School Board to Discuss Fields Use Policy Monday Night

The Ridgewood Board of Education will be holding a discussion tonight that will in all likelihood hold considerable weight on children and adult's recreation in the village.

After the village the about a month ago, the Fields Committee down as well. Now it's time to see what the school board does with the recommendations the village proposed, among them Stevens being used only until 9:00 p.m., a numeric cap on what nights games could go late, procedures for regulating and addressing noise complaints, and greater control of the approval process for alternate lighting (presumably to lessen the impact on generator use).

The school board, with Charlie Reilly now the Fields Committee liaison after Laurie Goodman was voted out in April, can either accept the council recommendations, agree to some of them or agree to none of them. If it's the latter two, there will have to be a back-and-forth between the two bodies to hash out an agreement.

The council has said the ball is in the BOE's court, and there will be a back-and-forth.

The current policy, which maintains lights out times at 9:00 p.m. at the vast majority of fields, remains in effect to the applauds of neighbors, who have said the council's rejection should serve as a "lesson" to the school board.

Both the council and school board have to agree to any changes on the joint fields use policy for them to take effect though there seems to be a divide between the two government bodies. The council seems to have favor of the neighbors while the school board has won support from "sports dads".

Those in favor of greater recreation time, which proponents say is in line with the latest Master Plan recommendation, called naysayers "NIMBYs thinking only of themselves". In turn, those opposed have shot back accusations that the school board was purposefully deceptive throughout the turfing and lighting process and are something of a special interest group, the "sports parents" while losing focus of educating students.

The school board meets at 7:30 p.m. on the third floor of The Education Center on Cottage Place.