The New York City Department of Education spent $4 million in taxpayer funds to renovate a Brooklyn athletic field — then handed control of it to a small all-boys public school to the exclusion of three girls’ soccer teams.
As reported by the New York Post, the power play by Eagle Academy for Young Men II in East Flatbush is under federal scrutiny for alleged Title IX violations.
Log in to view the full article
The New York City Department of Education spent $4 million in taxpayer funds to renovate a Brooklyn athletic field — then handed control of it to a small all-boys public school to the exclusion of three girls’ soccer teams.
As reported by the New York Post, the power play by Eagle Academy for Young Men II in East Flatbush is under federal scrutiny for alleged Title IX violations.
Until last fall, the girls’ varsity soccer teams from Medgar Evers College Prep, and Wingate and Prospect Heights high schools — all in District 17 and within walking distance of the “Old Boys and Girls Field” — used the space for practice and home games. But the DOE gave control of the refurbished field to the 622-student Eagle Academy in Ocean Hill, which is two miles away in District 23, for its football team, according to the Post, adding that DOE workers even painted the school’s logo and name in huge letters on the turf.
“Suddenly, quietly, behind our backs, it got transferred to Eagle Academy,” said Ruslan Yakovlyuk, coach of the Medgar Evers girls' varsity soccer team.
The girls were forced to play on distant fields across Brooklyn, miss afternoon classes to make games on time, and return home late from practice, Yakovlyuk said.
“Once the facility was transferred to them, they basically said, ‘It’s ours,’ ” Yakovlyuk said of Eagle Academy. “My guess is that Mr. Banks gave it to them somehow. It’s all politics.”
Before New York City mayor Eric Adams named David Banks schools chancellor in January 2022, Banks served 13 years as president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, which supports a network of five public schools in the city, and one in Newark, for boys of color in grades 6 through 12. Before that, Banks was founding principal in 2004 of the first Eagle Academy in the Bronx, which formed in partnership with 100 Black Men of New York.
“Somehow they got the field, and all the teams that played there had to be moved,” Shani Nakhid-Schuster, who coached the Wingate soccer team, said.
Officials offered an adjacent baseball/softball field, but athletic directors deemed it unsafe for soccer because of the pitcher’s mound and cutouts of dirt around the bases.
“A lot of our games were rescheduled. We went all over,” Nakhid-Schuster said, recalling that girls traveled up to an hour or more to home games on other Brooklyn fields.
“All I know is that the girls were really put at a disadvantage, and I don’t think it was fair for them. It was a huge disservice to women’s sports.”
Kenneth Bigley, a sports coordinator for NYC’s Public School Athletic League, filed a sex-discrimination complaint Sept. 30 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Taking a DOE-owned facility that was used by students of both genders, renovating it, and then giving exclusive use to a small all-boys school seems the type of situation Title IX is meant to prevent,” Bigley wrote.
In December, the federal office confirmed it had opened an investigation.
A DOE spokeswoman said management of the field “was turned over to Eagle Academy stewardship in April 2023 on the grounds of it being the school closest in proximity with the largest number of athletic teams.”
But the Eagle Academy, with four athletic teams, is farthest from the field. The three closest coed high schools and complexes list a total 32 teams, according to Susan Edelman and Samantha Olander of the Post.
Both DOE and SCA spokespersons refused to explain who requested or approved the $4 million renovation, and how it was awarded to Eagle Academy. The DOE denied that Eagle Academy barred any school or community group from using the field.
