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School board studies facility rental policy

Keith Vandervort
Posted 4/28/16

ELY – With concerts, dance recitals, scholarship pageants, youth baseball, and other community events held at Ely school facilities in jeopardy of continuing, School Board members took a closer …

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School board studies facility rental policy

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ELY – With concerts, dance recitals, scholarship pageants, youth baseball, and other community events held at Ely school facilities in jeopardy of continuing, School Board members took a closer look at a revised rental fee schedule Monday night.

At issue is a policy, revised nearly a year ago, which calls for several varied rate schedules based on non-profit or commercial status and the purpose of the event.

At a School Board study session last month, the Ely Concert Association cried foul over an increase in the rate they will be charged from $75 to $400 for each of their quarterly concert events.

School facility rental rates are reviewed annually by a Facility Policy Committee, comprised of school board members and district staff, and approved by the full board. The policy is in place to encourage the public use of school facilities, and fees are charged to offset the costs associated with use.

Interim Superintendent Kevin Abrahamson, who serves on the committee with board members Rochelle Sjoberg, Paul Pengal, transportation and facilities director Jeff Jankowski, and superintendent’s assistant Penny Jankowski, said various community groups have expressed considerable concern over the revised policy.

Abrahamson said that identifying which group is commercial or non-profit, what defines a charitable or non-commercial event, and the charging of custodial fees, is among the issues that remain unclear in the policy. “I think there are some things in the policy that were understood, but not stated,” he said. “I’m only trying to follow what’s written.”

In addition to the Concert Association, the Ely Little League Association and the Vermilion Community College sports department, have recently expressed concern over the surprising increase in the facility rental fees.

“We are looking to cover our costs and maybe have a little bit of a contingency increase if something breaks,” Abrahamson said. “This has unintentionally multiplied into a bit of a monster.”

Sjoberg defended the facility rental policy revisions. “We spent a considerable amount of time on this and I’m not going to go back and play the blame game,” she said. “It was never the intent to have a charge that was going to be in excess for the district to make money on people using the facilities.”

She said the policy was reviewed from the one that was in place dating back to about 1995 and revised in 2008 and again in 2011.

“The problem that has come out of this is the previous policy was not administered and followed,” Sjoberg said. “Groups that should have been charged these fees were not charged these fees. And now were are sticking to a policy that was not adhered to before. I can understand the community’s perspective as well.”

Sjoberg said she conducted a side-by-side comparison of the original policy to the revised policy. “In terms of our last policy, we were within $50 of what the Concert Association should have been charged. There previously weren’t the charges put forward to them. We were revising a policy that was in place, but unfortunately, was not being followed.”

She asked for the Facility Policy Committee to reconvene and continue to study the issue. “All I can say is that the committee did not intend to make this (policy) profiting off of the community and I think there has been a lot of confusion. Certainly, if we had known about the amount of waivers and exceptions to the extent that they were carried out we probably could have a different approach to this. I apologize that this happened and upset the community.”

Board Chair Ray Marsnik admitted that he “did not do his homework” when the policy revisions were presented. “I should have actually put my pencil to these things to find out what the differences would be,” he said.

He voiced several concerns, in particular the increase in fees from $75 to $400 for the Concert Association auditorium rental.

Sjoberg again defended the committee’s revisions. “Under the old one, they should have been charged $300,” she said.

Marsnik continued his comparison. The VCC baseball team is looking at an increase from $150 to $600 per game “That’s a 400 and some percent increase,” he said. “Vermilion could rent Wade Stadium in Duluth for $150.”

“The Little League in the past were basically not charged for having their meeting and having the gym available for tryouts in case of inclement weather. They were upset enough to go to the college and used a facility over there for free,” he said. “I think these numbers are out of line.”

He pointedly asked Sjoberg, “What was the reason for the increases?” Why did you people decide to go with these increases?”

Sjoberg responded, “I think that is an unfair question in the fact that you are asking me to compare the increase from people who paid nothing. What I think is a more fair question is (to compare) from the old policy to the new policy. In looking at that there was not an exorbitant amount (increase). To the community, yes, it came across as being extravagant because they weren’t being charged in accordance with the policy that was in place.”

Committee member Paul Pengal said, “We weren’t out of line with these rates. We have to continue to push the question on why weren’t these people charged for the past seven to 10 years, literally.”

Sjoberg added, “It was not known that the policy that was in place was, unfortunately, not being followed.”

Discussion continued on specific groups and the new fees they face under the revised policy. Three groups, specifically, VCC, the Ely Baseball Association and Studio North, had flat rate facility use agreements with the school district that neither Abrahamson nor Sjoberg were made aware of.

Following the study session, School Board members went into a special meeting and agreed to put the revised facility use charges on hold until the Facility Policy Committee can meet to revisit the issue.

Sup’t search

School Board members will conduct interviews for three finalists for the permanent part-time superintendent position, beginning at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 2. The interviews will be held in open session in the district boardroom.

ISD 696 Interim Superintendent Kevin Abrahamson and four other candidates applied for the position. Abrahamson is one of the finalists.

The two other finalist candidates are David Pace, who is the current superintendent for ISD 595 in East Grand Forks, and Eric Gustafson, of Belgrade, Mont., who is currently self-employed but has previous experience as a school district superintendent.