School fields will remain an affordable option for local sports groups in Mission.
At the Mission Public School District (MPSD) board of education meeting on May 21, trustees resolved to continue not charging fees for using school fields.
According to the district’s board meeting highlights, the decision was made to keep the use of fields affordable to families.
“Parents already have enough costs to have children participate in field sports. Mature adult teams have seen their costs for community fields go up and they have limited budgets. Having the ability to use school fields at no cost benefits both groups,” trustee Randy Cairns said in a motion attached to the agenda.
MPSD is in the process of reviewing its joint usage agreement with the City of Mission. School fields and facilities are currently booked through the city
At the May 21 board meeting, Cairns also motioned to bring school bookings back in-house, but the matter was defeated.
“That gives the school district the means and ability to set its own fee structure to the benefit of students, parents and community. These facilities are under the Boards jurisdiction and in my view need to be brought back and those duties performed by our employees,” Cairns said.
The use of fields in Mission was previously broached in April at a special council meeting with the board of education and the city.
At the meeting, Mission parks director Louis Dauphin floated the idea of harmonizing field and facility rates.
“This would help just ease the some of the challenges that we faced with bookings and also just ensure that we can also respond to the rising demand for field use and facility use,” Dauphin said.
He said changes to municipal fees come into effect this year and could result in additional pressure on MPSD resources.
MPSD Corien Becker said the rates at the school level are relatively simple compared to the city rates. The district sets rates based on whether a space is used by MPSD students, community-based students, community-based programs, non-profits or businesses.
“Right now we’re speaking two different languages even though they’re all numbers,” Becker said at the meeting.
She said the district has yet to determine the impact of increased fees at the city level on school bookings.
