The New Westminster school district's ongoing money woes have the board looking at every possible way to drum up extra cash, including an option to start charging community groups that use school facilities.
The board of education is considering charging for the after-hours use of schools, which is expected to bring an estimated $75,000 into the cash-strapped school district.
"It would be lovely to be able to offer everything for free, but we are in a position where we need to be able to make sure that the facilities are used, and it's revenue neutral for the district," board of education chair Jonina Campbell said. "Neighbouring school district's have been charging for years. So it's nothing new to other school districts, it just new to New West."
The district has established a fee structure that's based on a user group's ability to pay and how closely the group is aligned with school district goals, said Janet Grant, the district's director of instruction.
"So, obviously, when you talk about child and youth development programs, like Girl Guides, and scouts and soccer groups, those are groups that we wanted to minimize the fees for, and then work the scale up to more commercial and community based groups," she explained.
The fees are based on a business plan that was developed with a consulting firm, which analyzed what other districts charge for the use of facilities and the after-hours costs of operating, Grant said.
Groups related to the education of students won't be charged a fee, while other groups will be charged an hourly rate that ranges from $4 to $65 an hour, depending on the group and the space the group uses (filming fees are significantly higher than these rates).
"What we have now is a fee schedule that has four key categories, and what it means is that now user groups - some user groups that in the past haven't paid any fees at all - are going to paying at least something, even if it's a nominal amount to help contribute to our operational costs," said Grant, who doesn't expect the district will loose users as a result of the fees, which would take effect July 1.
The district also recently soft launched an online booking system, which Grant expects may help increase bookings.
"It means community users will be able to go online and see which facilities are available at which cost, and they would be able to make a request online," she said. "I think that by making the access to our facilities easier, we may get more rentals as a result of that."
The issue will go toward the school board for a final vote at its Feb. 25 meeting.
The district held a public consultation on the change in January. Grant said about 20 groups turned up.
"Staff tried to make the policy working for the community (as much) as possible," Campbell said. "One of the things that was part of the feedback getting the staff has assured them that people will grandfathered their existing spot. That was one of the key pieces of feedback that people wanted to see, and staff has put that in."
The district is dealing with an almost $5 million deficit that it must pay back to the Ministry of Education. This school year it had to lay off eight per cent of its workforce to help offset another shortfall.
