A complaint relating to the use of Meinken Field, the baseball field of Holmes High School, has cast a light on Covington Independent Schools’ policy for community use of school facilities, specifically around the issue of pricing and fee waivers for community members outside of the district.
“I want to have this discussion with the whole board to figure out where we are and how do we get this policy so it meets all of our needs and the needs of our community members,” said Covington Independent School Board President Tom Haggard at a meeting on March 9.
The district’s current community-use policy employs a tiered pricing structure with fees increasing depending on the facility and the type of group using the facility. In-district and student groups aren’t charged at all, local community groups and nonprofits are charged small hourly fees, private citizen groups and other school districts are charged more and commercial groups are charged the most.
The meeting marked the first time the board took up the matter publicly. Although the school district owns the field, many institutions from around the region pay to use it for games and practices. The issue came to a head when the athletic boosters of Holy Cross High School, a private Catholic high school in Covington, issued a complaint to Holmes High School’s Athletic Director, Ken Ellis, early in the year.
Rob Harber, a Covington resident and representative from the boosters, spoke at the meeting on March 9. He brought copies of an email Ellis had exchanged with another booster staff member from Holy Cross, which attests to what the boosters view as overly liberal limitations on the use of the field.
“We’re just exploring a solution here for an equitable solution going forward,” Harber said.
Holy Cross is an exception to the district’s typical fee policy due to its history with the field. Meinken Field originally belonged to the city of Covington; however, the school district purchased the field in 2014 for $28,000. Both Holmes High School and Holy Cross High School had used the field for home games when it was city property, an arrangement that continued after Covington Independent acquired the field.
Usually, Covington Independent Schools would charge $500 an hour to let an outside school district use the field. The superintendent can grant to waiver to this policy. As a result, Holy Cross only pays $100 per practice or game at the field, plus some extra fees for lighting.
“We’re glad this policy’s not followed because if it was, we would be paying $500 per hour or $2000 a day,” Harber said. “We’re grateful our rate’s been $100.” He added that if the policy was followed to the letter, Holy Cross could not afford use of the field.
Harber claimed that the number of field uses the district granted to Holy Cross declined this year. Invoicing documents from the district show that Holy Cross practiced 20 times and held 12 games at the field in 2022, figures that were roughly in line with numbers dating back to 2018 with the exception of 2020 when the field was closed during the pandemic. In contrast, Harber contends that Holy Cross was only allotted 12 uses, a combination of games and practices, in 2023.
Holy Cross’s situation prompted the board to consider both the content and the manner in which it enforces its policies around community use.
Ken Kippenbrock, Covington Schools’ executive director of human resources, summarized possible policy changes during the meeting. Most notably, one suggested changed would allow the board of education to waive its typical fee structure with a majority vote if the waiver would be “an investment into the community.”
Background
In 2015, the district began the process of renovating the field. The district’s personnel director at the time, Eric Neff, who eventually supervised the renovation work and who still works for the school district part-time, contacted Natalie Gardner, Covington’s former strategic projects manager. With the help of the city, the district submitted the field to the Reds All Star Legacy Project, now called the Reds Community Fund, which donates money for baseball field renovations in the Greater Cincinnati area. To date, the project has aided in the renovations of at least 500 local stadiums.
After the project selected the field for renovation funding, Major League Baseball donated $400,000 toward construction. Other private and public donations came in as well, including a $28,000 donation from Dr. Robert Longshore, who donated on behalf of both Covington Independent Schools and Holy Cross, offsetting the initial expense of purchasing the field in 2014. Holy Cross did not contribute directly to the renovation.
In total, the project cost about $800,000.
Two notable renovations for the field were the overhead lights and the field’s synthetic turf, both of which serve as the main draw for use from community members. A written statement from Covington Schools stated that the annual cost for maintaining the field’s turf is about $12,000.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the renovation occurred on July 13, 2015. Members of MLB as well as Superintendent Alvin Garrison and representatives from the city of Covington attended the event, which was scheduled to happen in conjunction with 2015’s All Star Game in Cincinnati.
Since then, maintaining and managing the field, including who gets to use the field and when has fallen to Covington Independent Schools. Following the renovation in 2015, the district has sunk about $800,000 into the field, usually from the district’s general fund, according to sources from within the district. This figure does not include labor costs.
One of the most notable expenses occurred in the spring of 2022 when a part of the field slid into the Licking River, which runs along the eastern side of the field. Estimated costs associated with repairing the damage and then fortifying the riverbank against future slides approach $400,000, according to estimates from the district.
Every year the field hosts games for Holmes High School and Holy Cross and several other teams in the area. It’s also used for youth camps, regional and state championships and occasionally events with the Cincinnati Reds.
Community Investment
Meinken Field’s arguably iconic status within the Covington community transcends the grievances of Holy Cross.
Questions arise: Should the field be thought of as something that belongs to school district primarily, or is it something that should be thought of as an asset for the community at large? As such, how equitable should the community use policy be–both in terms of pricing and accessibility–and how strict should Covington Independent Schools be in enforcing the policy?
For Athletic Director Ellis, the answer is clear.
“Our kids should come first,” Ellis said at the March 9 meeting. He described how the demand for use of the field had seemingly crowded out the opportunities for the in-district teams to use the field.
“Last year I looked at our baseball team,” Ellis said. “We practiced nine times – nine times on our own field.”
He said even though he hopes to prioritize in-district teams, “We want to share.”
In a written statement from the district, Ellis reasserted his point of view.
“I hope people understand that the Reds project was indeed a community project. But this is not a community field where everyone has equal rights to it. We own it, maintain it and are responsible for it,” Ellis said in the statement.
In Holy Cross’s case, the discounted rate at which they’ve used the field in the past fails to cover the costs associated with maintaining the field. In the same written statement, the district said that the $150 or so that Holy Cross pays per usage of the field isn’t enough to cover custodial costs for opening and closing the field. “This results in a loss of $50 per game for Covington Independent Schools,” the statement said.
Others don’t share this view. In a phone call with Natalie Gardner, who was instrumental to the field’s renovation, she asserted with LINK nky that the project was meant to be shared with the community generally.
Board of Education President Tom Haggard added some nuance to situation at the meeting.
“I feel very strongly that we have some of the best facilities around, and they should be enjoyed by as many people as possible,” Haggard said. “They certainly belong to the taxpayers of Covington, and so we wanted to take a look at this policy, see if it’s currently meeting our needs and anything else that we can do to improve upon this policy, so we can make sure that we are getting the highest and best use of our facilities, and the community feels welcome to use them.”
In a phone call with LINK nky, Haggard said, “And so you know, we definitely want to make sure that our Covington Independent Schools students, you know, get first look at the scheduling.”
But, he also noted, “These are all Covington kids. We need to share this field and make sure that everybody can come to an equitable, mutually beneficial solution, and I think that’s what we’re gonna do. That’s what the board wants to do.”
The school board’s attorney is currently researching other community-use policies in the area. Haggard said that alternatives to the current policy will be presented to the board in the coming months.