By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — A city woman and her cousin — a prominent local attorney — are taking the city to task over a longstanding practice of allowing the private St. Raphael Academy and other local parochial schools to use city-owned athletic fields.

Maggi Burns Rogers, a public school parent, and Mark McBurney, an attorney with the McBurney & McBurney law office, say they are frustrated over what they see as a favoritism by city officials — many of whom are St. Ray’s alumni — in granting permits for field use. They say the agreement represents a blatant disregard for the First Amendment guarantees of a separation of church and state.
Approximately four months ago, the two brought the matter to the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. According to ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown, the ACLU has assigned the case to one of its attorneys, Sandra Lanni, who is in the process of reviewing documents related to the case.
Brown said that a decision has not yet been made about whether or not there will be a lawsuit filed against the city. However, he said, “Based on the information we’ve seen thus far, I would say there are concerns. I don’t think any private institution has a permanent right to make use of government property at the expense of public entities.”
With two children in the public school system (her son graduated in June from Tolman High School) Rogers said she began looking into the matter in 2004, when it came to her attention that the Goff and Jenks Junior High School soccer teams were getting bumped for practice times at the athletic fields closest to the schools by teams from St. Ray’s. In addition, she said that on many occasions, her son, who played tennis for Tolman, spoke of having to wait for court time because St. Ray’s tennis teams were using the Slater Park courts. 
Rogers said that she spoke to both the Tolman and Shea High School athletic directors, John Scanlon and Ray McGee, respectively, and found out that they, too, were experiencing frustration with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department over scheduling and use of the Pariseau and O’Brien fields and the Slater Park tennis courts.
Rogers said that both athletic directors have had to move the start times for freshman and JV football games to later times than what they wanted because St. Ray’s was using both of the fields, or, in some cases, have been shut out of field use completely for practice sessions for the junior high boys and girls soccer teams.
Rogers said that she and other parents had voiced complaints about the matter and she thought the situation had improved. However, she said that the problems over scheduling have continued for the past few school years, primarily due to St. Ray’s use of the O’Brien and Pariseau fields, and the Slater Park tennis courts, with the apparent blessing of city officials.
“No one is out to get St. Ray’s,” said Rogers, pointing out that McBurney is an alumnus. “But what’s right is right. I don’t think the city wants to get into the position of using taxpayer funds to fight a lawsuit protecting a private school’s rights to use public fields.”
Rogers and McBurney say they are particularly vexed by St. Ray’s use of the O’Brien field, next to Jenks Junior High School on South Bend Street. They said the field was substantially rehabilitated with tax payer funds through a Community Development Block Grant, and as such, the junior high school students should be given priority in scheduling its use. Instead, they say that St. Ray’s, located just a few blocks away, is given essentially unlimited access, using it not only for practice sessions but even for its physical education classes.

Junior high sports have put a crunch on field time

According to numerous city officials and independent sources, the relationship between the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the once-all male Catholic high school is a long and established one. The practice of St. Ray’s using the city’s athletic fields for games and practices reportedly goes back decades. With sports programs concentrated primarily at the high school level, the parochial high school managed to co-exist peacefully with the city’s two public high schools, Tolman and Shea, when it came to scheduling field use.
However, what has changed the situation in recent years is the emergence of junior high school sports and additional sports programs for girls. Suddenly, city Parks and Recreation officials were being asked to find practice time for junior high school boys and girls soccer, junior high tennis, and other programs that weren’t around previously.
With such a scramble for playing time by the public schools, Rogers and McBurney think it is time that the city stop letting St. Ray’s have free and unlimited use of the city-owned facilities. They maintain that the public school sports scheduling requests should be given first priority at all times, over private school requests.
In these tough budgetary times, they also say that a secondary practice, of letting St. Ray’s, Bishop Keough and other city parochial schools use the fields and tennis courts free of charge, should also be curtailed. Private schools should be charged a fair market value for the use permits, they reason, just as any other outside organization is charged a fee.
Rogers pointed out that St. Ray’s is not likely to let the city’s public schools use its new athletic and wellness center, and maintains that the school should raise funds for its own athletic fields, as other private schools have done.
The ACLU’s Steven Brown agrees, noting that, to his knowledge, this is the only case in the state where a city is letting a private institution have free use of municipally owned fields.
Rogers also said that for many months now, she has been requesting that Mulholland and other city officials turn over all documents related to written policies regarding field use by private entities as well as proof of any fees that have been paid. Despite having made the requests under the Freedom of Information Act, she said that city officials have not readily complied or have only partially turned over documents. Rogers maintains that there is no written policy that would seem to apply to the use of the fields by private or parochial schools and that the city needs to establish one.
Rogers said that the attorney general’s office even issued a finding that the city solicitor’s office was not complying as it should with her Freedom of Information Act requests, although Rogers concedes that there the documents are, perhaps, being held back by other city officials.
William Mulholland, the city’s longtime Parks and Recreation director, said that in his 28 years with the city, St. Ray’s has always been allowed to use the city’s fields for games and practices. “There has been a longstanding understanding, is how I’d describe it,” said Mulholland.
In particular, Mulholland said the parochial school had used what is now the O’Brien Field for its football practices when it was “nothing but dirt. When the field was renovated several years back, it was even named in honor of a St. Ray’s coach, Dennis O’Brien, even though it is located adjacent to the public Jenks Junior High. “Now that it’s fixed over, everybody wants a piece of it,” he said.
Mulholland said he always tries to accommodate school sports requests, whether they are public or private. “It’s not fair to infer that because many city officials are St. Ray’s alumni that the school gets preferential treatment from the city,” he stated. He noted that the Jenks soccer teams have been offered the use of the Parieseau field, where both Tolman and St. Ray’s play their football games, from 2:30 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
John Carney, the city’s Public Works and Highway Department Superintendent and Mulholland’s boss, echoed Mulholland’s statement that the number of sports programs at the city’s school has increased, and the Parks and Recreation Department is scrambling to keep up. He said some of the fault lies with the public school athletic directors, who have added some sports programs, such as junior high girls soccer and tennis, without giving the Parks and Recreation Department enough notice to do planning.
“We’re trying to be fair to everyone. St. Ray’s depends on the city for field space, as do the public schools, but we’re being pushed to the limit. There is just not enough space to accommodate all of the teams,” said Carney.

