Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not really whether demand is there. It’s should the county be doing it at all. I don’t really need to pay tax dollars so Larlas can take heavily subsidized gymnastics in prime County space that could be used to serve residents more broadly. Let alone subsidizing some kind of club gymnastics team. Who knew that was even a thing.

Private places will fill the gap eventually if the county stops doing it.

Barcroft also has baseball facilities. Should we do away with those? What about the many many soccer fields? The $$$ aquatics center and HS pools? Let’s just get rid of all youth programs so your precious tax dollars don’t have to support any of this. 🙄 Clearly we shouldn’t subsidize things you random poster don’t personally use.

I don't know the nature of the arrangement but GW paid for the upgrades to the baseball field and it's their home field and then can be used by other when not in use by them. Did the gymnastics team pay for all the improvements and equpment in the gym?

How many times is this going to come up. If individual groups want to use any of these spaces -a pool, a field, a gym, they share with others and participate in a process to rent or reserve the field or facility and pay a fee. The asset is managed by the County and shared by a wide group of people for multiple uses and it is widely available to all. This is DPR's role. Manage community assets for our recreational use. It is not their role to fund and run an elite gymanstics gym with equipment that is only needed and used by competitive gymnasts.

What upgrades? What are you talking about?

The team is always sharing the facility with rec classes. All the equipment is being used at the same time with groups rotating on a schedule. The team only gets the gym to themselves at times they don't run rec classes (e.g., holiday weeks or late evenings). At that point the incremental cost is having the lights on.

There's no separate rental fee because the team is run by the county so parents pay the county directly at the rate set by the county. They have tighter control by managing the facility directly instead of renting it to a third party.

In 2017 the County dropped several million to upgrade Barcroft.

https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Projects/Project-Types/Uncategorised/Barcroft-Gymnastics-Expansion-Project

And the fact the county is not charging the program sufficient fees to cover costs is why it’s on the chopping block.

My kid wasn't even alive in 2017. I have no idea what happened back then.

The county sets the fees. I haven't seen any discussion about them being too low until a couple of days ago, with no specific information being provided. Why isn't the county using the same policy to set youth sports fees across the board?

They do have a policy on this. They're supposed to recover expenses. They're not for your program. This is why this discussion is happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The county already allows private rentals of fields, pavilions, and rec center rooms for parties. My kid’s travel team pays fees to use the Barcroft indoor baseball facilities. DPR offers party rental packages that include bounce houses and skate nights. You can book parts of the aquatics center for private events. So it’s not like the county hasn’t already gotten into the birthday party business to subsidize activities.

And County staff run the parties at these places? That is what people are suggesting here.
Yes.

I have been to some of these parties at above places mentioned and I don't think saying they "run the party" is accurate. They provide access to space or a room. Skate nights are happening anyway, for example. The bounce house is just there and you rented accesss for an hour and a room. At a pool, you're part of free swim and then you get a room after. There is not someone guiding children through activities like you would need at a gymnastics party or you get at one of the private places. Or we're just letting them loose on the equipment and that is the party?

This is exactly how it worked when gymnastics birthday parties were an option at Barcroft:

The gymnastics program had staff that is hired on a part time/seasonal designation, although they worked year round specifically for the gymnastics program, both competitive and rec. Paid hourly. County employees. They could have worked for other programs like teaching swimming, but they would need to be hired by the director of that program and given hours there separately. Gymnastics staff was hired by the gymnastics director and only assigned hours pertinent to the gymnastics program.

As an employee, you would show up for your assigned shift. Work. And then fill out a time card every two weeks. Get it approved. And then get paid. The payment was from Arlington County. I’m gonna go into every detail here since it seems confusing for some people.

Part of your assigned shift could be birthday parties.

The birthday kid had to be turning 3 or 4, I can’t remember, but the gymnastics portion was supposed to be independent.

People booked and paid for the slots for the birthday party through the county booking system at the time. The slots were always booked, you never had off during that time. The gym had to be mostly utilized for the party, but there was sometimes overlap from one other rec class. So whoever had birthday party was whoever was not teaching that overlapped set of classes.

The party was set up like a preschool rec class. There was a floor circuit, track and preschool bars, and free play in pit. If they wanted to pay for more participants, usually another staff member who didn’t usually work Sundays would come to be the other instructor. Or someone who was usually done with their shift would stay later.

