Stadium Lighting Will Help Girls’ League

Stadium lighting to be installed at El Camino Real High School will increase the availability of playing fields for the West Valley Girls Softball League and other organized sports teams.

Steven L. Soboroff, president of the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners, said the new lighting is just one of the benefits of 10 joint-use agreements between the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District that the board approved Wednesday.

The agreements, six of which pertain to LAUSD facilities in the San Fernando Valley, allow for community-based organizations to use the school facilities after hours. The stadium lighting at El Camino, for example, will enable existing fields to be used in the evening.

Funding for the $186,000 lighting system will come from previously approved park bond measures.

“We’ll use our money to fix them up and [the schools] can use them during the day, but we want to use them after school,” Soboroff said.

The board approved the agreements Wednesday before a public meeting at the Tarzana Recreation Center to examine ways to increase the availability of playing fields.

Soboroff scheduled the hearing last month after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the West Valley Girls Softball League, alleging that the city discriminates against girls by relegating their teams to shabby fields.

Though two separate Little Leagues offered to share their fields with the West Valley girls, it remains unclear whether those offers will resolve the lawsuit.

Soboroff said his goal is to improve the Valley’s sports programs; that has put him at odds with some parents who believe the system is operating fine as-is.