Community members push back against restricting Arcadia field use

An incident involving two Arcadia school board members confronting students using the turf field near the high school and a potential proposal to restrict the field’s usage brought out a large number of community members to last Monday’s school board meeting, where many spoke passionately against the idea of restricting the field’s use and some pointedly criticized the board members for the manner in which the students were confronted.

Much of the discussion at last Monday’s meeting stemmed from a recent incident where board members Tonya Rebhahn and Adam Schlesser confronted students who were using the turf field and playing music, which eventually descended into Rebhahn threatening to call the police on them.

To accommodate the large turnout of members of the public for the meeting, the school board voted to lift its 15-minute cap on total time for citizen comments and relocated its meeting to the high school auditorium.

Nearly 50 community members — including parents, coaches and students — were present at the meeting and around 20 spoke during a citizen comment period that lasted well over an hour, with almost all either speaking out against heavier restrictions on public use of outdoor facility usage at the school or expressing concerns about the ramifications of such restrictions.

Former school board member Diana Tempski spoke in defense of the students using the field and said she hoped “rumors” weren’t true that the facilities restriction topic was coming before the board because of the large number of Hispanic students who use the turf field to play soccer.

“If this discussion has come about because of race, then I am appalled. I sure hope that’s not why it’s on the agenda,” Tempski said. “Seventy-five percent of our school district is Hispanic and if this is about them using the soccer field and the turf, then I would just like to speak on their behalf. Would you rather them do something else that’s nefarious in our community? Every single student in the district has a right to use the facilities if they are not being harmful to the facilities. If they’re taking care of them, if they’re being good stewards, if they’re being respectful and if they’re being approached respectfully, I really see no problem.”

Katie Klein has several children in the school district and called on the board to investigate the incident thoroughly. She noted her children are biracial and that they had felt a sense of inclusion since moving to the school district thanks in large part to Arcadia’s large Hispanic population, saying that challenges they’d faced have come more from “adults and administration” rather than other students.

“Board members are elected to serve our schools, support our educators and protect our children, not to intimidate them,” Klein said. “Harassing or aggressively confronting kids, especially in a space that’s meant for play and recreation, is not only inappropriate, it’s a breach of the trust our families place in the district.”

David Escalera is a student and member of the boys soccer team at Arcadia High School who gave his firsthand account of the confrontation with Rebhan and Schlesser (he could not address any specific board members by name due to public comment rules) at last Monday’s meeting. He said, during a baseball game going on at nearby Parker Hagg Field, a board member came up to a group of soccer and football players on the turf field to inform them that signs would soon be going up restricting facility use.

According to Escalera, the students told them they would leave once there were signs up, but were told they needed to leave then and there. What he characterized as a “respectful” conversation to start then soon spiraled into one of the board members threatening to call the police on the students.

Escalera said he felt the situation could’ve been handled better by all involved and said ultimately the students don’t want conflict over the use of the facilities.

“As students, we just love our sports and all we want is to be able to practice and get better at them,” Escalera said. “That’s all we want.”

Board president Brian Steinlicht reminded his fellow board members that they were allowed to speak during public comments as citizens, and eventually both Rebhahn and Schlesser offered their side of things.

Rebhahn expressed dismay with the way the situation was being portrayed by others, claiming that there was “a lot of misinformation being spread around that never happened.”

Rebhahn said that she and Schlesser spend a lot of time at the baseball fields in the spring and summer and that they regularly see heavy foot traffic on the turf field. She also said she’s seen the field misused in ways that have included a girl taking a scooter onto the field and another kid slamming a 15-pound medicine ball onto the turf.

Rebhahn also said that music is often played loudly and that a parent of a soccer player who speaks Spanish told her that some of the kids playing on the field were using profane language in Spanish.

“Basically, we have witnessed a lot of things that one day led up to a boiling point during a game where this music was extremely loud where you couldn’t even have a comfortable conversation with the person next to you watching the baseball game,” Rebhahn said.

Rebhahn said she was respectful when confronting the students and that it was actually one of the students who had gotten into her face disrespectfully, which prompted Schlesser to come over.

During his citizen comments, Schlesser pointed out that they are school facilities, not a public park and that rules were already in place that are supposed to require approval to use those facilities. He expressed doubt that other nearby districts with turf fields would allow such free use of them.

Schlesser also criticized the “rumors” being spread around and that race was being claimed as a factor in why this topic was coming before the board.

“Rumors ran wild. A lot of what I’m hearing here, I don’t know where it came from,” Schlesser said. “I’m appalled that race was brought into it right away. That’s disgusting to me. Throw that out the window because that just puts fuel in the fire. So, let’s stop that.”

Board members Dana Conrad, Gary Pronschinske and Vicente Moreno all spoke as citizens as well, expressing trepidation at the idea of heavy restrictions on outdoor facility usage.

After public comments and during discussion on the actual agenda item of public usage of district outdoor facilities/property, Steinlicht stated he had looked into the incident as board president and gave a series of corrective statements, including going over the current rules regarding facility usage that require permission and a fee (unless a waiver is granted) and that school board members “do not have individual authority to represent a policy or enforce positions that are not supported by a majority of the board.”

Steinlicht said the video he was shown from the incident showed a respectful interaction, though there was a comment about calling the police in the video and what he characterized as students “scoffing” at the end of the interaction.

Rebhahn gave background leading up to the confrontation and agenda item, saying she had gone through “the proper channels” to voice her concerns on the way the field was being used. That led to a meeting in June between her, Schlesser, Steinlicht, superintendent Lori Frerk and athletic director Thurston Schuster to discuss possible solutions. Rebhahn said she left that meeting feeling like they had a “game plan” on how to address it, which included putting up signs and sending out an email to students, parents and coaches.

“We left the meeting thinking that Thurston and our superintendent had decided this was the best way forward and this was how we are going to enforce our rules,” Rebhahn said.

Schlesser added that he felt both he and Rebhahn were “totally thrown under the bus and bamboozled” by the others who had participated in that meeting.

Pronschinske expressed frustration that he hadn’t been in the loop on everything going on with this situation until that night’s board meeting. Frerk stated that, while things can move more slowly than they’d like, this was the soonest they could get this topic on a regular board meeting agenda. She also confirmed that the meeting in June had taken place where potential solutions were discussed, but that “no one gave any justification for anyone to police the field.”

Ultimately, the board agreed it would be best to have different policies dictating the use of indoor and outdoor facilities (the current policy encompasses both) and authorized Frerk to look into different policy templates to bring back to the board for review.