Recreation Center Governing Board

REC GOVERNING BOARD Minutes for Meeting of May 3, 2018 @ 10:00 a.m. City Board Members: Mayor Dave Kline, Law Director Megan Raber, Finance Director Mollie Gilbride, Dir. of Public Service Mike Rorar School Board Members: Don Seeker Community Board Member: Mark Salerno (6 RGB members voting) Rec Personnel (non-voting): Parks and Recreation Superintendent Jessica Simons, Assistant Parks and Recreation Superintendent Adam Bozic and Administrative Assistant Dan Enos Approval of Minutes: Gilbride moved to approve the minutes of the January 25, 2018 meeting; seconded by Salerno. Vote to approve: 6/0. Old Business: Past Event Updates: a) Family Fun Night – Simons: This was probably the most successful Family Fun Night we’ve ever had, we had over a thousand people attend and it went really well! The clean-up after was fast – the company we get our inflatables from kind of handled their stuff and everybody was cleaned up and out of there within 2 hours which was awesome for an event that size. Mayor: Great job! b) Easter Egg Hunt – Simons: This event also went very well. So much candy and so many eggs, it sometimes makes me think of the “Hunger Games”! The paper did finally print the pictures of the Primetimers stuffing the eggs so that was good because we got a complaint the first week after because the paper didn’t print that. Mayor: Well, we couldn’t do it without their help that’s for sure and this event is something the kids really love! It probably is 4 or 5 hours of work for the Primetimers and in seconds every egg is taken! I was pleased with how the kids were respectful and thankful at the end, good event Jessica! c) Dru Joyce Tournament – Simons: This was actually one of the most tame DJ tournaments we’ve ever hosted at our facility. It was last Friday, Saturday and Sunday and there were a bunch of accident reports for rolled ankles and ice given out for those kind of injuries but we had no fights and nobody getting kicked out. We do require - because of the number of teams participating - that they provide 2 police security officers throughout the tournament which they kind of pushed back on us but I think that’s part of what makes it run so smoothly. Mayor: Donnie, how did it go for you at the school district? You guys also hosted them. Seeker: Yes, Mike ran it, I didn’t attend it at all. We had to call the police on the last day – during one of the championship games it was getting kind of “iffy”. Mayor: So you don’t have a person there. Seeker: If you have a bigger venue and host more games like the Rec they’ll do it with a little resistance, but I told Mike next year to tell him it is what it is. He called the Police just for their presence at the end of the tournament to calm it all down. Mayor: Did you have to pay for it or did they? Seeker: No, the police just came in for the last 10 minutes or so of the game. I think Officer Quillen was going to send something to you or the Chief to say that the two officers who came were really wonderful. Mayor: Very good!  -2- Staff Updates: a) Marketing Position – Simons: The only thing I have to discuss is the marketing position which was approved by Council but we are putting in on hold for the time being. I think we will go ahead and post it and start the interview process, Don did say it was OK to do that so we can hire someone when we are able. We also had a little bit of an update with the pool manager situation. Kelly Davis, our pool manager did accept a full-time position with the City of Massillon. She was a great employee, has worked here since she was 16 starting as a lifeguard at the pool and I sure wish we could have kept her. She will be doing their fitness programming. She will stay on as our pool manager on weekends and evenings this year. It will be a bit of an adjustment because it is too late in the year to find another head manager who knows so much, so that will be one of our challenges for this year. We do have 3 other assistant managers over there who will be able to work the schedule and 2 of those managers are new this year but were previously lifeguards at the pool and had a good track record with that so we should be good on that. It’s just that time of the year when people who have been working part-time are looking for and getting full-time jobs. Our summer hiring is almost complete, we’re waiting on start dates for some of our lifeguards and then that will be all set and ready to go. Water goes in the pool next week (hopefully). Other: a) Cycling Studio - Simons: We’re still waiting on a quote from Taylor for the construction. I followed up with him again today and said if you don’t have the time to do this, that’s fine, just let us know so we can pursue someone else. I did contact Ball Construction and they don’t have the time to do this project. Once we get a quote, we’ll assess it and figure out the next steps. New Business: Governing Board Grid Price Changes: Simons: We have a couple of changes. Those of you who maybe didn’t bring your grid we do have them numbered in the margin in the grid that was sent out with the agenda today. The majority of these changes that we’ve made are all because we’ve been looking at the prices of these programs compared to our increases in staff costs since the last time that these prices were looked at and a lot of them are not making the money that they should be. So that was the impetus for us to change a lot of these prices. The first one on there is the youth basketball league. That’s our community all star basketball program. Every year our staffing costs go up – it’s probably the sports league that uses the most staff because we have the admissions staff, the track crossing guard, the scorekeepers, and raising referee costs every year. The program sells out every year and we cannot accommodate any more teams (we are maxed out at 132 teams). I think this program could definitely be in line  -3- for a price increase. It looks big at $50 but if you break it down per kid with 10 kids on a team, it’s only $5 a person for the season for that price increase. “Forfeit Fee” - This fee is assessed to teams who either “no call or no show” for a game so that we cannot get hold of the other team or the referee to let them know the game has been cancelled. That fee is increased because in most of our leagues, it costs about $30 if not a little more than that to pay referees for that one game and if we’re not able to alert them, then we have to pay them anyway so that’s why this increase is being recommended. Home