The School District continues to assert its longstanding legal right of access and continued use of the Cleveland Avenue Field, which has served as athletic and playground facilities for generations of students. The dispute over this matter is before the New York State court system and will be resolved there. No action taken by the Village will change this fact, including the Village's attempt to change the zoning of the Cleveland Avenue Fields. The purported public hearing of the Village's re-zoning application, which has yet to be shared with the public, and the Village's efforts to extinguish the District's interest in the property are further attempts by the Mayor and Board of Trustees to deny the District and its students use of the Cleveland Avenue Field.
The Village continues to behave as if the School District's 70-year-old legal right to use the field does not exist. It is only through this strange logic that the Village claims the School District is standing in the way of its development plans, which have not been shared in any detail with the Freeport Community. The truth is precisely the opposite - the Village is aiming to deny our schoolchildren's state-mandated athletic programming by illegally throwing the District and our children off Cleveland Avenue Field. Every Freeport Village Mayor, Board Trustee and Village Administration has staunchly supported and protected the School District's legal right to use the Cleveland Avenue Field for student athletic purposes for the last three quarters of a century, until today!
The School District will not abide any attempt by Village officials to favor the interests of any outside corporation over educational and athletic opportunity for our students. We reiterate that the School District's only motivation regarding Cleveland Avenue Field has been to ensure the protection of the health and safety of our students and school community and to further protect our longstanding property and legal interests.