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The Cleveland boys soccer team, pictured above, was on the brink of protest after being bounced from its home field on Monday and Wednesday nights.

(Steve Duin/The Oregonian)

Members of the Cleveland High School boys soccer team had planned to protest at the school's turf field Wednesday evening.

They were angry after learning that Portland Public Schools had rented the field out to Southeast Soccer Club during the same time slot the school team had reserved for its practices.

But by Wednesday evening, the planned protest had morphed into a celebration. Hours before the scheduled protest, school district officials announced that the students would get their field back.

“We’re happy that we had some movement today,” said Kristin George, a Cleveland parent whose son is on the varsity soccer team. “But it’s a cautious celebration.”

When the Cleveland soccer team's supporters planned the protest, they had expected to find the Southeast Soccer Club's members on the field Wednesday evening, getting ready for their first scheduled practice.

But the district announced via Facebook Wednesday afternoon that instead, the school team will get to use the field.

“Our message has been heard. All Cleveland teams WILL have the first opportunities to use the Cleveland Community Field,” stated a letter from Cleveland High School principal Paul Cook that was posted on the district’s Facebook page. “We have precedence over any third party organization.”

School district spokesman Jon Isaacs said district officials worked out a last minute agreement to rearrange the club's schedule to accommodate the school team. Instead, Isaacs said, the club will practice at the Marshall Campus field until a permanent scheduling solution is worked out.

“We’re working with each of our schools to make sure we have schedules that, first and foremost, meet the needs of the teams at the high schools before we begin blocking in schedules for community partners,” Isaacs said.

After completing a 10-year fundraising campaign to pay for new a new track and turf at every Portland public high school field, district leaders plan to fund future improvements to the fields by renting them out to private groups for a fee. Southeast Soccer Club, which has donated $50,000 toward future repairs, was supposed to pay $75 per practice at the Cleveland field.

After hearing about the Cleveland controversy, athletes and coaches at other schools had begun to worry they would be kicked off the field, too. George said the Cleveland team hasn’t yet heard directly from the district about how future scheduling will happen.

"I'm reluctant to think it's completely solved until we've seen a proposal or contract to tell us if this is a done deal forever and ever," she said.

Isaacs said miscommunication among district staff led to the scheduling conflict, but it’s unclear where that miscommunication took place. The district’s field use policy was never meant to give outside groups precedence over student teams, he said.

“We’re going to have to go back together with the staff at Cleveland and figure out where the miscommunication happened,” he said. “At the end of the day it’s not fair to the student athletes, to their families, or to tour community partners.”

--Kelly House