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DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2021
149TH YEAR, NO. 13
$1.50
ASTORIA SCHOOL DISTRICT
Families
will need
to make
decision
on masks
A 3-2 vote by the school board
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Students and staff in the Astoria School
District will not have to wear masks to
protect against the coronavirus when they
return to school in September regardless
of their vaccination status.
The school board voted 3-2 Mon-
day night to leave the choice of mask-
ing up to families. Health screenings,
frequent hand-washing and other basic
pandemic protocols will remain in place.
Students and staff will have to wear
masks while on school buses, a federal
requirement.
School districts across Clatsop County
are still absorbing new reopening guide-
lines released by the state last week,
but some are already planning to fol-
low a similar path as Astoria. While the
state highly recommended mask-wear-
ing indoors, the decision was left to local
school districts.
Alarmed by the spread of the delta
variant, the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention on Tuesday rec-
ommended that teachers, staff and stu-
dents of K-12 schools wear masks, even if
they are vaccinated, which could increase
pressure on school leaders.
See Astoria schools, Page A6
State offi cials
recommend
masks as
cases surge
Twenty-one new cases reported
in county over past few days
By GRIFFIN REILLY
and BRYCE DOLE
The Astorian and East Oregonian
The Oregon Health Authority has rec-
ommended that people wear masks in
indoor public settings as coronavirus
cases and hospitalizations grow across
the state.
The state’s guidance on Tuesday came
hours after the federal Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention recom-
mended masks, including among peo-
ple who have been vaccinated against the
virus, in portions of the country where
the virus is surging because of the delta
variant.
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
The view from home plate of the softball diamond at Broadway Field.
After federal complaint, Gulls
could get level playing fi elds
School district will
improve the softball fi eld
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
S
EASIDE — In an agreement a
decade in the making, the Sea-
side School District will improve
practice and playing fi elds for soft-
ball to remedy disparities with baseball
that deny equal opportunity to female
athletes.
The noticeable diff erences between
the baseball and softball diamonds at
Broadway Field create potential viola-
tions of Title IX, the federal law meant
to protect against discrimination in
education.
Under a resolution between the
school district and the U.S. Department
of Education’s Offi ce for Civil Rights,
the school district must develop a plan
to ensure equity between the baseball
and softball programs by next June and
complete the plan by June 2023.
“The girls softball team has been dis-
criminated against forever,” said Randy
Anderson, whose daughter, Whitney,
was a junior varsity softball player for
the Gulls. “From the beginning. They’re
not an equal part of the school system,
the sport system.”
Superintendent Susan Penrod said
the school district worked collabora-
tively with the Offi ce for Civil Rights.
“We are dedicated to meeting all of
these timelines and are working with
SEPRD (Sunset Empire Park and Rec-
reation District) and the city of Sea-
side to determine the best location for
the softball facility,” she said. “We have
already set aside funds to complete this
work.”
Federal issues
In 2012, Anderson and John Nic ola-
zzi, another parent, fi led a lawsuit in
federal court alleging the school district
failed to permit girls from participating
equally with boys.
The lawsuit claimed that female stu-
dents didn’t have comparable athletic
facilities as the boys, that they were
unable to participate in team sports and
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
A hole is underneath third base on the
softball fi eld at Broadway Field.
R.J. Marx/The Astorian
Randy Anderson has sought equal male
and female sports facilities in Seaside.
that they had been excluded from the
high school’s athletic program.
The school district assigned base-
ball teams to practice and play games
on “excellent artifi cial turf fi elds while
requiring that female softball teams to
practice and play on soggy, poorly main-
tained fi elds that force female teams to
practice in a gym and to forfeit, post-
pone games and/or travel to other dis-
tricts to play because the district’s fi elds
are unplayable.”
That case was dismissed after a set-
tlement in 2014. Terms of the settle-
ment were never publicly released, but
the school district responded by adding
lights and building a softball diamond at
Broadway Field.
T hose steps did not change the
inequities, Anderson said, and even
with lights, conditions for girls hardly
improved.
“If I didn’t sue them in federal
court, that fi eld would not be here right
now,” Anderson said. “They spent over
$28,000 to build that, and built a Title
IX noncompliant fi eld. The girls are
plopped on the football fi eld as an after-
thought. It’s legal size, but they have to
set up their own fencing. If you look,
the boys have fencing set up, permanent
fencing set up all the way around.
“See the foul pole? Boys have foul
poles, permanent foul poles. Girls don’t.
They have to wheel in portable foul
poles. The wheels don’t work. They
have to set up their own fencing.”
Dissatisfi ed with conditions at the
softball fi eld, Anderson fi led a civil
rights complaint in March 2019. The
Offi ce for Civil Rights followed up.
“They spent two days up here, went
through all the facilities, all the playing
fi elds,” Anderson said. “They did inter-
views with coaches, players and staff .
They came to their determination about
the softball fi eld because they found dis-
crepancies, disparity between the girls
softball and the boys baseball, and now
the district has to do something.”
According to fi ndings accompany-
ing the agreement, the Offi ce for Civil
Rights said “softball athletes indicated
that pitchers would get their foot caught
in a hole in the pitching circle and that
athletes had to avoid a hole, used for the
football goal post, located on the third
base line to avoid injury.”
The infi eld did not have a softball
pitching circle permanently marked,
and according to the softball ath-
letes and the softball coach, they were
responsible for spray-painting the pitch-
ing circle.
As Anderson described, softball ath-
letes and the softball coach set up and
See Field, Page A6
See Masks, Page A6
Obelisk Beer Co. to open in Astoria
New brewery planned
for Columbia Fruit space
By EMILY LINDBLOM
The Astorian
Obelisk Beer Co.
Nathan Lampson, left, and Dave Coyne plan to open Obelisk Beer Co. in Astoria.
The b eer town of the coast is
expecting to add another brewery to
its repertoire.
Dave Coyne and Nathan Lamp-
son plan to open Obelisk Beer Co.
in Astoria in 2022.
“Hopefully, people can look for-
ward to good times and delicious
beer in our taproom soon,” Coyne
said.
Lampson said he and Coyne are
excited about creating a small-scale
brewery and having an intimate
relationship with the beer they’re
making.
“Also to directly contribute our
voice within the beer industry with
full autonomy as far as sourcing
ingredients and creating designs and
packaging,” Lampson said.
“It’s such a wonderful industry to
work in and it’s fi lled with a lot of
people who are passionate about the
community and where the ingredi-
ents come from,” Coyne added.
The two plan to produce oak-in-
spired, barrel-aged beers, as well as
pub-style and hoppy beer varieties.
Obelisk is a loose reference to
the shape of the Astoria Column.
Although “obelisk” is not exactly
See Brewery, Page A6