The gymnastics staff would run the party exactly the same way as any preschool rec class. Usually the kids were not older than 6/7 so they were fine with those activities. All participants signed a waiver same as any other class. It was just like a one time class for those kids. They used the rec equipment areas and did very basic lesson plans for the first day of a rec class. We usually added some of the more “fun” options to the circuits.

Parents were in the mezzanine. They set up tables for the party there (this was done by facility staff) and after the gymnastics class was done they had their party portion up there. It did mean that area had to be blocked from the public for that time. It probably isn’t the most optimal space the county has for parties.

At the end of the party gymnastics staff had to make sure they left on time, signed something about their final charge based on the amount of kids they had, and basically check that they took most of their stuff. Facilities cleaned up the tables and whatever else.

I assume there’s some reason the county decided to stop doing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The county already allows private rentals of fields, pavilions, and rec center rooms for parties. My kid’s travel team pays fees to use the Barcroft indoor baseball facilities. DPR offers party rental packages that include bounce houses and skate nights. You can book parts of the aquatics center for private events. So it’s not like the county hasn’t already gotten into the birthday party business to subsidize activities.

And County staff run the parties at these places? That is what people are suggesting here.

Yes.

I have been to some of these parties at above places mentioned and I don't think saying they "run the party" is accurate. They provide access to space or a room. Skate nights are happening anyway, for example. The bounce house is just there and you rented accesss for an hour and a room. At a pool, you're part of free swim and then you get a room after. There is not someone guiding children through activities like you would need at a gymnastics party or you get at one of the private places. Or we're just letting them loose on the equipment and that is the party?

This is exactly how it worked when gymnastics birthday parties were an option at Barcroft:

The gymnastics program had staff that is hired on a part time/seasonal designation, although they worked year round specifically for the gymnastics program, both competitive and rec. Paid hourly. County employees. They could have worked for other programs like teaching swimming, but they would need to be hired by the director of that program and given hours there separately. Gymnastics staff was hired by the gymnastics director and only assigned hours pertinent to the gymnastics program.

As an employee, you would show up for your assigned shift. Work. And then fill out a time card every two weeks. Get it approved. And then get paid. The payment was from Arlington County. I’m gonna go into every detail here since it seems confusing for some people.

Part of your assigned shift could be birthday parties.

The birthday kid had to be turning 3 or 4, I can’t remember, but the gymnastics portion was supposed to be independent.

People booked and paid for the slots for the birthday party through the county booking system at the time. The slots were always booked, you never had off during that time. The gym had to be mostly utilized for the party, but there was sometimes overlap from one other rec class. So whoever had birthday party was whoever was not teaching that overlapped set of classes.

The party was set up like a preschool rec class. There was a floor circuit, track and preschool bars, and free play in pit. If they wanted to pay for more participants, usually another staff member who didn’t usually work Sundays would come to be the other instructor. Or someone who was usually done with their shift would stay later.

The gymnastics staff would run the party exactly the same way as any preschool rec class. Usually the kids were not older than 6/7 so they were fine with those activities. All participants signed a waiver same as any other class. It was just like a one time class for those kids. They used the rec equipment areas and did very basic lesson plans for the first day of a rec class. We usually added some of the more “fun” options to the circuits.

Parents were in the mezzanine. They set up tables for the party there (this was done by facility staff) and after the gymnastics class was done they had their party portion up there. It did mean that area had to be blocked from the public for that time. It probably isn’t the most optimal space the county has for parties.

At the end of the party gymnastics staff had to make sure they left on time, signed something about their final charge based on the amount of kids they had, and basically check that they took most of their stuff. Facilities cleaned up the tables and whatever else.

I assume there’s some reason the county decided to stop doing it.

I think some things just never got restarted after COVID. So now suddenly there's an issue, when it's really an APR management issue.

[Anonymous]

This a failure of DPR management. The program was successful and there were plenty of coaches. The rec program was so popular that there was always a ridiculous waitlist. Right around the time of Covid, DPR made a management change that was ill advised and based upon a personal grudge, not performance of the program. Then Covid hit and there wasn’t someone in charge with institutional knowledge and the program lost a lot of coaches. There has been a fair amount of turnover and not a lot of success in recruiting new staff. Again, it is not hard to get certified by USAG to teach recreation classes. The county could provide the certification for candidates. The real issue isn’t that they’re looking to close it, it’s that they just pulled the rug out from under everyone. If they had asked about ways to increase revenue, I am sure most people would have been in favor of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This a failure of DPR management. The program was successful and there were plenty of coaches. The rec program was so popular that there was always a ridiculous waitlist. Right around the time of Covid, DPR made a management change that was ill advised and based upon a personal grudge, not performance of the program. Then Covid hit and there wasn’t someone in charge with institutional knowledge and the program lost a lot of coaches. There has been a fair amount of turnover and not a lot of success in recruiting new staff. Again, it is not hard to get certified by USAG to teach recreation classes. The county could provide the certification for candidates. The real issue isn’t that they’re looking to close it, it’s that they just pulled the rug out from under everyone. If they had asked about ways to increase revenue, I am sure most people would have been in favor of that.

