The price to play
<p>Robert Fitzgerald, president of CDA Junior Tackle, shares his concerns on the proposed rate increase for fees to use Coeur d’Alene School District facilities during a special board of trustees meeting Monday at Woodland Middle School. Fitzgerald argued that an increase in fees would put a significant strain on the nonprofit organization’s budget.</p>
<p>Coeur dÕAlene School District Board Trustee Tom Hamilton questions representatives of various sports organizations about the fees involved for athletes and their families required for participation.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Members of the youth athletics community called foul Monday on the idea of paying a heftier price to use sports fields owned by the Coeur d'Alene School District.
School board members didn't seem excited about the idea either, during a board workshop that attracted about 60 people to Woodland Middle School.
"For me, this whole issue comes down to one question. Are our schools corporate franchises, or are they community centers, paid for, built and to be used by all of us, especially our kids? That's my answer, and I'm basically done with all of this," said Trustee Dave Eubanks, following nearly two hours of testimony from representatives of the various, nonprofit youth sports leagues and clubs that regularly use school district facilities.
Trustees decided to hold the workshop during their May 5 meeting, following a presentation by Wendell Wardell, the district's chief operating officer. At that time, Wardell told trustees that the current athletic field rental fee of $3.75 for up to four hours of use is significantly less than the cost to maintain the fields, and it is not competitive with the rental fees charged by other school districts and educational institutions in the region. Wardell said the public school system is losing money on its field rentals. It costs the district $386,000 annually to maintain 133 acres of fields, he said, and 70 percent of those field maintenance costs can be attributed to use by community groups that rent the fields.
During the May meeting, Wardell presented a draft proposal to increase the district's field rental fee to $25 per hour.
Coaches and others representing Coeur d'Alene Junior Tackle, Coeur d'Alene Youth Lacrosse, Sting soccer, North Idaho Thunder Volleyball, and Kootenai Girls Softball Association, Crush Softball, and several parents told the board they opposed the fee increase. Some challenged the information the district administration provided during the May 5 board meeting.
Bob Haakenson with Panhandle Symphony said not only sports groups are affected by price changes. His group rents a practice room at Woodland 18 times a year, and it costs them $1,000, he said.
Speed Hull, with Coeur d'Alene Junior Tackle, said the total cost the district is claiming it spends to maintain its athletics fields "seems insane."
"That's $2,800 an acre. I don't think we've got any farmers around here that are doing it for a living that spend that much to make their crops grow," Hull said.
He said the actual cost of Junior Tackle to the school district is zero.
"Our parents and players already pay taxes to buy these fields," Hull said, a statement echoed several times during the meeting by other club representatives.
Representatives of all the groups cited in-kind donations they make regularly to the district. They bring in their own portable toilets, garbage cans, provide dirt, paint lines, put up goal posts, and more.
Rick Rasmussen, who spoke on behalf of Thunder volleyball, said his father, the late Gary "Big Dad" Rasmussen, a legend in Coeur d'Alene youth and high school sports, "is in his grave right now, ill."
"Because he knew this is all about opportunities. It's getting the kids out there, giving them something to do. You don't understand this community," Rasmussen told the board.
Much of the testimony focused on the benefit of keeping kids occupied in a healthy activity after school, when they could be getting into trouble.
A representative from Sting soccer said they believe the costs the district cited for its field maintenance were inflated, that the figures cited don't reflect the actual cost to maintain the fields used by the sports groups. They also challenged the district's research into the costs to rent fields in other school districts, particularly Central Valley School District in Spokane Valley. School officials in Coeur d'Alene reported Central Valley charges field rental fees of $23 to $57.50 per hour. Sports club representatives say that wouldn't apply to them, because Central Valley doesn't charge any fee to nonprofit groups.
Trustees Christa Hazel and Tom Hamilton each said they expected a more fleshed-out explanation of the figures to be presented at the May 5 board meeting.
"The information I've heard tonight is compelling. It's concerning, and I feel that there is a level of shucking and jiving going on that I'm uncomfortable with," Hazel said. "We have fields and we have floors built to have kids playing on them. I have yet to see costs, and I will not be a part of pushing kids off our fields and floors."
Superintendent Matt Handelman said there was no intent to force community athletics programs out of district facilities, that it is just a fact-finding mission to ensure they are charging what's fair to all taxpayers.
Wendell Wardell said he is working on providing the cost-per-acre to maintain the district's athletics facilities. He will present it at the board's June 2 meeting.