Here’s how MCSD will spend $1 million upgrading sports facilities after lawsuit
It’s now clear how much it will cost the Muscogee County School District to settle a mother’s federal lawsuit that alleged gender discrimination — and an additional school will benefit.
During its monthly meeting Monday night, the nine-member Muscogee County school board unanimously approved without public discussion the superintendent’s recommendation to allocate $1,071,486 for upgrades of the softball facilities at Northside and Shaw high schools.
The vote came four months after MCSD agreed to equitably fund boys and girls sports as part of the settlement of the May 2018 lawsuit Turena Tante, the mother of a Northside softball player, filed on behalf of her daughter in the Columbus Division of the Middle District of Georgia.
The lawsuit accused the school district of violating Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Equal Protection Clause in the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment by discriminating against Tante’s daughter, based solely on her gender, in the following areas:
- Funding of athletics.
- Provision of equipment and supplies.
- Per diem in the form of pregame meals.
- Assignment and/or compensation of coaches.
- Provision of locker rooms and facilities for practice and competition.
- Provision of training facilities and services.
According to the lawsuit, Tante wanted MCSD to be required to provide her daughter with the treatment and benefits equivalent to what the school district provides the boys’ teams, as well as “monetary relief in order to compensate her for her damages” resulting from MCSD’s alleged discrimination. Those damages being sought included expenses for equipment and supplies not incurred by parents of male MCSD athletes, plus damages associated with “reduced opportunities to obtain college athletic scholarships.”
The only dollar figure mentioned in the settlement was the $90,000 in attorney fees and costs. Now, there is an itemized list of specific improvements.
Shaw’s softball facility is included in the upgrades because, after the settlement, the district’s assessment of all its sports facilities found that area to not be equitable with the school’s baseball program, MCSD athletics director Jeff Battles told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“It was not a part of a lawsuit or anything like that,” Battles said after the board’s work session last week. “We’re just saying, because of the lawsuit, that the young ladies need to have (facilities) equitable to what the boys have.”
Superintendent David Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer last week, “We have issues that we feel like are Title IX things we want to address before it becomes a problem. This is all about being proactive.”
The construction is expected to start in January and finish in April.
“That’s our goal,” Battles said. “They have to be done by August, when the season starts. That’s why we said April, because then we’ve got a couple months of leeway if we need it.”
Here is a breakdown of the upgrades and the estimated costs:
Northside: $802,477
- $448,414: new locker room building, 21-by-48 feet.
- $179,111: two new dugouts, including relocation of storm drainage system.
- $50,623: new backstop wall and field backstop drainage.
- $49,941: new press box, 10-by-12 feet.
- $38,213: contingency for cost overruns.
- $36,174: two new bullpens.
Shaw: $134,009
- $45,777: concrete hardscapes.
- $18,926: backstop walls.
- $18,447: new siding on concession stand.
- $17,479: contingency for cost overruns.
- $9,004: new roof.
- $8,193: HVAC added to concession stand.
- $8,193: HVAC added to baseball concession stand.
- $2,980: new roll-up doors at transaction counters.
- $2,980: awning over concession transaction window.
- $2,027: new transaction ledge at concession window.
Other costs
- $65,000: architecture and engineering.
- $50,000: contingency for cost overruns.
- $20,000: surveys, materials testing.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 7:48 PM.
