Athletic Facilities User Fees

There have been many discussions (with some non-laughing hysterics) about this issue of using the SMUHSD facilities. In an article yesterday it stated that some of our younger athletes may be impacted with these new fees - ie not be able to play. I appreciate the District's budget issues but any way to encourage more sports for our young citizens and our "scholarship players" - and not less - should be encouraged. Because of the way these "negotiations" have been handled, many of us may not be so generous when the school districts come hat in hand for more of our money. Article in San Mateo Times - Hill will broker deal on field fees Yesterday's article in the Daily Journal - Field users scrambling for space to play ***

Are user field fees too low? By Nathan Mollat (Daily Journal) After decades of working through the cities and paying ridiculously low user fees for athletic facilities, the San Mateo Union High School District has enacted a new, way more expensive fee schedule to use the district's facilities. Youth groups believe the district is playing hard ball. The district says it's the most prudent business decision. Many believe the city, groups and district should all get together and find ways to make things work. As corny as it sounds, there are those who still believe sports are a vital addition to the lives of well-rounded children and a well-rounded community. You become attached to your club. You start out at 6 or 7 (years old), you want to go through the ranks. You don't want to club hop,? said Bob Greene, founder and director of Golden State Water Polo Club. The parents like it as a social area. To drop the program, or merge the program, the kids, coaches and families lose out. I've lived here (in San Mateo) all my life. I have 30 relatives that in this (Aragon) area. We always went to Aragon, Baywood or Borel all the time to play.? Now, Greene and Karen Goff, president of the San Mateo Soccer Club, ask: Why would they now support the district when it wants to float a new bond measure? They both say it may be harder for communities to pony up when they remember how their kid were treated by the district. The Maintenance Assessment District a fund that was used to support maintenance of district facilities was originally funded by a parcel tax. Now, communities might not be so giving. Now, you're pricing everybody out of it. When you are up with a bond measure, are people going to get excited about it?? Greene asked. Now what's going to happen, no one's going to donate.? Goff has lived in San Mateo for about 20 years and considers her family a Hillsdale High family. Her kids attend the school and have used the Hillsdale facilities for use years growing up. Goff can foresee a time when local residents will say the same thing when the district comes to them looking for more money. My kids have always considered themselves Hillsdale Knights,? Goff said. Now why would I support [the district]? It's not just the way they raised the rates, it's their attitude. They say, The past is past. Get on board or get out.'? Greene, who gave up using the pool at Aragon because of the new fees, said it was a difficult decision to make but in the end, he did not want to pass all the costs to his members and still had a relationship with Serra and Woodside. More so than that, however, was Greene kind of feels like he's abandoning his community. I've used Aragon's pool forever,? Greene said. I live in San Mateo. I wanted a San Mateo team. I wanted kids (who) went to schools in San Mateo. If I'm a [San Mateo] kid, I don't want to drive to Belmont.? That sentiment is echoed by other groups. Goff said she bristles when her group is called an outside group? by the district. Goff, who has children at Hillsdale, said her group is a community group.? Goff said the district doesn't understand that today's under-10 soccer player will eventually play for their local high school team. They forget that these are the kids that are in their schools or coming up to their schools,? Goff said. We're also the parents who are part of the school's booster clubs.? The SMUHSD can sympathize but the bottom line is in these times of economic instability, the district needs to be accountable to its constituents namely the schools, the students and their facilities. We have to look at the district and be absolutely financially responsible. There need to be major changes,? said Elizabeth McManus, deputy superintendent of business services for SMUHSD. You have to make a business decision.?

- Written by Fiona

Comments

[Holy Roller]

The reason the costs have do be increased is the one thing that is never addressed on this site or in the newspaper.
More children.
Unfortunetly, the children, as well as their parents are undocumented illegals, and the school district does not have the mandate to address this problem.
It effects the schools classroom size, and the budget.
As well as the teacher layoffs, and deficets the school district is going through.
As long as illegals keep coming to this area, and their children, being born in the US are automatic citizens, the inability to fund every aspect of the public school system will be underfunded.

[Elizabeth]

So, During a time of Economic instablitiy, Liz McManaus's words, the District goes out and HIRES, not a part time, but a FULL time employee to schedule the fields. This job use to be done for FREE by the Cities. So, instead of trying to work with the Cities to increase prices to cover their direct costs, they hire a full time field scheduler to schedule fields that no one is now scheduling! Doesn't a full time employee bring with it retirement, medical as well as a salary? How is this saving money? The District is canceling long standing agreements with the Cities that had the Cities, maintaining the fields and paying to have them cleaned up! It is also blaming the cities for contacting the non-profit groups and informing them of the Districts move to increase these fees to a point where the non-profits can't afford to run their programs. Aren't the Board of Supervisors elected PUBLIC officials?

The new field scheduler, Connie I believe her name is, even stopped her car on a Saturday afternoon and threatened three young ladies that were throwing a softball in the Burlingame High School Softball field. These young ladies were not having a scheduled practice with any organization, they were just throwing around a ball and Connie got out of her car and threatened to call the police if the girls did not leave the field immediately.. I'm sorry, but I am personally PLASTERING my home with signs against the district if they ever go for another bond for facilities again.. I am also PLASTERING my home with signs against the current Board of supervisors that have gone along with this field increase and have gone along with the District shutting down working out the fees with the Cities. The districts lies about what the Cities are and are not paying are laughable. The anger in Liz McManus's voice when she talked to the Council at a recent City Council meeting was LAUGHABLE!!! I understand she was also in the lobby, giving a janitor a sheet of paper with a speach on it so he would know what to say when addressing the council. Again she wrote lies that the City was not doing their part to maintain and collect fees for the fields! Burlingame has paid for many of the facilities which Liz neglected to write in her speach! They want this issue to go away and want everyone to just go quietly into the sunset and start to pay pricing that is so inflated that if it wasn't so sad, would be commical. Unfortunately, it's our children that will suffer as more and more programs get canceled due to lack of field space.

