
Softball coach Bob Potrzuski has been involved with the efforts to share the field. He said he still doesn’t think the facility is equally shared, but that the district has been making progress.
“We’re getting there,” he said, adding that part of the problem is making the softball team feel welcome. That includes not only on the field but at the facilities around the field such as the clubhouse behind home plate. At first glance it’s obvious the field was built with baseball in mind. The Moller Park scoreboard lists the boys baseball championships but none of the softball state titles. Potrzuski said a welcoming atmosphere has to be part of the equation.
“I think it’s just an attitude .... All of that facility needs to be shared on an equal basis, and the girls on the team just be made to feel welcome,” Potrzuski said.
Potrzuski said he was not the person who filed the complaint.
Mike Vieira, who was director of the state baseball tournament held at Moller this year, said Sitka could not host the state softball tournament because the Alaska Association of School Activities would have required Sitka to host both the large school and the small school tournaments. Baseball is unclassified so there is only one state tournament.
The School Board has taken up the equal access issue many times, and has discussed making funding for another playing field a legislative priority. The Assembly did just that last week when membersd added a $1.5 million request for improvements at Vilandre Field located next to Blatchley Middle School. Both Moller and Vilandre are city-owned fields.
When the equal access issue first came up Superintendent Steve Bradshaw reached out to state officials, including the Alaska State Activities Association Director Gary Matthews, about potential Title IX conflicts with the new facility. Wegner, who has succeeded Bradshaw as superintendent, said the Office of Civil Rights did not ask for that information as part of their latest inquiry, but that this history may be valuable in seeking a solution.
“I will say, though, that all of the processes that the community went through does show a desire to want to make this work,” she said.
Wegner added that school officials would have liked to meet with the complainant first to try to work out a solution, and she still hopes a compromise can be reached.
“We are interested in having a process where we talk with the complainant to find out what their issues are. We don’t know if it’s a solution that we can easily remedy through talking with the complainant but we would certainly like to have that dialogue.”
A resolution between the complainant and the district, managed by the Office of Civil Rights,is one potential solution identified in the notice to the district, and another solution would be a voluntary written agreement in which the district takes “actions that OCR determines fully resolve the allegation consistent with applicable legal standards.”
The last resolution measure identified is an investigation by the Office of Civil Rights. If the district were to be found in noncompliance with Title IX it would then need a written agreement where it commits to taking specific steps outlined by the investigation.
Local school officials won’t know which avenue they’ll be taking until they hear back from the agency. Wegner said there is no timetable for when the district will hear back about the complaint.
A spokesman for the Office of Civil Rights would not give specific details but said the policy is to resolve issues in under six months unless the issue is particularly complex.
“My feeling is that I hope we can resolve this as quickly and as judiciously as possible because we really want to get back to our schools and the focus of our students,” Wegner said.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....