Pay2Play: YOUTH SPORTS HIT BY LAUSD FEES

By Melissa Pamer, Staff Writer | Daily Breeze

 

July 28, 2008 - Youth sports groups in the South Bay and Harbor Area are starting to feel the pinch from the Los Angeles Unified School District's move to begin charging for the use of gyms and playing fields.

The increased fees, which came in March after clubs had for decades used facilities for free, have meant reduced practice schedules and, in some cases, increased costs for players.

The fear is that the fees - which district officials said were needed to make up for an incredibly tight budget year - will force low-income athletes to drop participation in sports clubs, which supporters say give at-risk youth positive after-school alternatives.

"The reality is that less kids might be participating and, with that, then comes the possibility of things that lead to more negative activities that lead to them not achieve academically," said Mike Lansing, executive director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor.

Lansing served on the Board of Education when the possibility of imposing fees was last discussed several years ago. He opposed it then, but acknowledges now that the district's budget, which accounted for more than $350 million in expected state funding cuts, has put LAUSD in a financial bind.

That's the reasoning district officials gave for the new fees, which they said put them on par with, and in many cases below, fees charges by other school districts and municipalities.

"With the recent budget crisis and the cuts from the governor, we're left very little choice," said Kathryn Friedman, who manages the district's civic center permit operations. "We did it with a heavy heart."

The new fee system requires groups to pay $77.10 for a four-month permit, as well as a $5 daily custodial fee for days on which practices and games are held. A fee of $10 per hour applies to nonprofit groups that cater to district students; for others, the hourly fee is $25.50.

Locally, some groups said they were raising funds to cover the new costs - or passing them onto players.

Dig 4 Kids, a nonprofit that offers free, twice-weekly after-school tutoring, exercise and volleyball at Carson High School and Halldale Elementary School in Harbor Gateway, is covering its $500 to $700 increase in costs.

"We can handle the fee. But really what it does, it takes away from the kids," said Eric Fonoimoana, founder and president of the group.

With the money that the group spends to cover the fee, Dig 4 Kids could offer its services to three or four more children per eight-week session, he said.

"The inner city is in need of these after-school programs. They need it more than ever," Fonoimoana said. "Eventually, somehow, the trickle-down will have an impact on (children)."

Despite the higher costs that groups such as Fonoimoana's are facing, there's been no drop in usage since the new fees were instituted March 1, LAUSD's Friedman said.

"We're such a large urban area and there is always going to be so much need," she said. "The city of Los Angeles needs to build more parks. We have basically been the overflow for all of this need."

The district issues about 2,850 permits annually and hosts about 55,000 individual uses of its facilities per year. Its gyms and fields have long been preferred spots for some groups because they were free for many years, Friedman and youth sports organizers say.

The new permits are expected to bring in $1.4 million to $1.9 million this year, Friedman said. Most permits were issued at the reduced hourly cost to nonprofit groups, bringing in less money than the $3.8million expected when the fees were first discussed last fall, she said.

Some organizations in the region are turning to fundraisers to cover the new fees.

Kehlin Hayes, president of the Carson-based South Bay Waves girls basketball team, said two events had been held to cover the $585 needed for the team's Banning High School practice space.

"That's a pretty penny, coming from free," Hayes said. "In addition to the fees going up, gas is going up. That's needed for travel to tournaments. It's difficult for everyone."

Gardena-based South Bay F.O.R. Junior Sports Association has passed the costs on directly to those teams - among about 100 sponsored by the nonprofit - that use LAUSD facilities, said President Mel Iizuka.

Others have questioned the amount of the increase.

"It's ridiculous. It's too much," said Don DeBenedictis, who helms the San Pedro Knights Youth Basketball club.

The group, which has eight teams that practice at San Pedro High School and Dana and Dodson middle schools, was charged about $3,000 for the last four-

month period, DeBenedictis said. That's split up among the 70 to 80 players.

To save money, he said, the teams have stopped their popular Saturday practices.

"The school district's hurting. What are you going to do? Where are you going to look for money?" DeBenedictis said. "I understand it. But I don't like it."

Pay2Play: LAUSD PAY-TO-PLAY CARRIES DEEP SOCIAL COSTS

LA DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL

July 23, 2008 - When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa introduced his $1 million Summer Night Lights program a few weeks back, he was injecting a good dose of common sense into the city's anti-gang efforts.

After all, the program is designed to provide L.A. youngsters with evening events, so as to keep them out of trouble. And everyone knows that giving kids organized and constructive activities is a great way to keep them out of trouble.