School Open Gym - We’re talking about raising that a dollar per child and that’s just to kind of offset the increase in staffing costs. We haven’t had an increase in that program in probably 4 years so that would be effective this fall. They do still have a couple left from this session. Dance Classes – We are kind of trying to bring all of these in line with each other. The ballet and hip hop instructor is paid on an hourly basis so in order to be able to run the classes, we’ve set a minimum of 6 kids per class. We need to raise the price to be able to cover her cost in teaching the class. The gymnastic and dancing/cheer are charged differently, those are “a percentage-based on” but just to kind of make them all a similar cost for a similar program, we are proposing changing those costs. Generic Level 1, 2 and 3 Programs – When we looked at it and kind of what spawned us was this “Paw Patrol” event that we’re doing on Friday. In looking at it, charging $5 a person only covers staff costs if it completely fills. If we have any less than 12 kids in the program we will not cover staff costs and we don’t really want to cancel the program with 12 kids just because we can’t cover those costs. We have proposed to raise the prices of those $5 each. I have kids that participate in these programs and I feel like $10 for those programs are really not out of the norm of what you would pay elsewhere. It might seem a little high to some but that’s what the going rate is for that type of program. The Polar Express was the same thing – not being able to cover the cost of the staff at the price being charged. Next is the biggest change we are proposing. Before and After School Programs – after looking at this we were really kind of astounded to see how underpriced we are for the market and especially with the afternoon care, we really were just barely covering staff costs when we should have been bringing in a good amount of money. Part of that is making sure that we’re sending people home and we are working on doing that. When you look at the financial report you’ll see that our staffing costs are up considerably over last year and part of that is due to increased staffing for the After School care. We are proposing to separate it out – currently Before Care is $40 and After Care is $40 and if you do both, it’s $60. But when you do the Before Care, you’re there anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 and the kids get on the bus at like 8:15. So you’re not there for a very long amount of time and we don’t need very many staff people because they basically come in, eat their breakfast and get on the bus. We’re actually proposing lowering the cost for Before Care and increasing the cost for After Care because they do more activities requiring more staff  -4- and they’re there for a longer period of time. What we are proposing is raising the overall price of both of them by about $15 to $75. Gilbride: Shouldn’t that be on the 3rd one, delete the Before or . . . Simons: - Yes, it should be After Care activities – the time is right on the side but I did mess up the dates so that would just be After Care so it would be Before and After. Then we made the change between resident and non-resident rates even though we usually did not deal with that since we don’t have open enrollment. The holiday break camps are on there as well and we proposed combining that and making it one flat fee instead of having people pay for Before and After Care as well as the day camp because most of the people who participate in those day camps are already part of our program and need all day care anyway. We did go back and look at the grid from 2012 before we eliminated the Before and After school care program and the holiday break day camps were charged on that 6:30-6:30 basis so we just decided to go back and treat this as it was in 2012. Gilbride: Why didn’t you change the weekly camp? Simons: We did not change it because we have not come to a conclusion yet as to how we want to change it. We are continuing to look at that. The only one that would be weekly during the school year would be Spring Break because Christmas falls in the middle of the week and that’s just a daily camp anyway. We will look at it further – should we include it in the Before and After Care? Or should we do it as 2 separate things because not everybody that does the Spring Break or Summer Camp needs Before Care or After Care so that’s something that we’re kind of looking at with more research before we come back with a new price for those weekly camps. Raber: So what is anticipated as the effect of this? I think we need to add that here because we say “updated” and the top I think you should say “revised” and up there it should say “effective” August 15 . . . ? You’d still have people and I think you’d want to get it through the end of the camp (August 10th). That would be for programs starting after August 10th. People will register for the Before and After camp prior to that. And we are also still working on trying to figure out a way to have that on installment billing or something along the same lines as we’re doing summer camp this year. That was really well received and something that was reflected in our Profit and Loss Statement because it did affect our revenue for this month. But it’s been very well received so we’re trying to figure that out for the school year as well because it takes a lot of the burden off of us as well as trying to track people down and make sure they are paying and paying on time. As far as I’m aware, it has not been brought to my attention that we’ve been having an issue with payment for the Before and After school care. I think that’s been working fairly well and people who are getting phone calls are paying and we haven’t had to send any to collections or anything like that so far this year. Mayor: The grid – even though I might sign up before August 10th , the program starts after that? Simons: Yes. Raber: I think it should state “Effective For Programs Starting August 11, 2018.” Simons: OK. Rorar: I don’t think any of those increases are out of line either. Raber: Where do we stand with the Lutheran Church, the King’s Kids, ChildScape, etc. with the pricing? Simons: We’re still on par or still cheaper than they are. When we called around about the program they were all around $70 to $80 and we’re right in line with those. And our ratios of staff to kids and especially in the after care is actually lower than a lot of those other places. I think sometimes it’s a lot