Two months after the Seals swim team gave its most recent pool cover proposal to the Vashon Park District board, commissioners asked for two more presentations to be given at Tuesday’s board meeting, after The Beachcomber’s press time.
Reached last week, Vashon Park District (VPD) board chair Karen Gardner said the presentations would lay out two scenarios: VPD covering the majority of expenses, or the Seals covering most expenses. The Seals’ current proposal calls for the Seals covering the purchase and installation of the temporary, inflatable dome — estimated to cost upwards of $85,000. The Seals have also proposed to pay for 10 hours per week of practice time. However, the plan also includes another 22 hours per week of community-use time that would require funding from VPD — around $54,800 per year of the organization’s $1.2 million budget.
The VPD board has been hesitant to support the proposal because of this financial commitment, and members of the public have been awaiting a decision from the board. On March 29, the board voted to delay taking action on the pool cover until it resolved an issue with the school district about a $100,000 fee VPD has been paying each year to use the school district’s facilities as part of the so-called Commons Agreement. Community use accounts for more than school use at school district facilities such as fields and gyms.
At a March 30 meeting, representatives from both the park and school boards met to discuss the issue and school district officials estimated community use of school fields alone at 281,000 people hours annually.
“I assume those people associate themselves with the park district. They’re in athletic programs that we don’t run … they see themselves as your constituents,” school district Superintendent Michael Soltman said, addressing VPD board members and executive director Elaine Ott-Rocheford. “What other program do you have that gets those kinds of numbers?”
Ott-Rocheford answered by saying that while she does not dispute the numbers, community use of fields has actually decreased, while use of indoor spaces has increased “a little bit, not much.”
Vashon Island School District board member Bob Hennessey used the McMurray Middle School soccer field as an example of the amount of community use the district’s facilities see.
“We have two soccer teams at McMurray, a boys team and a girls team. That’s it. That field would go forever,” Hennessey said, also bringing up the fact that the high school needs an all-weather turf field because of community use.
He said it feels as if the school district is being asked to be both a school district and a park district.
“Yet you’re collecting the taxes to be a park district,” he said.
VPD board member Bob McMahon responded by saying that VPD is collecting taxes “not to be a park district,” but to “maintain our facilities.” McMahon also said he believed that it was the school district’s mission to provide for community recreation.
According to a list provided by Ott-Rocheford, VPD’s deferred maintenance projects add up to more than $5 million.
Soltman said while most school districts open facilities to community use outside school hours, they do so only if they get appropriate revenue and fees to keep doing so.
VPD board chair Gardner said the board has not yet made a decision about the Commons Agreement with the school because of the new pool proposals.
— Anneli Fogt