Everyone, that is, except for officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Four months ago, the district decided to start charging community groups to use school facilities for after-school programs. This "pay-to-play" plan, while saving the district a piddly $3.8 million out of its $7 billion budget, has proved to be a back-breaker for many community athletic programs.

Take the Valley Falcons football club in the East Valley. According to Coach Santos Juarez, the team usually has 60 to 75 kids signed up by this point for the fall season. Now, it has 13. Juarez and other Valley Youth Conference officials worry that they won't have enough players to field a single team, let alone the usual seven.

The drop-off in membership can be attributed in no small part to the LAUSD's new fees. The various charges come to about $50 per athlete - a steep hit in a community where many families live on roughly $1,500 a month or have multiple children's fees to pay.

Other Valley Youth Conference teams - which serve some 9,600 elementary and junior high school students in football, track, basketball and cheerleading - estimate that the per-kid cost could reach $100 unless, through fund-raising efforts, they can significantly offset the cost.

No doubt, the sagging economy and the rising prices of food and gas play a large part in the drop-off in participation in many youth sports programs. With many families struggling just to cover the basics, extras like sports leagues may be out of reach.

But that's what makes the timing of the LAUSD's new fee structure so harmful. It comes at precisely the time when families can least afford it.

And it comes, perversely, at a time when the city is desperate to contain its gang epidemic, with the mayor and everyone else scrambling to find ways to keep kids engaged in wholesome activities - and off the streets.

It also comes at a time when the LAUSD's dropout crisis is in the news, with the state finding that nearly one-third of all high school students in the district never make it to graduation.

How many of these students' academic careers are derailed by the lures of gang life?

And how many more of these kids would stay in school if the district weren't nickel-and-diming youth programs that serve as an alternative to gangs?

Given that the district loses state money when students drop out, L.A. Unified has a financial interest - to say nothing of its moral obligation - to help these recreational programs stay afloat. Reducing the influence of gangs among the student population would also decrease the amount the district has to pay to secure and police its campuses.

It seems that the district's pound-foolish scheme to charge kids for using its fields is most likely not even penny-wise. The economic benefit is minimal at best, and the social cost is severe.

What's more, the plan is also an affront to Los Angeles taxpayers.

The parents of children who want to use LAUSD fields during off-school hours aren't freeloaders. They've already paid for those fields - we all did - through taxes and multiple school bonds over the years to build up L.A. Unified's campuses.

Indeed, when the district made the case for its bond measures, officials argued that these new campuses wouldn't only be new schools, but also functional community centers, serving a full range of community needs.

And yet now, when the need for youth sports programs is so great that City Hall is spending millions to create new ones, the LAUSD is charging millions to drive ones we already have out of existence.

Pay-to-play must go - before any more damage is done.

PAY2PLAY AFFECTING PARTICIPATION IN YOUTH SPORTS GROUPS

 

By George B. Sánchez, Staff Writer | LA Daily News

July 22, 2008 - Just four months after Los Angeles Unified began charging for after-hours use of its fields and facilities, one of the San Fernando Valley's biggest youth sports groups is seeing a dramatic drop in some of its club memberships.

Valley Youth Conference officials had feared the potential backlash from the controversial higher rates and now say the group's Valley Falcons football club in the East Valley could be in jeopardy.

"Usually about this time we have 60 to 75 kids signed up," said Falcons coach Santos Juarez. "Right now, we have about 13. We're in a real dilemma."

Without at least 16-18 kids, the team will be unable to play this season, club President Virginia Quiroz said.

The membership slump is the first clear sign of what hundreds of nonprofit youth groups had feared when the LAUSD kicked off its pay-to-play program earlier this year with a three-tier fee structure designed to offset annual facilities costs of $3.8 million.

LAUSD officials defend the fees, however, saying they are needed in the wake of state budget shortfalls that have strapped the district.

LAUSD officials cut more than $350 million from the district budget as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger trimmed $3 billion in funding from K-12 education.

Superintendent David Brewer III said last year that the new fees would cover the nearly $4 million in facilities costs.

"This is framed by the cutbacks by the governor and the budget crisis in education," said Kathryn Friedman, manager of L.A. Unified's civic center permit program. "This is not something we did lightly."

District officials considered imposing the new fees three years ago, but public outcry against the potential loss of affordable after-school programs forced the school board to abandon the proposal.