lower than the rates I pay for my infant at daycare. I think we’re adequately priced for that. Mayor: I really don’t have a problem with the changes. It sounds as if you’ve done your homework. I am more concerned about having a class with only 2 or 3 people that we are able to cancel that class  -5- and notify the instructor beforehand. Very few times do I walk by a class and see an instructor with only 1 or 2 people. I am sure it happens but - Simons: As far as our aerobics classes go, we have been adamant about cancelling them if there are 3 or less people in the class for that day and then if it trends to be 5 and under for a month then we remove that class from the schedule. When we do have to cancel a class we do pay the instructors for about 30 minutes for coming out but we’ve been trying to be very adamant about paying an instructor full price for 3 people. Mayor: Do we have a Profit and Loss for the before and after care? Simons: We’re working with Rene to put that together. Adam has been getting one but I believe he said they were incomplete so he is following up with her to get that. I am sure for the Spring Break camp we lose money because they take so many field trips and do so much stuff. Gilbride: And you provide the food. Simons: Yes. We’re waiting for this year’s report but when Adam and I were looking through doing all these price changes yesterday, we looked at the schedule for Spring Break camp and they go on a field trip every day so there’s no way we’re affording all that for $55 a person. Mayor: I love the program and think it’s neat that the kids get to do this and we’re providing a safe environment for them, but we also need to break even. Simons: I agree. A program like that should be making money, covering costs and then some so we know we need to take a closer look at it. Once we get all the information we will bring the recommendations back to the Board. Raber: One other note, we don’t cover the week after school is out or the week before they are to go back and part of that argument was well, the kids are going back to school and need to get ready and all that, but now because the school year has shifted, it feels like we could have all the coverage we need and if we could pull that off we could be making revenue that we’re not. I encourage you to look into that as I have heard complaints from parents concerning those 2 weeks and trying to find childcare. Simons: We’ll look at that for sure. I think it would be easier for us to do the week before camp starts, the week between Memorial Day and the start of camp – those 4 days. Am not sure it would be worth it to do the 2 days before school starts because people are trying to get ready for school but it’s definitely something that we can look at. Raber: I think if we can pull together a “No School” day then we can pull something together for those 2 days. Simons: Yes, I completely get it and we’ll look into it. Mayor: Do we have a motion on the floor? Raber: I move that we approve the changes to the grid as proposed with programs beginning effective August 11th; seconded by Gilbride. Vote to approve: 6/0. Other: Simons: We’re working on our emergency medical forms for summer camp. We are doing those on line and we’re getting ready to send them all out. We’ve had the training and it should be so much easier on parents that do the school year as well as the summer, when the school year starts you don’t have to fill out the same 8 pages of information. It will also be a lot easier for our staff. There will be no binder and it will be a lot more secure too for the kids. They will have to log into the app and access it that way. The Food Truck Festival is coming up the end of this month (the 20th). I think we are all set for this, we have 27 trucks coming and we just need the weather to cooperate! Raber: I have to go back, every age group will be staffed with the tablets and when they go on field trips they’ll have them? Simons: Yes, a tablet will be with each leader of an age group at all times. There will also be an extra one at Lions Park just in case and at the Rec. Everytime those are connected to Wi-Fi, all the new information downloads into the app so they always have the most up-to-date information. Gilbride: So they don’t need the Wi-Fi? It’s  -6- downloaded into the app so they do not need Wi-Fi to access the . . . Simons: Yes. This is one of the things that made us pick this particular program over another. Monthly Reports: TRC Membership Report: Simons: Really awesome overall. Our non-insurance memberships which are paid memberships are up 13% from April of last year. And as you can see from the highlighted sections, those increases are coming in really good spots with the annual blue memberships for kids and adults, the annual adult gold and the monthly adult gold, so that’s very encouraging to be able to see those increases and it’s reflected on our financial report for this month as well. TRC Financial Report: Gilbride: The reports for the month of April as Jessica stated show membership revenues up 5.6%. Currently overall revenue is down 3% but if you do look at this summer and those “no school” camps, that revenue is down about 24% right now and I believe it has to do with us offering this installment bill across the board rather than paying up front – I know I took advantage of it! Did you get a chance to see where enrollment is actually at? Simons: Camp enrollment has actually increased over this time last year. It looks right now like the uncollected balance in installment bills for this program is $27,000 so that more than makes up for that $13,000 that we’re down. Gilbride: That’s correct. And then currently expenses are up 5.48%, personnel expenses about 11%, so currently we’re at a net profit of $13,500-ish, down from where we were last year but that’s where we’re at. Mayor: I think it’s a matter of timing issues, there’s no brackets around the bottom line so that’s what’s important to me! Good job Jessica and Adam! Simons: And our electric bill is down 31% again this month – has been down this same amount every month since the LED lights were installed! TRC Donation Request Report: Bozic: We made 6 donation requests to a variety of organizations and events: The Tallmadge Lions Club for their Chef’s Event; Treehouse Preschool for their annual Mothers and Grandmother’s lunch; the Deyarmin Poker Run; Munroe PTA Spring Fling; Tallmadge Force had a scotch doubles and the Tallmadge Branch Library had their National Library Week. Adjournment: 10:3l a.m. km/6-22-18