Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s a reason they haven’t shown you the data to support that the gap is just too big, especially compared to other programs.

What is the reason?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enough with the posts griping that gymnastics only serves young people.

I understand that retirees have paid taxes their entire working lives, but guess what — that money has all been spent. It’s not there anymore. The services they receive (social security, Medicare, subsidized property taxes, etc) all comes from current taxpayers.

Now, this shouldn’t be a problem, except there are so effing many old people, and the birth rate has been in steady decline for a long time now. There aren’t as many people paying into these programs, and the number of people receiving benefits is HUGE.

Not to mention, the world literally shut down to keep you safe during COVID. Young people had to shutter businesses. Kids didn’t attend school for years! These things have catastrophic effects for entire lives. Perhaps old people should have been asked to stay home instead…

We can’t keep sacrificing the quality of life of all young people. Sometimes senior citizens need to take their turn.

Keep the gymnastics center. Raise fees if needed, especially for the competitive programs.

Not one more post about achy joints. That’s just part of life.

I'm sorry, but your argument is that old people don't deserve services because achy joints are "just a part of life" but apparently having access to a top notch and heavily subsidized competitive gymnastics program is essential for kids? In a county that already has a ton of sports programming for kids?Nope, and you don't get to just ignore the needs of other citizens. You'll be old one day, too.

Also, you sound like an idiot. The county doesn't pay for social security -- old people paid for it, already! And arguing that old people are exclusively to blame for Covid closures in some kind of protracted argument on behalf of Bancroft is almost too stupid for words. But obviously plenty of young people participated in those decisions, and plenty of older people were among the businesses that shuttered due to shutdowns. Go get some actual facts and come back to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay so the plan really is to close all of Barcroft for a year. Seems bizarre to me.

Very strange indeed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enough with the posts griping that gymnastics only serves young people.

I understand that retirees have paid taxes their entire working lives, but guess what — that money has all been spent. It’s not there anymore. The services they receive (social security, Medicare, subsidized property taxes, etc) all comes from current taxpayers.

Now, this shouldn’t be a problem, except there are so effing many old people, and the birth rate has been in steady decline for a long time now. There aren’t as many people paying into these programs, and the number of people receiving benefits is HUGE.

Not to mention, the world literally shut down to keep you safe during COVID. Young people had to shutter businesses. Kids didn’t attend school for years! These things have catastrophic effects for entire lives. Perhaps old people should have been asked to stay home instead…

We can’t keep sacrificing the quality of life of all young people. Sometimes senior citizens need to take their turn.

Keep the gymnastics center. Raise fees if needed, especially for the competitive programs.

Not one more post about achy joints. That’s just part of life.

I'm sorry, but your argument is that old people don't deserve services because achy joints are "just a part of life" but apparently having access to a top notch and heavily subsidized competitive gymnastics program is essential for kids? In a county that already has a ton of sports programming for kids?Nope, and you don't get to just ignore the needs of other citizens. You'll be old one day, too.

Also, you sound like an idiot. The county doesn't pay for social security -- old people paid for it, already! And arguing that old people are exclusively to blame for Covid closures in some kind of protracted argument on behalf of Bancroft is almost too stupid for words. But obviously plenty of young people participated in those decisions, and plenty of older people were among the businesses that shuttered due to shutdowns. Go get some actual facts and come back to us.

Go back and read. I said raise gymnastics fees if necessary.

And yes, they already paid into entitlements, but I addressed this above as well. The. Money. Is. Gone. All current funding of federal/state/local programs comes from those who are currently working, and the birth rate is way down (largely in part due to decisions made by previous generations that have made life prohibitively expensive!).

The massive aging population is getting a piggyback ride from generations that are much smaller in number. Cuts need to be made — in their direction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enough with the posts griping that gymnastics only serves young people.

I understand that retirees have paid taxes their entire working lives, but guess what — that money has all been spent. It’s not there anymore. The services they receive (social security, Medicare, subsidized property taxes, etc) all comes from current taxpayers.

Now, this shouldn’t be a problem, except there are so effing many old people, and the birth rate has been in steady decline for a long time now. There aren’t as many people paying into these programs, and the number of people receiving benefits is HUGE.

Not to mention, the world literally shut down to keep you safe during COVID. Young people had to shutter businesses. Kids didn’t attend school for years! These things have catastrophic effects for entire lives. Perhaps old people should have been asked to stay home instead…

We can’t keep sacrificing the quality of life of all young people. Sometimes senior citizens need to take their turn.

Keep the gymnastics center. Raise fees if needed, especially for the competitive programs.

Not one more post about achy joints. That’s just part of life.

I'm sorry, but your argument is that old people don't deserve services because achy joints are "just a part of life" but apparently having access to a top notch and heavily subsidized competitive gymnastics program is essential for kids? In a county that already has a ton of sports programming for kids?Nope, and you don't get to just ignore the needs of other citizens. You'll be old one day, too.