+1

[Anonymous]

I don’t disagree about mismanagement! There were a lot of changes to the gymnastics program management over the last ten years. But from a financial perspective even on the high end birthday parties probably couldn’t close the gap much. It doesn’t bring in much more than using those staff hours to run more rec classes.

If you need to grow a program it’s a great idea. Snow day camps and parents night out are probably more popular options for private programs now as well. Provides more opportunities for your core client base to utilize those staff hours. Some area gyms also have open gym, although this presents some insurance issues and is likely not viable for the county.

[Anonymous]

Another thing I wanted to mention, under previous management of the gymnastics program (when it was internal to the program) for several seasons they tried running rec classes at a separate location with smaller equipment that could be set up at that location. It was the same gymnastics staff, just went to that location for that day. Just wanted to throw that memory out there if consolidating the gymnastics space is a viable way to save the program. Maybe some equipment could be repurposed in another location and set up/taken down daily for rec classes. It’s not an elegant solution and never took off much in the first place. But if we’re throwing ideas out, that came to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This a failure of DPR management. The program was successful and there were plenty of coaches. The rec program was so popular that there was always a ridiculous waitlist. Right around the time of Covid, DPR made a management change that was ill advised and based upon a personal grudge, not performance of the program. Then Covid hit and there wasn’t someone in charge with institutional knowledge and the program lost a lot of coaches. There has been a fair amount of turnover and not a lot of success in recruiting new staff. Again, it is not hard to get certified by USAG to teach recreation classes. The county could provide the certification for candidates. The real issue isn’t that they’re looking to close it, it’s that they just pulled the rug out from under everyone. If they had asked about ways to increase revenue, I am sure most people would have been in favor of that.

Covid changed the game for a lot of low paying positions, unfortunately. I don’t know how many adults are out there in 2026 that are willing to take on part time night/weekend work for fast food wages.

It’s not just gymnastics. The pools are struggling with finding lifeguards, and APS is struggling to fill extended day roles. Bus drivers, crossing guards, daycare workers are all in short supply.

[Anonymous]

They could double the fees for the competition team and all those parents who think their daughters and sons will be a D1 gymnast would still pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could double the fees for the competition team and all those parents who think their daughters and sons will be a D1 gymnast would still pay.

What are the current fees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They could double the fees for the competition team and all those parents who think their daughters and sons will be a D1 gymnast would still pay.

What are the current fees?

Variable by level - the more practice hours, the higher the fees

[Anonymous]

Apparently DPR just sent all the Barcroft coaches severance notices, to be signed by the beginning of April.

Yet no information has been provided about costs or what fees would have to be for fee recovery. This is not okay.

[Anonymous]

Just charge the competitive team more. It’s cheaper than the private facilities and parents would’ve willing to pay more than switch to a gym where their kid is told to lose weight and comes home crying every day. Just ask them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just charge the competitive team more. It’s cheaper than the private facilities and parents would’ve willing to pay more than switch to a gym where their kid is told to lose weight and comes home crying every day. Just ask them.

1st I think there are a bunch of private gymnastics facilities around nova where your child won’t be told that. Especially if they are not on the elite track (to be clear it shouldn’t happen regardless. But I can’t speak for every program out there). For boys team though, there’s not as many competitive options. Unfortunately Covid eliminated some of them. Many gyms have opened recreational ninja programs instead.

At the board meeting they seemed to imply that it would be too much of a gap but I would like to see the numbers.

Also what the facility would be repurposed for. And whether they have considered any other options like how the program could continue to operate within the original facility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just charge the competitive team more. It’s cheaper than the private facilities and parents would’ve willing to pay more than switch to a gym where their kid is told to lose weight and comes home crying every day. Just ask them.

There really aren't local options. YMCA doesn't have a full facility and Dynamic doesn't have room. I can't drive back and forth to Burke with my job. My kid has already been in tears about this.