Oak Park and River Forest High School is proposing that local groups using its facilities be charged a $10-per-participant fee for practice time and also charging groups when OPRF personnel are used during those times.
OPRF has being trying to fix its rental fee structure after some local groups complained that the current structure resulted in skyrocketing costs on their end. The $10 per-person charge was part of a recommended change the school proposed earlier this fall after talking with some of those groups. The high school would also waive the hourly rental charges to those groups for events.
Among the feeder groups that use OPRF’s facilities are the Little Huskies Youth Wrestling Team and Strikers soccer program. Coaches and supporters from some groups, including the Little Huskies, complained loudly and publicly about the fee structure that went into effect for the 2010-2011 school year.
Under the high school’s recommendation, the Little Huskies, for instance, would now pay roughly $2,900 for its 100 kids. That’s well below what that group coughed up last year: nearly $14,000.
After complaints were voiced at an August school board meeting, trustees directed the administration to consider changes to the fee structure. The school board in spring 2010 had revised the rental fee policy to include the higher fee structure, which was implemented last fall. But school board members admitted it wasn’t thoroughly thought out with respect to how it would impact local groups.
Cheryl Witham, OPRF’s chief financial officer, said the school modified the structure after talking with some feeder groups. But she explained that the high school incurs costs when outside groups use campus facilities and athletic fields, including overtime for staff who are needed at some of those events. She said some of the feeder groups asked for a per-participant fee similar to the Park District of Oak Park’s rental structure.
Speaking to the District 200 school board at their Sept. 27 meeting, Witham said the high school compared their fee structure with other school districts nationally, and OPRF is below the national average.
“This is the proposal that we thought mined the district’s finances [and] meets the needs of different individual groups we spoke to. Some of them aren’t complaining at all. They didn’t come to us,” she said.
Witham added that high school facilities are used year-round, and because the demand is so high, OPRF has a full-time facility rental coordinator on staff.
The school board did not take action on the recommendation on Sept. 27, but the fee is among the action items at the board’s meeting on Thursday, Oct. 13.
Amy McCormack, a school board member and co-chair of its finance committee, added that the board’s facilities rental policy needed some long-term and short-term rethinking.
“Right now, the way the policy reads, it’s really not going to address even our short-term concerns for feeder space and pricing,” she said. “But there may be a longer-term solution that we really need to explore more in greater detail.”