Officials: St. Ray’s may be charged for field use

Carney also said that, beginning this fall, the city intends on charging St. Ray’s a fee for use of the fields going forward. However, he said the details have not yet been finalized.
Like several mayors before him, Mayor James E. Doyle is also a St. Ray’s graduate, along with numerous members of the city council and city officials, past and present. He also noted that the matter of St. Ray’s using the city’s fields is a practice that not only pre-dates his tenure, but “goes back 50 years or more.” He acknowledged, however, that it has become “an emotional issue” and said he understands the position of the parents of the public school students involved.
John Scanlon, athletic director for Tolman, and Ray McGee, athletic director for Shea, both share the duties of running the junior high athletic programs. Both say they have experienced frustration going back almost a decade over trying to schedule football, soccer and tennis practices and game times on city fields and finding themselves bumped by St. Ray’s teams due to scheduling by city officials.
Scanlon pointed out that at a meeting held several weeks ago with Parks and Recreation officials to obtain field permits for the upcoming school years, some of the junior high schools were again shut out by St. Ray’s. He was particularly critical of the fact that Jenks Junior High’s boys and girls soccer teams were not going to be able to use the O’Brien Field due to St. Ray’s longtime use of it for football practice. Additionally, he and McGee were also told that one soccer field at the McKinnon-Alves soccer complex had been set aside exclusively for use by St. Ray’s, as well as five Slater Park tennis courts in the afternoon.
At a meeting held on Wednesday afternoon at City Hall, Rogers and ACLU attorney Lanni met with Mayor James Doyle and other city officials, along with Scanlon and McGee and the principal and athletic director of St. Ray’s. Rogers called the meeting “contentious, but productive.”
Rogers said that a proposal was made to St. Ray’s that it use the city-owned McCarthy athletic fields on School Street for its football practices, thus freeing up the O’Brien Field for the Jenks soccer teams. No final decision was made on the idea, however.
Scanlon and Rogers also said that, since the first meeting with Parks and Recreation officials, a change has been made to move the St. Ray’s tennis practices to after 5 p.m., freeing up courts at Slater Park for the public schools.
Both Scanlon and McGee have stated that they don’t mind if the city wants to accommodate St. Ray’s, as long as the city’s public school students are given first priority. Rogers said that she, too, doesn’t mind St. Ray’s having some use of the city’s fields, but thinks they should be charged a fee – the same as any other private organization. She also wants to see a written policy put in place and adhered to by the Parks and Recreation Department.
Mayor James Doyle, who said he was surprised to see Brown accompanied by an ACLU lawyer at Wednesday’s meeting, said the city “obviously” doesn’t want a lawsuit over the matter. “Hopefully, we think we have this matter straightened out,” he said. He declined to speak about the particulars, but said concessions are being requested from both sides.
Doyle said he expects to hear back from St. Ray’s officials on the situation shortly. “By the end of next week, we hope to have a resolution finalized.”
Attempts to reach the St. Ray’s athletic director for comment were unsuccessful.