But the LAUSD isn't the only agency charging new fees for fields and facilities. The city's Department of Recreation and Parks recently raised its activities fee by $5 and has a new charge of $10 for permit applications.

Now, with a struggling economy also taking its toll on Valley residents, officials with the Valley Falcons say the less-expensive early bird registration still has only drawn 10 players.

While late registration is not uncommon - and some athletes arrive even three weeks after the first day of practice - the low numbers this year are unprecedented.

As with all 16 sports clubs that make up the Valley Youth Conference and use LAUSD fields and facilities, the Falcons were hit with fees for practice and game space this spring.

The fees took effect March 1, when the LAUSD implemented a $77.10 flat charge for a permit, $5 daily custodian fees and an hourly rate of $10 for the club and up to $30 an hour for night use of football fields.

The club hasn't been billed yet, but is expecting to pay $4,000 to $6,000 once its permit and schedule are approved to play at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, Quiroz said.

That means the club has boosted its participation fees by $50 per athlete, she continued, which is difficult to charge considering that many of the club's kids come from one-income families getting by on about $1,500 a month.

"The parents were aware of this since last year," Juarez said. "Gas prices are going up. Food prices are going up. Now our prices are going up. The economy is taking a toll on our parents."

Youth groups that charge admission or have concession stands pay the same permit and custodian fee and are charged between $25 and $45.50 an hour for events.

"We are not making a dime on this," Friedman said. "We're trying to recoup our out-of-pocket costs. This is not rent."

With more than 9,600 elementary and junior high students involved, the Valley Youth Conference fields teams in football, track, basketball and cheerleading. And conference officials said if they are unsuccessful in fundraising, they will be forced to pass at least some of the increased costs on to participants.

"These costs will drive it up almost $100 per kid this year," said Bill Speer, publicity director for the conference. The new fees amount to more than $210,000 for the conference overall, he said.

The West Valley Girls Softball league is in the same boat.

For the past nine years, more than 350 girls and up to 80 women have played softball at Charles E. Hughes Middle school in Woodland Hills.

"We haven't paid anything for the field until February of this year," said Dana Ashton, president of the softball league.

Now, he estimates that the league is paying more than $2,600 a month to practice and play games. If it can't cover the new fees through sponsorships and fundraising, the cost will likely be passed on to players, he noted.

For now, they pay $100 to play in the fall league and $190 in the spring.

"We want to stay there," he said. "Hughes has always been our home."

He estimates that over the years, the team has invested about $70,000 in the school to pay for new bleachers, a sprinkler system, an awning and maintenance.

Reza Shahmirzadi, former commissioner for the American Youth Soccer Organization, Region 71, which covers Woodland Hills, West Hills and Canoga Park, said new permit fees from the LAUSD and the city will eat up as much as 20 percent of the group's budget.

"We're looking at over $30,000 in fees, just for permits," he said.

For the past five years, registration has stayed at $135 per child, but that will increase next year once the group calculates the impact of the LAUSD's new fees, Shahmirzadi said.

"It's going to have a major impact," he said. "For next season, we'll have to collect more for registration."

Monique Franklin, the region's current commissioner, said reserve funding will cover this year's cost, but that the increase will be passed on next year to parents of the 1,400 kids who play soccer with the league.

Friedman estimates that 238 permits a month are issued to youth groups leasing LAUSD facilities. About 150 high school and middle school sites are available for use, she said, about one-third of them in the Valley.

So far, she said, the LAUSD has not seen a decline in permit requests as a result of the new fees.

"There are very few recreation facilities and we've always had greater demand than facilities available," she said.

The district even goes out of its way to accommodate some groups, she said, including seeking compromises when groups seek the same site, even if one offers higher lease payments.

After the West Valley Girls Softball league applied for its field in the spring, Ashton discovered that Barcelona California, a youth soccer league, also had bid on the spot.

Instead of sharing the field at Hughes, LAUSD officials agreed to help the soccer league find another site, said Rui Guimarais, the club's president. The 200-member club is still searching, he said.

For the Valley Falcons' Juarez, this would be the first time in 40 years of coaching with the conference that he has had a team sit out a season for lack of players.

Money has always been a concern for his team, he said, noting that many kids live in apartments in San Fernando, Pacoima and Sun Valley and can't afford other sports clubs.

Last year, he estimates, he spent about $2,000 of his own money to help his players.

"We normally field seven teams. Now we don't have enough for one," he said. "We might have to skip this year."

Juarez will have an answer soon: The Falcons' first day of practice is Aug. 1.