Posted: March 20th, 2005

By Jennifer Radcliffe, Staff Writer, Los Angeles Daily News, Sunday, March 20, 2005, Page 1

Hundreds of nonprofit youth groups in the San Fernando Valley and across the city would have to pay to use Los Angeles Unified School District facilities and athletic fields under a district plan that critics say could force them to cancel worthwhile events.

The plan is designed to help recoup the $6.2 million a year that LAUSD spends to staff and supply campuses for groups like the Girl Scouts and PTA.

But some fear the rental fees - $78 for a permit, plus up to $48 an hour for events - may force them to cancel athletic practices, fund-raising carnivals and other kinds of youth activities.

“This one kind of makes me crazy,” said Scott Folsom, vice president of the Los Angeles 10th District Parent-Teacher Association. Categorically, we’re absolutely opposed.”

While the school board will make the final decision on the fee in April, officials at Beyond the Bell, the division of the district that manages these activities, said they feel forced into a corner.

LAUSD currently grants 2,850 permits a year to youth groups - allowing about 55,000 free uses of district facilities a year.

The division, like most others in the LAUSD, is asked to cut programs to help overcome a budget shortfall. If fees aren’t implemented, tutoring and other after-school programs for Los Angeles Unified students may need to be scaled back, Associate Superintendent John Liechty said.

“Given the best of both worlds, I wouldn’t bring forward this proposal,” Liechty said. “But I have to figure out a way to make this whole program revenue neutral.”

LAUSD is also proposing slight increases to the fees it already charges
adult groups. The district collects about $1.4 million for those 15,000 uses a year.

The law requires school districts to open their buildings to the public, but allows them to recoup fees - but not make a profit.

Glenn Bell, who teaches physical education at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, said his athletic fields get torn up on the weekends when its used by youth and adult groups.

“It drives us crazy,” the Woodland Hills resident said. “We come out here and it’s a dust bowl and it’s not fair to our kids.”

The fees would be a good way to maintain the fields and replenish supplies during weekend activities, up, he said.

But others worry that the fees would send the wrong message to the
community.

“Given the unfortunate situation with L.A. being park poor … the public schools are integral,” said attorney Erica Flores Baltodano, assistant director of the Center for Law in the Public Interest. “We certainly understand where the school district is coming from, but there’s got to be another way.”

Liechty said the district is considering granting waivers to youth groups deemed valuable to the districts - an idea that has some nonprofit leaders worried about fairness.

Baltodano worries that fees could make it impossible for her client, the Anahuak Youth Soccer Association, to continue serving 1,500 low-income children.

“We are concerned that this could very well put the group out of operation,” Baltodano said.

Leaders of the Girl Scouts of the San Fernando Valley, which hosts hundreds of meetings a year in schools, share the same concern.

“To us, it would be devastating,” said Melanie Merians, marketing director. “The cost is prohibitive for us. That kind of a permit fee would really, we feel, hurt the community.”

LAUSD board member David Tokofsky said the fee may be needed in order for the district to balance its $6 billion budget while giving raises to teachers.

But groups that cannot afford the fee should be given the option of covering the cost through in-kind donations of their time, he said.

“Obviously, some folks need to have an alternative mechanism in which to give back for the ability to use the bathrooms and the fields and things like that,” he said.

But the district’s priority has to be public-school children, Tokofsky said.

Taxpayers are “maintaining it for school use. This is after-school and
weekend use,” he said. “There is an added cost beyond the maintenance cost for children going to school and that has to be paid for.”

But others say the $14 billion in construction bonds approved by voters over the last few years entitles residents to some access to the facilities.

“This is public property that is held in trust by the school district, and
the public has every right to access it,” Folsom said.

Jennifer Radcliffe, (818) - 713-3722
jennifer.radcliffe@dailynews.com