Also, you sound like an idiot. The county doesn't pay for social security -- old people paid for it, already! And arguing that old people are exclusively to blame for Covid closures in some kind of protracted argument on behalf of Bancroft is almost too stupid for words. But obviously plenty of young people participated in those decisions, and plenty of older people were among the businesses that shuttered due to shutdowns. Go get some actual facts and come back to us.

Go back and read. I said raise gymnastics fees if necessary.

And yes, they already paid into entitlements, but I addressed this above as well. The. Money. Is. Gone. All current funding of federal/state/local programs comes from those who are currently working, and the birth rate is way down (largely in part due to decisions made by previous generations that have made life prohibitively expensive!).

The massive aging population is getting a piggyback ride from generations that are much smaller in number. Cuts need to be made — in their direction.

Cuts need to be made all around, and Grandma’s heirs need to pay back taxes on the $2m property she bought for $15k back in 1970 and that they inherited on a step up basis.

Our commercial past is behind us, Trump and the GOP have killed the federal government and are selling off what’s left to their buddies from Epstein Island. We need to pay for the things we want now. Including apparently $1.6m+ in staff costs alone for a gymnastics program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

End the competitive swim program and the lanes over to rentals or public paid use. Charge the Senior law firm partners living in DC at least as much as you charge their younger assistants living in Arlington. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

What makes you think the swim program doesn't recover it's fees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

What makes you think the swim program doesn't recover it's fees?

The county board member (Cunningham) said so at a meeting last night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

What makes you think the swim program doesn't recover it's fees?

The county board member (Cunningham) said so at a meeting last night.

Then I guess if they know they aren't hitting their recovery numbers, why aren't they raising fees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Enough with the posts griping that gymnastics only serves young people.

I understand that retirees have paid taxes their entire working lives, but guess what — that money has all been spent. It’s not there anymore. The services they receive (social security, Medicare, subsidized property taxes, etc) all comes from current taxpayers.

Now, this shouldn’t be a problem, except there are so effing many old people, and the birth rate has been in steady decline for a long time now. There aren’t as many people paying into these programs, and the number of people receiving benefits is HUGE.

Not to mention, the world literally shut down to keep you safe during COVID. Young people had to shutter businesses. Kids didn’t attend school for years! These things have catastrophic effects for entire lives. Perhaps old people should have been asked to stay home instead…

We can’t keep sacrificing the quality of life of all young people. Sometimes senior citizens need to take their turn.

Keep the gymnastics center. Raise fees if needed, especially for the competitive programs.

Not one more post about achy joints. That’s just part of life.

I'm sorry, but your argument is that old people don't deserve services because achy joints are "just a part of life" but apparently having access to a top notch and heavily subsidized competitive gymnastics program is essential for kids? In a county that already has a ton of sports programming for kids?Nope, and you don't get to just ignore the needs of other citizens. You'll be old one day, too.

Also, you sound like an idiot. The county doesn't pay for social security -- old people paid for it, already! And arguing that old people are exclusively to blame for Covid closures in some kind of protracted argument on behalf of Bancroft is almost too stupid for words. But obviously plenty of young people participated in those decisions, and plenty of older people were among the businesses that shuttered due to shutdowns. Go get some actual facts and come back to us.

Go back and read. I said raise gymnastics fees if necessary.

And yes, they already paid into entitlements, but I addressed this above as well. The. Money. Is. Gone. All current funding of federal/state/local programs comes from those who are currently working, and the birth rate is way down (largely in part due to decisions made by previous generations that have made life prohibitively expensive!).

The massive aging population is getting a piggyback ride from generations that are much smaller in number. Cuts need to be made — in their direction.

Cuts need to be made all around, and Grandma’s heirs need to pay back taxes on the $2m property she bought for $15k back in 1970 and that they inherited on a step up basis.

Our commercial past is behind us, Trump and the GOP have killed the federal government and are selling off what’s left to their buddies from Epstein Island. We need to pay for the things we want now. Including apparently $1.6m+ in staff costs alone for a gymnastics program.

People already pay taxes on what they inherit.

But yeah, stop subsidizing property taxes for the elderly. If they can’t afford current rates for their 4 bedroom home, it’s time to downsize or move farther out. Zero sympathy when appropriate sized housing is unaffordable for families with actual children who need that space. (And their parents need to live in Arlington to be closer to work.) Ol’ Betty can watch her re-runs anywhere, not just in Arlington.

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Anonymous wrote:Most of the residents who benefit from the Barcroft facility AREN'T competitive gymnasts. Yes, the Aerials and the Tigers will be devastated at the loss of the facility, but the impact to the greater community is even larger. Most partipants are children who are interested in rec gymnastics, no different than the rec bball or rec swimming. Learning gymnastics at a young age is wonderful for building strength, developing balance and coordination, promoting fitness, teaching discipline and mental toughness and boosting confidence. Most participants eventually move on to other sports, but the foundation formed in gymnastics can help them throughout life. Stop treating it like it's some boogeyman. You don't need to be a college level gymnast to teach rec classes. Please get real. Let's also not forget that it is one of the only adaptive gymnastics programs out there and those families won't have other places to turn.

