As Journal Star sports columnist Ron Powell noted earlier this month, public school tennis courts are locked up in Lincoln.

School officials say that locking out the public protects the courts from possible damage from skateboarders, bicyclists and in-line skaters.

Powell reported that the practice of locking the courts is not the norm. In other cities, the courts are available for public use.

"The only Class A public schools I know of that lock up their courts are in Lincoln," he wrote.

The practice also seems contrary to the written policy of the Lincoln School Board, which states, "The Lincoln Board of Education believes in the maximum use of school facilities for the broader education of the people and the advancement of civic and recreational interests of the community."

LPS has a tradition of making its facilities available for public use, complete with dozens of pages of regulations that can be viewed on the LPS We site.

Non-school, public use of school facilities amounts to about 90,000 to 100,000 hours a year, according to Marilyn Lovelace, the recently retired public school official who oversaw the process.

Community users include various youth organizations, such as Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, city recreational basketball and volleyball leagues, YMCA sports leagues and others.

A handful of churches even hold services in school buildings, using gymnasiums as a temporary sanctuary.

In some cases in which the community activities are school-related - for example, PTA meetings - there is no charge for use of the facilities.

In other cases, there may be a fee for use of a gymnasium, plus a $35 an hour charge for custodians. The district requires custodians to be present during non-school hours, according to Lovelace.

In cases in which school buildings are rented for business purposes, such as a dance recital, a higher fee is charged so that the district will not undercut private enterprise.

In all, the district probably takes in an average of $10,000 to $15,000 a month in revenue from fees for community use, Lovelace estimated.

There's little doubt that making public school facilities available for public use is justified by the fact that they were built with tax dollars. The community is well-served by policies that allow frequent and widespread use of school facilities.

The case of the locked tennis courts, however, raises the question of whether a review of existing practices might be in order. The school board should check fees to make sure they are not excessive. Most importantly, the board should make sure that all school officials are aware of official policy and that it actually is implemented.