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USD 363 mulling facility charges
Published 2/26/2010 in Local News
By MONICA SPRINGER
HOLCOMB — Discussions of charging the Holcomb Recreation Commission for using the USD 363's facilities continued on Thursday, with both entities meeting in joint session to talk about the matter.
No decision was reached, but USD 363 officials agreed to supply the HRC with a cost estimate of maintaining the north part of Holcomb Elementary School and the school's pool.
The north part of the elementary school is largely under-used, said Demitry Evancho, USD 363 superintendent.
USD 363 Board of Education members and the HRC staff and board said there's a possibility of the HRC maintaining the school's north gymnasium and several unused classrooms as a community center.
The decision of supplying cost estimates to the HRC came after a 90-minute meeting with the board of education and HRC staff and board.
Evancho said during the meeting that the school district is looking to charge the HRC because of the state's bleak budget outlook and because the HRC hasn't been charged a fee in recent years.
Before the Thursday meeting, district officials had talked about being reimbursed for the money that it costs to maintain areas of schools the HRC uses, including gyms, locker rooms and hallways.
A written offer from the HRC to pay the school district $15 per usage of the facilities, or about $6,000 a year, was neither accepted nor denied at Thursday's meeting. The offer, dated Feb. 9, is signed by Eric Jantz, HRC director.
Members of the HRC, including Mike Sheldon, board chairman, said the community pays for the school facilities through taxes and added that the HRC doesn't want to pay for the facilities twice.
"We don't want to do this," Gayla Lohfink, USD 363 board member, said about charging the HRC. "If we hurt you, we hurt the community. But the facilities cost money."
Officials from both entities said several times throughout the meeting they've worked well with each other in the past and want to continue working together in the future.
Mary Ann Bennett, USD 363 board member, said the school district has never been in a position to ask the HRC for money before now.
Under USD 363's current facility use agreement policy, different groups are charged different rates for using the district's gymnasiums and classrooms.
The HRC, according to the policy, falls under group 6. The policy states that a rate for the elementary gym, auditorium, lunch or music room is to be determined.
There are six groups in the policy, and each group is charged a range from $100 per use fee to commercial, public or private organizations that profit from the use of the facilities to organizations with school affiliation that aren't charged a fee for facility use.
Members of the HRC said paying a fee to use USD 363's facilities would increase its fees in sports from about $20 to $90 per child, something that wouldn't be popular with parents.
The meeting started by Evancho explaining why the school district is looking to charge the HRC.
The state is more than $400 million short in its budget this year, and if it doesn't bring in revenue, school districts could see another drop in state aid of more than $280, Evancho said.
For USD 363, that's a total of $457,000 cut out of its $6 million budget.
Evancho said the financial hole the state is in is growing, and by 2012 there will be double the amount of deficit in the state.
In 2011, there's a possibility of funding levels dropping to $3,726 per student.
"It's not something we did," Evancho said. "It's just the way life happened. We have a real challenge ahead of us."
Thursday's meeting was an informative meeting only. Evancho said the board of education will discuss the matter further at its March meeting.
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