But then they could do that without the a full-fledged competitive gymnastics facility.

You could build a truly recreational gymnastics program that focused on tumbling, flexibility, strength, and body awareness. No vault, no bars except maybe a low bar for learning things like hip circles and doing pull ups and kip ups, no high beam, no rings, no pommel. Instead, you focus on fundamental skills and progressions. Cartwheels, walk-overs, rolls and building up to hand springs and back tucks for more advanced students.

Facility could have bonded foam flexi-rolls instead of a spring floor, some deeper foam mats for the slightly bigger tumbling tricks, a trampoline, low beams, a low bar. Less expensive, easier to break down and store when not in use, could be more easily moved to different facilities as needed, and lower liability costs since you wouldn't be doing riskier skills on equipment like this.

The program should emphasize exactly what you are talking about -- foundational gymnastics that help with body awareness, flexibility and mobility, balance and coordination, love of sports and physical movement. The program should also be targeted to all ages with programming specifically designed for adult beginners, and people with mobility or joint issues.

If the goal is fitness and not competitive gymnastics, then you don't need a vault, a foam pit, a springboard floor, a full suite of unevent/high/parallel bars, etc. All of which take up a ton of space, require a lot of maintenance, and are primarily used by more advanced gymnasts in a narrow age rage. People who want those things can seek out a private gym for it. If there is truly demand in Arlington County for it, and it's actually a sustainable model with insurance and staffing costs, then private options will become available. It does not make sense for the county to subsidize the competitive gymnastics portion of the program which serves so few kids when they could instead build a truly recreational program geared at fitness for all ages.

There's no funding to buy all new equipment. The gym is fully outfitted already. This is a ridiculous post.

Right. The 2nd gym buildout was a misstep. They could close that side and convert back to a basketball gym while maintaining the original side. It would crowd the space more, but since they have a stffing problem, it wouldn't be as bad as before.

There is still overwhelming demand from Arlington residents and long waitlists. There's no reason to think we can't fill both gyms with kids doing gymnastics. DPR just needs to get their act together.

There’s overwhelming demand for gymnastics at the price point DPR was offering. At the price point it would take DPR to not hemorrhage money? Probably a whole lot less.

Dynamic Gymnastics is a commercial gym and they have a 2+ year waitlist for many classes. So yeah, demand is there even at a price point that covers costs + presumably makes a profit. There's a huge gymnastics shortage in this area.

They don't have the same labor costs the County has. The County instructors are County employees with benefits and a pension, which the gymnastics community pushed for at some point btw.

Most of the county staff are part time seasonal with no benefits and are paid hourly. That's one of the reasons they have trouble finding staff.

It's a mix of both types of staff.

The budget document says 16 permanent FTEs and 6.75 temporary FTEs

https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/budget/documents/fy-2027/proposed/feb-21-2026-docs/1-fy-2027-managers-message-combined-all-in-one.pdf

The lack of transparency is astounding. They want 800k for Long Bridge but don't say why. There's also no information about the fact the swim program deficit because the program doesn't recover its fees.

End the competitive swim program and the lanes over to rentals or public paid use. Charge the Senior law firm partners living in DC at least as much as you charge their younger assistants living in Arlington. Done.

At minimum, why can't these budget reductions be spread between these two county-supported club sports programs versus eliminating one and shuttering a facility without a clear plan for its repurposing? Alternatively, why doesn't the county start charging both Aerials and AAC a modest amount of rent to use the facilities? As far as I know, neither team pays any rent to use the county facilities, and a $100 annual facility use fee for any kid participating in either program might be an option worth exploring.

Also, Barcroft also has a fitness center, at least one community classroom, and a boxing ring within the facility. It's not solely a gymnastics facility.

[Anonymous]

Under the current administration of the Aerials/Tigers program it doesn’t really make sense that they would pay to “rent the space” per se. But most gyms do have an annual registration fee, so I agree that imposing or increasing such a fee (not certain if it already exists or not) for teams could make a difference. You could maybe make about 10-20K from that depending on how you set it and how many people qualify for waivers. I’m guessing the gap is a significantly bigger if there’s this desperate proposal to shutter the program in a few months. But it couldn’t hurt.

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone that has supported us! If you would like to continue your support please check out our website at www.savearlingtongymnastics.com and contact the county board.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.arlnow.com/2026/02/23/arlington-budget-proposes-tax-increase-closure-of-gymnastics-program-and-library/

Many of that team’s members compete year-round for the Arlington Aerials and learned of the planned cuts while competing at the state meet in Virginia Beach, according to a website created by advocates.

This is not the flex they think it is. The County is heavily subsidizing a gymanstics team and directly employing the coaches who go to a state meet in Virginia Beach? Huh? I think the County directly employs the coaches right? That's what it sounds like. Please correct if wrong.

Someone may have answered this, but this was the high school team and high school coaches. But as for travel for coaches on competitive teams the parent associations have the bulk of the cost. We are happy to pay it all.