By CLARE TRAPASSO
Associated Press

NEW YORK - A shortage of athletic fields on a tiny island off Manhattan has led to a legal battle between some of Manhattan's most exclusive private schools and the mostly poor minority communities nearby.

Last June, residents of East Harlem filed a lawsuit against New York City, claiming that officials effectively turned over public land to a group of private schools that are paying to renovate athletic fields and build new ones on Randall's Island.

The plaintiffs fear that the city may be setting a dangerous precedent.

"They don't care about children from poor and working families," said Marina Ortiz, a member of an East Harlem community board. "Whoever can afford to pay will play, and we don't think that should be the case with public parkland."

Randall's Island is a 480-acre speck nestled in the East River between upper Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. It's connected to the city boroughs by the Triborough Bridge as well as a pedestrian bridge to East Harlem.

Last February, the city forged a deal with a consortium of 20 private schools in Manhattan under which the schools agreed to pay about $52 million over 20 years to build new athletic fields and renovate 36 existing ones, for a total of 63.

In exchange, the schools, which include such high-profile institutions as Dalton, Trinity and Spence, will receive exclusive use of two-thirds of the fields between 3 and 6 p.m. on weekdays - the hours of peak demand - for the duration of the deal.

Public schools, sports leagues, after-school programs and private schools not included in the consortium would compete for permits for the remainder of the fields.

The plaintiffs contend that the project was approved without sufficient environmental or community review, and without competitive bidding. They also say the main beneficiaries are private-school children, even though the athletic fields are located on public parkland, and the city is kicking in $65 million for the project.

"We went to court to say, ‘These city agencies need to follow the rules of law,' " said plaintiffs' lawyer Norman Siegel.

At a hearing earlier this month, the plaintiffs asked the judge to order the city to reveal whether parkland used by local residents for sunbathing and picnics will be converted into new playing fields. It wasn't clear when she would rule, and no additional hearings have been scheduled.

Besides the athletic fields, the mostly uninhabited island is home to a psychiatric center, a homeless shelter, the city Fire Department's training academy and a stadium that's been the site of big concerts like last fall's Farm Aid.

A ruling against the city could halt construction of the new fields, which is already underway. On a recent winter morning, bulldozers rumbled over large tracts of dirt enclosed by wire fencing.

City officials defend the project, saying they needed the private schools to pay for such amenities as new restrooms, benches, water fountains, bleachers, dugouts and information booths.

"These new fields will provide public schools priority access to four times more fields during prime after-school hours than previously available," said Aimee Boden, executive director of the Randall's Island Sports Foundation, which is overseeing the project.

Mark Skrapits, a senior at Regis High School in Manhattan, has played baseball on the island's shabby athletic fields for four years. Since a small number of private schools have played there so long that they are virtually guaranteed permits, it's been a struggle for his Roman Catholic school to obtain official permission to play there; they are not part of the consortium.

"It's a three-part battle" to practice, he said. "The first part is finding an open field. Then you have to make sure the field is playable, clean it up a little bit ... and not get kicked off by another team."

His baseball coach, Dan Dougherty, says the deal between the city and the private schools could shut them out for good.

"The worst-case scenario would be that we have to terminate our baseball and soccer programs," said Dougherty. "Short of that, we would need to travel farther at greater cost and time to try to find someplace else ... if such a place exists."

But the deal has many supporters, including Ogden Lewis, a former trustee at the private Buckley School. "The total availability of the fields for all children in the city is actually going up," he said.

And some public-school officials also are in favor of the plan.

"I don't care who paid for it," said Gregory Hodge, the principal of Frederick Douglas Academy, a West Harlem public school whose students are bused to the island twice a week by the foundation.

"The reality is, public schools benefit," Hodge said. "Some fields are better than no fields."