Warsaw School Board Holds Off On Scout Rental Fee Request
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
At the Sept. 17 meeting, Scout leader Mike Webb told the board the Scouts were paying $630 a year for gym rental. He requested the board waive or reduce fees to help with the Scouts’ budget. Board President Jennifer Tandy told Webb the issue would be looked into and they would get back to him by the end of the week.
Monday, leader Nick McLaughlin again asked the board for a waiver or reduction in fees. He said the school doesn’t incur any extra costs when the Scouts use the gym.
“Scouting is mostly an outdoor sport. As we know, Indiana gets real cold in the winter so we kind of need that space to conduct some of our activities,” he told the school board. “We can’t necessarily do them in the classroom or cafeteria, which we would get for free.”
Most of the kids come from low-income families, he said, and paying the weekly fee takes away a minimum of 10 percent of the Pack’s yearly budget.
Lonnie Fisher also spoke on behalf of the Scouts, attesting to the financial burden the rental fee places on them. Parents help pay the weekly rental fees, but that is an extra expense on top of everything else parents shell out.
Board Vice President Matt Dick told the Scout leaders they would have to wait another 40 to 45 minutes until the superintendent’s comments for Dr. Craig Hintz to speak on the matter.
It was an about an hour before the board got to Hintz’s superintendent comments where he addressed the fee issue.
Warsaw Community Schools has a fee structure in place throughout the whole corporation for facilities rental for all organizations, Hintz said. Webb met with Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott after the September meeting, he continued, and Scott offered him ways he could reduce the Scouts’ costs.
As a result of that meeting – and because the board is interested in reviewing facility rental policies – Hintz suggested the board look at those policies at its Nov. 20 public work session at 4 p.m.
“Certainly your request, and I’m being really open and respectful right now, your request also is a request that could go to all buildings within the school corporation for groups that meet in our schools, teams that practice in our schools,” Hintz told Scout leaders. “So I think it’s timely right now that we do take a look at it. The facilities policy is a big policy that covers all facility rentals and those kind of agreements. So I propose we bring our facility rental to our board at its board work session Nov. 20. We then have an opportunity to review it.”
That would provide guidance to the administration on what the board wants to see happen, he said.
“We very quickly then could come back for board action in November,” he said. “Also, I think it’s a philosophical discussion we need to have with groups such as the Boy Scouts and the Cub Scouts in that we want to make certain that same kind of guidance goes to all other groups that request our facilities for their use and club’s use.”
Deb Wiggins, board member, said that was great, but she asked if there was any timeliness to the Scouts’ request that the board needed to be sensitive to.
Hintz said it was probably as soon as possible.
“The sooner we’d be better off,” McLaughlin responded.
The Pack’s next meeting is Nov. 7, and they meet every Wednesday. Because of parent-teacher conferences and Halloween, they aren’t meeting for the next two weeks.[[In-content Ad]]
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At the Sept. 17 meeting, Scout leader Mike Webb told the board the Scouts were paying $630 a year for gym rental. He requested the board waive or reduce fees to help with the Scouts’ budget. Board President Jennifer Tandy told Webb the issue would be looked into and they would get back to him by the end of the week.
Monday, leader Nick McLaughlin again asked the board for a waiver or reduction in fees. He said the school doesn’t incur any extra costs when the Scouts use the gym.
“Scouting is mostly an outdoor sport. As we know, Indiana gets real cold in the winter so we kind of need that space to conduct some of our activities,” he told the school board. “We can’t necessarily do them in the classroom or cafeteria, which we would get for free.”
Most of the kids come from low-income families, he said, and paying the weekly fee takes away a minimum of 10 percent of the Pack’s yearly budget.
Lonnie Fisher also spoke on behalf of the Scouts, attesting to the financial burden the rental fee places on them. Parents help pay the weekly rental fees, but that is an extra expense on top of everything else parents shell out.
Board Vice President Matt Dick told the Scout leaders they would have to wait another 40 to 45 minutes until the superintendent’s comments for Dr. Craig Hintz to speak on the matter.
It was an about an hour before the board got to Hintz’s superintendent comments where he addressed the fee issue.
Warsaw Community Schools has a fee structure in place throughout the whole corporation for facilities rental for all organizations, Hintz said. Webb met with Chief Financial Officer Kevin Scott after the September meeting, he continued, and Scott offered him ways he could reduce the Scouts’ costs.
As a result of that meeting – and because the board is interested in reviewing facility rental policies – Hintz suggested the board look at those policies at its Nov. 20 public work session at 4 p.m.
“Certainly your request, and I’m being really open and respectful right now, your request also is a request that could go to all buildings within the school corporation for groups that meet in our schools, teams that practice in our schools,” Hintz told Scout leaders. “So I think it’s timely right now that we do take a look at it. The facilities policy is a big policy that covers all facility rentals and those kind of agreements. So I propose we bring our facility rental to our board at its board work session Nov. 20. We then have an opportunity to review it.”
That would provide guidance to the administration on what the board wants to see happen, he said.
“We very quickly then could come back for board action in November,” he said. “Also, I think it’s a philosophical discussion we need to have with groups such as the Boy Scouts and the Cub Scouts in that we want to make certain that same kind of guidance goes to all other groups that request our facilities for their use and club’s use.”
Deb Wiggins, board member, said that was great, but she asked if there was any timeliness to the Scouts’ request that the board needed to be sensitive to.
Hintz said it was probably as soon as possible.
“The sooner we’d be better off,” McLaughlin responded.
The Pack’s next meeting is Nov. 7, and they meet every Wednesday. Because of parent-teacher conferences and Halloween, they aren’t meeting for the next two weeks.[[In-content Ad]]
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