Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

[Anonymous]

I could never get DD into any of the gymnastics classes. Waitlists didn't move. I am sorry your program is being cut, but so few people could get their kids in, that a lot of people aren't going to care either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could never get DD into any of the gymnastics classes. Waitlists didn't move. I am sorry your program is being cut, but so few people could get their kids in, that a lot of people aren't going to care either.

Hundreds of people get their kids in every session. With the new system it's basically a lottery if you're in the waiting room at the sign up time. That seems fair and cutting a gymnastics opportunity isn't going to help kids get spots. Maybe they should be expanding the program?

[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.

Why would you think it would be cheaper than a private gym?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Zero public engagement before all the staff receive notice that they're terminated. Zero information from the county about costs or fee recovery. This is seriously f*Ed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

There aren’t local options YET. I don’t think anyone has ruled out parents standing up a nonprofit to lease Barcroft space from the county, obtain its own insurance, maintain its own equipment, and hire its own coaches. Kind of like what every other competitive sport has done. I realize it’s a burden but I’d start going down that route now, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

There aren’t local options YET. I don’t think anyone has ruled out parents standing up a nonprofit to lease Barcroft space from the county, obtain its own insurance, maintain its own equipment, and hire its own coaches. Kind of like what every other competitive sport has done. I realize it’s a burden but I’d start going down that route now, OP.

That's not what will happen. It will just be another basketball gym, or more likely sit empty for a number of years until the come up with money to do something with it. Such a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why would you think it would be cheaper than a private gym?

Because it is cheaper

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could never get DD into any of the gymnastics classes. Waitlists didn't move. I am sorry your program is being cut, but so few people could get their kids in, that a lot of people aren't going to care either.

Hundreds of people get their kids in every session. With the new system it's basically a lottery if you're in the waiting room at the sign up time. That seems fair and cutting a gymnastics opportunity isn't going to help kids get spots. Maybe they should be expanding the program?

Kind of had it with all the “lotteries” in Arlington. How about we focus on how we can use our limited resources to serve the most people? If we can’t afford this program in its current state, how are we going to afford it with 200 more kids on fee waivers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could never get DD into any of the gymnastics classes. Waitlists didn't move. I am sorry your program is being cut, but so few people could get their kids in, that a lot of people aren't going to care either.

You are mistaken. Many, many kids take the classes. There is demand for even more, that’s why they should be hiring staff. It wasn’t that so few could get in!

[Anonymous]

Honestly I just calculated the monthly tuition for a couple teams and I don’t think it’s less than private gyms. About $610 a month for optionals or am I reading this wrong? Boys close to $700. Those are the resident numbers. I’m out in the burbs though. But that’s higher.

The non tuition assessments for team could be less than private gyms. I could see that. That’s an extra $1-2000 on top of tuition and usually does not pay for uniforms. So I guess if you divide it up, but it still seems about the same to me. Maybe I’m misinterpreting the yearly tuition number in the parks registration portal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could never get DD into any of the gymnastics classes. Waitlists didn't move. I am sorry your program is being cut, but so few people could get their kids in, that a lot of people aren't going to care either.

The other local option is Dynamic. Waitlists are 2+ years long, so if you sign your kid up for a 4-6 yo class, they'll age out before they get into a class.

[Anonymous]

Parents might have to drive a little bit further for rec classes but it's not a big deal. That's how it is in this area. What about the kids on team, Xcel - that will be much harder to swallow. Nobody cares about your 4YO tots class.

[Anonymous]

I’m glad my kid grew up in a before version of Arlington and not the one now.

[Anonymous]

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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.

DP. And acting like a rec program and a competitive program use the same equipment is disingenuous.

DP. Except they literally do. The exact same equipment. My kid took rec classes at Barcroft for years. During her 1-1.5 hour class, other classes plus multiple level of team kids were working out. The groups all rotate, and the rec kids use the same floor, bars, beam, tumble track, etc as the team kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m glad my kid grew up in a before version of Arlington and not the one now.

Thanks for the laugh.