According to the agenda for tonight’s Special Meeting, the Bridgeport Board of Education are set to vote on asking the city to halt construction of the soccer field at the new Roosevelt School, proving once again exactly who they serve. The board and their union funders would prefer another parking lot be sited on the school grounds.

At Monday’s Facilities Committee meeting, after being told that construction of the field was already underway, the committee voted unanimously to refer the soccer field issue to the full board.

O&G project manager Larry Schilling, who presented project updates to the committee on Monday, said the lights for the new field were being installed Tuesday.

He added that the cost of changes at this point would be “significant,” particularly because it’s unlikely that the state would pick up any of the costs associated with changes to the design this late in the game. The state is paying 80 percent of the costs of the project.

As reported by Education Bridgeport!, a soccer field was added to the Roosevelt School’s original design back in 2012, at the request of Mayor Bill Finch when the city realized the community lacked safe recreation spaces.

The School Building Committee approved the changes in the spring of 2012, and city council approved the increase in spending the following year.

Now, two years after the board approved the change, they are pandering to union leadership, who wants the city nix the soccer field to make way for a parking lot.

In a nutshell: The board is more worried what their union funders want than what’s best for the students at Roosevelt, a school located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. They’d prefer school children walk nearly a mile to Seaside park than have a small number of teachers cross a well-lit, secure street.

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