How much should be charged for using school facilities? Increasing fees or adding facility fees is one way Lake Orion School Board members are considering to bring more revenues into the school district.
Lisa Sokol, principal of the CERC building, and members of her staff were asked to look at the possibility of increasing fees now charged to use classrooms, gyms, cafeterias, auditoriums.
New charges proposed by Sokol included an application fee of $15 for all non-school related groups and a usage fee of $20 for all non-profit groups and travel sport’s teams.
‘Many districts are moving towards using an application fee,? Sokol told school board members on July 9. Her staff reviewed other school district facility use policies.
Non-profit groups have not had to pay any fees in the past.
School board president Leeann Bartley told Sokol she wasn’t comfortable with charging groups like the Boy Scouts.
According to Sokol, the one application fee would cover usage for multiple times as long as the group listed all the dates it would need the facility. If additional dates were added later, another application fee would have to be paid.
Adding to the problem of building use is the reduction of custodians. ‘We’ve cut 30,000 hours of custodial time,? LO School Superintendent Dr. Craig Younkman said.
Under Sokol’s proposal, building usage and rentals at the elementary school would be limited to one night per elementary building except Paint Creek and Orion Oaks which would have two nights a week.
The reduction in usage is due to the four elementary schools only having one custodian on the second shift. Orion Oaks and Paint Creek have 1.5 custodians.
Custodial staff rental fees would increase from $35 to $40 per hour.
Groups, travel sport’s teams would rent gyms for $37.50 per hour.
Middle school usage and rentals would use gyms and auxiliary gyms to assist with the loss of gym time in the elementary buildings.
Some school board members expressed a reluctance to begin charging non-profit groups except in a situation where they need larger rooms for banquets or large group activities.
‘Figure out a way to accommodate these groups without taking any money out of the K-12 program,? board member Bob Gritzinger challenged school district administrators.
It was suggested that non-profit groups that could be flexible on when and where they would meet might not be charged.
As a compromise, board member Jim Weidman thought non-profit groups could provide a security deposit and have it returned to them if the room they used was cleaned properly by the group members.
Bartley said it was a liability issue for anyone but a school district employee to do any clean up.
Board members decided to table any decision on the fees and review proposals further.