I agree with your comments.

It sounds like the School District has been less than professional about dealing with the numbers and dealing with our City.

This issue is leaving a very sour taste in many people's mouths - even those who are not personally impacted through their children's sports programs and I wil think more than once, twice, three times before voting for a school bond.

Our children need more opportunites to be involved in a sports program and know what it is to be a team member and not less opportunities.

[Joanne]

I agree with both Elizabeth and Fiona.
When financial times are bad everyone looks to pinch pennies -- but there comes a time when pinching pennies becomes penny-wise and pound foolish. And it is pound foolish to squander the goodwill of the community and take it for granted. Communities work together for common goals -- they don't get into tit-for-tat behavior. Did the SMUHSD forget all the private donations and city tax money that have been poured into the BHS track and pool? Did they forget that BHS uses the city fields for baseball? That the BHS marching band practices each summer on city fields? That school potlucks and end-of-season dinners for individual BHS sports teams, as well as the music boosters, athletic boosters, and most recently, the Taste of the Town (where the parents so generously spend their time and resources to raise money for the SMUHSD to spend) used to all occur rent-free at the city-owned Rec Center? Carrying this tit-for-tat to its extreme, what's next? Will the Peninsula Tennis Club start charging the SMUHSD to hold the teacher appreciation and holiday lunches there? Will the golf courses and driving ranges who so generously let the BHS teams use their facilities ask them to pay up or ship out? Will the SMUHSD padlock the track (or charge Burlingame residents to walk around it on a summer evening)? Will Relay for Life be told to pay-up or move out?
Liz McManus is a finance person -- counting beans is her job and she's counted them very well. It is the job of the superintendent and the board to worry about larger issues like community relations. I hope they step up to the plate on this one and work with the city to iron out a relationship on facility use that works for the benefit of everyone -- the city, the SMUHSD and (surprise, surprise!) for the students and residents who are the raison d'etre for both groups.

[Joanne]

By the way, Nathan Mollat wrote a good piece in today's San Mateo Daily Journal on the same topic. Thankfully, he reports that the city is going to allow the BHS baseball team to begin practice on the city-owned fields tonight while the school district and city try to reach an agreement. The alternative was that the SMUHSD was going to load the boys into SMUHSD buses each night and ship them off to an off-site facility (perhaps the closed Crestmoor school) to practice. Ridiculous. Again, penny-wise, pound-foolish (not to mention a very "un-green" idea).

[Elizabeth]

They found out that the closed Crestmoor field had too many holes in it and that it was unplayable. That it would take money to fix it up and that is the reason they decided not to ship the boys up to Crestmoor. The City has always wanted to work with the SMUHSD but they are insisting that the City charge the same rates that they are charging us but they wouldn't give the City the formula that was used to come up with the fees. They also were refusing to give the city a certificate of insurance so that the boys could play on the City baseball field which is a bit amusing as they insist that any group renting the School district fields, have insurance. In fact, that is one of the reasons they gave BGS (Burlingame Girls Softball) that they couldn't use the batting cage on school property (that BGS paid for and built) due to liability issues. They wouldn't even accept a certificate of insurance, they just cut off negotiations. Never mind that BGS paid for the cage!

They also are telling the boys to sneak into the city batting cage for batting practice as they don't won't to pay for it's use.
Yet, when little girls are just throwing a ball on a field on a Saturday afternoon, they get a wild field scheduler threatening them with police action!

I'm afraid that the situation will get worse, before better as the District has refused to talk with the Cities and has pretty much told them to "get over it" and pay the fees. Fortunately for our kids, the City wants whats best for them and hasn't cut off the use of it's facilities for lunches, testing etc. Again people, think twice about voting for more bonds and find out who you are voting for on the Board of Supervisors, prior to casting that vote.

[SanMateoCounty and Cities Field User]

FYI...

One only has to look around at other
entities that have done this right/as
in correct or are mitigating the
same types of problems etc.

IE. Flood Park in Menlo Park charges
$50.00 per day for games.

Sounds reasonable compared to the
Miller/McManus fiasco.

Just an additional fyi and piling on:

Lodi and or Merced's Doctor Miller
had sketchy dealings with his consti-
tuents; the "party" was festive when
he "left".

McManus = one only has to know that
she was programming the union goon
in the hallway before he (leather
jacket) spoke, or rather read
verbetim his attack on the City of
Burlingame 'never spending a dime'.

Wow, how much further from the truth
could that statement have been!

Wonder if McManus worked for Bay
Meadows Land Development in her
other Life.

For the good of past boys and girls
who ran, swam, swung at, jostled,
scored from second, hit a home run,
struck out,water-polo'd or soccer'd
around our fields, and for the
present and the future - we parents
need to circle the wagons and
barricade the "Alamo".

If we "give it up" - we will never
get "it" back.

What would the legendary Burlingame-
Capuchino - Carl...think about all
this controversy....very Sad!!!