CJUSD, Sports Leagues Continue Discussing Field Usage Fees

Independent sports leagues in Colton and Grand Terrace are still discussing with the school district the terms of field usage fees the Colton Joint Unified School District (CJUSD) is looking to implement. When the (CJUSD) in August approved a field usage fee, many community sports league leaders in both cities, who use the fields of CJUSD schools for practice and game purposes, were angry. While the field use fees have not yet taken effect, proponents of the leagues said the proposed fees would devastate the leagues and run them out of business. Christina Brodbeck, president of Grand Terrace Basketball and who is also on the board of the Grand Terrace Community Soccer Club (GTCSC), said the fees the CJUSD proposed were “astronomical.” According to the approved fee schedule, the district will charge $25 an hour for leagues to use elementary school fields, $35 an hour to use middle school fields and $45 an hour for high school fields. Other costs are higher—it will cost leagues $125 an hour to use a high school football stadium without lights and $175 an hour with lights. “For our basketball club, they want to charge us a $100 an hour fee to use the McIntosh and Ken Hubbs gyms [at Colton High School],” Brodbeck said. “That comes out to about $2,500 to $3,000 to run the league. Our operating budget in one year is far less than that. We could potentially lose our leagues.” Brodbeck said that the burden to cover the costs of field usage fees would force the leagues to charge parents higher league fees, which she fears will discourage parents from signing their children up, or could cause parents to take their children to other leagues in nearby cities. She says the dissolution of the leagues would be harmful to the cities. “Sports are a big thing around here. When kids are participating in sports, they’re not roaming the streets and looking for things to do,” she said. But the downturn of the economy in recent past years has put the district into a financial predicament, explained CJUSD spokeswoman Katie Orloff. “It costs a lot of money to maintain the fields and keep them open. With the serious budget situation we are in, we can’t afford to pay the costs that go into opening up the fields at all times,” said Orloff. In order to meet the budget, the school district has also tried to cut costs by shortening the school year by five days, increasing the walking distance requirements for kids to qualify to ride school buses, and have eliminated crossing guards, said Orloff. “It’s a very important issue because having the fields open at all times does create significant wear and tear. When we don’t have staff around to take care of things, vandalism occurs. I’m certainly not pointing the finger at any of the sports groups, but the sad fact is that keeping the fields open allows for bad things to happen,” Orloff said. “We’re willing to pay for our youth and for reasonable wear and tear,” Brodbeck said. “But we don’t want to be responsible for the sins of others. There are outside groups that come and tear up the fields.” Brodbeck also said that the leagues try to keep the facilities as clean as they can, with many leagues requiring coaches and athletes to participate in field cleanup throughout the season. “We do all our own cleaning,” Brodbeck said. Orloff claimed that field usage fees will not bring in any extra money to the district. “They only cover the costs to open the fields to community use. There is an education code that covers what we [the district] are allowed to charge for. This includes supplies, utilities, custodial services and staff members, and the salaries paid to these employees for being there. This is absolutely not a money maker. We are just trying to recover costs,” said Orloff. Brodbeck said, “If the school board wants to recover costs, it’s going to put leagues in debt; they wouldn’t recover those funds because the leagues would just go out of business. We’re frustrated and worried.” Currently, Orloff said, district superintendent Jerry Almendarez is meeting privately to continue fee discussions with the leagues on an individual basis. Anyone interested in participating in these meetings may call the superintendent’s office for more information on meeting dates and times by calling 909-580-6506, said Orloff.