Millstone BOE seeks to recoup costs for school-facilities use
Community sports teams feared to be at risk if fees skyrocket
BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff Above: Tyler Patterson, 10, performs an exercise on July 29 during Millstone Township Community Education's fencing class in the Millstone Township Middle School gymnasium. Right: Theo Vlahos, 10, tries to catch a glove at fencing class.

Higher usage fees at Millstone Township school facilities may mean the end of some sports.

That was the warning given to the Board of Education at its July 28 meeting by members of the township Recreation Committee and those involved with other sports leagues.

Jim Healey, president of the Millstone Warriors youth basketball team, said he feels his 120-member organization, one of 25 teams in a Monmouth County league, is a "secondclass citizen" struggling for gym space at the schools. Any surcharge for space would have to be passed on to parents, he said.

"I don't feel the prioritization of gyms is impartial. In my opinion, gyms should be for basketball," he said. Healey added that he has seen kids playing with soccer cleats on the middle school's brand-new gym floor.

Gary Dorfman, a member of the Recreation Committeee, said both community-oriented and competition-oriented programs are run by the township. He said facility use should not be allocated for the better athletes at the expense of the community athletes.

"It should not reach the point where we allocate out inequitably to the citizens of the community," he said.

Board of Education President Tom Foley said the school facilities are owned by the community but managed by the board, and the board should be in charge of allocation of its space. Foley said that the board's charter is responsibility for education. While the board wants to support recreation, there is a cost, including energy and maintenance, he said.

"We are very tight on spending," he said, noting that the community has voted down the school budget for the past three years.

Even the school's own athletic programs are now on a pay-to-play basis, as are all other after-school programs, he said. The Recreation Committee's annual payment of $4,500 to the board does not come close to covering costs, Foley said.

Township Committeeman Michael Kuczinski said that before the referendum in 2004, the new middle school was promoted as providing more opportunities for facility use and as a benefit to community residents.

"If you are going to charge, people need to see a detailed analysis of why this is happening," he said.

"Things change," Foley said. "We have a financial problem,"

The board president said that $750,000 has been cut from the budget over the past three years, and the board had to pay $1.2 million for athletic fields that were supposed to be paid for by the Pennsylvaniabased Orleans Development Corp. in exchange for free fill, but the developer reneged on the offer.

The board discussed charges for different classes of users, but was unable to come to an agreement on some of them. Board member Laura Dreifus, a Girl Scout leader, said it may be impossible for troops to use school classrooms if suggested fees are enacted.

Board member Sergio Galindo said he would like the "pain" evenly distributed.

"Recouping costs is the primary focus," he said.

Galindo said that two years ago, the district took money out of its reserve fund.

"We have no money left. If something catastrophic happens at a school, we have no money to fix it," he said.

The school has a state-mandated cap and cannot spend more than that, he said.

Dorfman said that the township's recreation programs exclusively serve members of the community, while some of the traveling leagues consist of many nonresidents.

Jim Bell, chairman of the Recreation Committee, said that the basketball program, for example, currently costs $75 per participant. Should it rise to as much as $225, with many families having more than one child playing, the program would be decimated, he said. The goal of the Recreation Committee is to have revenueneutral programs that carry themselves, because it is not fair to seniors and people without children in the community to bear the costs, he said.

"Based on these numbers, the basketball program will probably cease to exist," Bell said.

Bell asked Foley to show the math that justifies the numbers. Foley said he did a general breakdown of energy costs for the school as well as hourly costs. Facility maintenance was also factored in, he said.

Foley said that he has looked at the fee schedule of other districts, and the cheapest he found was Moorestown. That district charges $30 an hour for the gym, $15 for the cafeteria, and $10 per classroom. He suggested Millstone charge the same fees for cafeteria and classroom use but $15 an hour for the gym. On that basis, Foley said the township's recreational basketball program will cost $64,600.

Recreation Committee member Billy Hanson responded, "There's no rec basketball. No one will pay."