The local school district has proposed increasing its sports field use fees paid by youth teams, in some cases by thousands of percentage points—a cost hike that would fall on the backs of participating families, according to the presidents of two long-established, local leagues.
“If our field rental costs increase, we would have no choice but to pass that on to our club’s families,” said Joel Middleton, President of the Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League/Orchard Valley Toros Football Club.
OVYSL/OVToros, a nonprofit established in 1985 that provides recreational and competitive soccer leagues for local youth ages 5-19, was estimated to see an increase in costs from $6,870 to $76,985 for 1,908 hours of field use at five MHUSD schools, according to a Dec. 5 presentation by district-hired Facilitron.
Middleton said no one from the district had reached out to him about their plans to increase facility use fees prior to the Dec. 5 school board meeting.
“As far as I know, the first notification of a potential change we received was Dec. 6 via email,” Middleton added. “We were invited to a Jan. 3, 2018 meeting to ‘discuss the rate analysis and solicit feedback from our facility user groups.’”
The same rate analysis recommends pushing facility use costs for Spirit of Morgan Hill, a nonprofit recreational and competitive softball organization which has called San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School its home for 35 years, from $2,130 to $72,735 for 1,487 hours of field time.
“A 3,000 percent-plus increase to one of our largest annual expenditures would be difficult for the organization to handle,” said Spirit President Tom Evans, who also would be forced to add a “field surcharge to registration fees” to cover the increased costs. “We would have no choice but to look at other options.”
It was explained at the Dec. 5 meeting that the district’s rollout for the facility use increase (which would generate $300,000 in revenues at full implementation) would be phased in over a three-year period with fees increasing to 40 percent of the overall change the first year, then to 70 percent the second year to reach full cost by the third year.
School board trustees did not vote on the proposal at the Dec. 5 meeting. District leaders requested the board table the issue, which they did by 6-0 vote, so they could a sit down with representatives of the affected sports organizations to gain their feedback.
In Oct. 2016, the board approved a rental storefront agreement with Facilitron. In that contract it stipulated that “the facility user will be charged a service fee of 5% of their use fee and the District will pay 5% of the fee which will be deducted from the fees collected.”
Trustees have mixed reaction to proposal
Board reaction to the district’s proposal was mixed. Trustee David Gerard voiced his opposition to any type of increase to the district’s “modest” facility use fees regardless if they are considered “the lowest in the Bay Area,” he said.
“My two sons played in PONY Baseball on our school district fields for eight years, and it was a very important formative part of their development,” Gerard said. “I am very hesitant to recommend going forward with what I’ve heard here tonight.”
Morgan Hill PONY Baseball’s cost for using school district fields, mostly at Britton Middle School, would rise from $2,695 for 382 hours to $18,685, according to Facilitron’s cost analysis.
Trustee Gino Borgioli was on the opposite side of the issue.
“We’re in a deficit spending environment and we can’t keep on expending money for field repairs and other repairs,” Borgioli said. “We just can’t do it anymore. This is something that makes perfect sense.”
According to the Dec. 5 agenda, the district contracted with Facilitron, an online facility rental software platform, in Jan. 2017 so sports clubs interested in renting MHUSD fields could make reservations through the online booking agent. District staff then asked Facilitron “to provide a comparison of the district’s costs for facility maintenance and capital replacement compared to actual facility use fees generated.”
“We’re not here to make money. We’re here to recover costs,” Assistant Superintendent Kirsten Perez said. “We find ourselves in this awkward position of how do we collect facilities fees that support cost recovery (while) at the same time how do we support our community.”
A comparison, conducted by Facilitron, to what MHUSD currently charges to that of Gilroy Unified School District showed a significant cost difference. For example, South County Outlaws Lacrosse pays $255 for 69 hours of field use in Morgan Hill while that same time in Gilroy would cost them $7,590.
Brad Ledwith, President of South County Outlaws Lacrosse, admitted that MHUSD’s current fee structure is “extraordinarily low,” but the field condition warrants the price tag.
“If the rates increase, then I think those fees that we’re paying should be used to upgrade the facilities, because, as a stakeholder, if you’re willing to pay more, I need to receive more,” said Ledwith, whose lacrosse team practices at Sobrato. “The (school) fields in Morgan Hill are in disrepair all over town.”
Field conditions not the best
According to Facilitron’s presentation, the district “has been subsidizing community groups over $300,000/year in facility use.” The rate increase would help “to provide for the maintenance, restoration and replacement of facilities.”
Middleton said the school district has done next to nothing to maintain the fields that his teams use for practices and games. Three years ago, OVYSL Board spent about $5,000 in materials, and used volunteer labor, to complete minor field upgrades at Sobrato, according to Middleton. They were forced to stop playing at Nordstrom Elementary School “because the fields were not being maintained and there were unsafe areas for our players.”
Most of the fields were left to die during our recent drought years and there hasn’t appeared to be any reseeding/re-planting type efforts made by the staff,” Middleton said.
As for Spirit Softball, Evans noted that his league built and maintains four fields at SM/G while still paying a $15 daily rental rate. The league also leased a dirt lot on the north side of the school, where they built two additional fields.
“We have a positive working relationship with the district, but fear that this third party billing firm is harming the organizations that our parents and neighbors built for us when we were kids,” said Evans, who prefers to work directly with the district. “After hearing of the Facilitron proposal Tuesday night at the MHUSD board meeting, we are left with uncertainty of our future and will start questioning the hours we spend maintaining the same fields that we played on as kids.”
Evans said that he recently met with more than a dozen softball leagues from Morgan Hill to Redwood City to discuss the upcoming spring season. “That night, each league representative discovered that Facilitron is either causing havoc or working hard to bring it to each one of our fields,” he said.
Other youth sports organizations that use MHUSD fields and would see cost increases under the Facilitron proposal were Dub Sports, Morgan Hill Youth Sports, Silicon Valley Adult Baseball League, South San Jose Youth Soccer League and United States Youth Volleyball League.
Perez said district staff “is planning to meet and receive input from affected organizations at the beginning of January and bring the facility user rates back to the board for consideration on Jan. 23.”
After hearing of the Facilitron proposal Tuesday night at the MHUSD board meeting, we are left with uncertainty of our future and will start questioning the hours we spend maintaining the same fields that we played on as kids.
Dub Sports: $585/$3,913.17
Morgan Hill PONY: $2,695/$18,685.37
Morgan Hill Youth Sports: $405/$7,625.97
OVYSL/OVToros: $6,870/$76,985
Silicon Valley Adult Baseball: $255/$6,652.38
South County Outlaws Lacrosse: $255/$2,809.78
South SJ Youth Soccer League: $3,645/$29,293.42
Spirit of Morgan Hill: $2,130/$72,735.97
US Youth Volleyball League: $525/$3,227.93
