Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP what you are demanding is the county work harder to subsidize your competitive gymnastics team. I mean cmon. I don’t want them spending their time doing that as a taxpayer.

DPR's time is compensated by the fees they earn from rec classes. If they aren't doing their job and they keep cutting offerings year over year, then revenue keeps dropping year over year, resulting in cuts year over year. This year it's gymnastics. Next year it could be swim or senior programs or teen programs. It's a downward spiral. There's no reason the gymnastics program can't be self-supporting and offer gymnastics to a wide range of kids and adults in Arlington.

Well they said there is a reason. they can’t hire qualified people to teach this activity safely and they said other activities they’ve been able to bounce back and hire people. They mentioned life guards.

I think a disconnect is perhaps their standards of who to hire don’t match what you all find acceptable. I guess it’s their gym and they should figure out what risk they can tolerate.

So if there aren't gymnastics coaches, why don't they hire cheer coaches or someone to teach ninja classes or fitness classes in the space? Why don't they offer open gyms with a higher gymnast to staff ratio? Why don't they offer more toddler and preschool classes that require a lower skill level for the coaches? Why don't they offer birthday parties or private lessons that have a much higher margin? All of these are things that other gyms do.

so that the competitive team can be subsidized. Just to be clear that this is what you are suggesting.

Not just the competitive team but also rec gymnastics and adaptive. Those are all caught up in the same outcome. The facility needs to be fully utilized.

They are not though really because the county can figure out other ways to provide these programs at much lower cost.

They cannot provide rec gymnastics without a facility. Nor can the other local facilities absorb those gymnasts. Dynamic has sent a letter saying they have huge waiting lists for their classes and YMCA is similarly full.

They do not need that extensive of a facility to offer basic recreational and adaptive gymastics classes. Topic well covered on this thread.

The facility is already there. Coming up with a different facility would cost money.

The county should not be providing gymnastics at the level it is currently. It is not appropriate and apparently not typical. They don’t need to come up with some other specific facility to offer basic gymnastics. As described by another poster, basic equipment can be brought out at existing rec centers.

Flip flopping makes no sense. The county invested to expand the facility in 2017. It makes no sense to abandon that investment now. DPR should stand by their investment and make use of the facility to benefit county residents.

Did you have this energy when they tore down the children’s school building to build Cardinal 10 years after they built it? Doubt it.

I don’t know. Things change. It’s 10 years later. The premise of if we built it or invested in it we can never change it is flawed.

The fundamentals haven't changed. There are 1300 kids on waitlists for DPR gymnastics classes at Barcroft, plus 1800 kids in rec classes. There is absolutely no capacity in the area for Arlington kids to do gymnastics elsewhere. That's why Barcroft was expanded. Read the DPR press announcement--it was done because of overwhelming community demand. That demand is being entirely ignored by DPR.

It’s not. They are saying they can’t find qualified instructors. You can accuse them of lying about this or being incompetent, which is what people here have done. You can suggest their standards of instruction are too high, which people here have done. What seems silly to say is they are ignoring the demand.

They are canceling rec classes to be sure the available coaches can be provided to the competitive team. So maybe jettisoning the competitive team will help with the waitlists.

Show me the DPR slide where they showed demand data and waitlist data? They didn't. Instead the presented a generic survey to argue that gymnastics was a low priority.

They also didn't present or answer questions about rec students on fee waivers who can't afford to go elsewhere.

She did say 13 competitive gymnasts get a fee reduction.

Plus 7 male gymnasts. This wasn't in the slides. She also absolutely dodged the question re rec participants.

What do people think of this part. And gymnastics boosters what do you think of this?

This is not what the fee reduction program is intended to be for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

My understanding is the gymnastics people pushed to get more people salaried at some point because it got them benefits and it’s better for retention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

My understanding is the gymnastics people pushed to get more people salaried at some point because it got them benefits and it’s better for retention.

Yes, of course people wanted that, some staff also left because of it. I’m not sure where the balance is. There was just more staff then but they were pretty much exclusively hired and managed internally by the gymnastics director. But there were always the gaps in programming, but budget wise I’m sure it was less problematic when almost everyone was part time temp. There could also be some issues that came up legally with designating staff part time/temp when they actually work year round and can be called to do make ups between the sessions, etc. But I’m a gymnastics coach not a lawyer so I’ll leave that to you legal minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

Look, I don't feel strongly about open gym either way (though having been to many of these, I think the hysterics on this thread about them are pretty strange).

What I feel strongly about is that DPR hasn't been trying to find ways to fully utilize the gym. And there are options they need to be considering beyond regular rec classes if they truly can't find gymnasts coaches coaches to teach them. I also think they need to look for ways to bring in higher margin fees during periods when the gym isn't currently being utilized. Not because those are necessarily the things that serve the county, but because it enables the facility to self-fund so that it can stay open for all the activities that do serve County residents broadly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

They haven't been running makeup classes. Instead, they've been refunding fees for those canceled classes. So the gym just sits empty during the breaks. That's a change in how the gym operates and it affects fee recovery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

They haven't been running makeup classes. Instead, they've been refunding fees for those canceled classes. So the gym just sits empty during the breaks. That's a change in how the gym operates and it affects fee recovery.

I'll add the DPR offers private and semi-private swim lessons during breaks to make sure instructors are offering services and the pool is being used. There are options here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

Look, I don't feel strongly about open gym either way (though having been to many of these, I think the hysterics on this thread about them are pretty strange).

What I feel strongly about is that DPR hasn't been trying to find ways to fully utilize the gym. And there are options they need to be considering beyond regular rec classes if they truly can't find gymnasts coaches coaches to teach them. I also think they need to look for ways to bring in higher margin fees during periods when the gym isn't currently being utilized. Not because those are necessarily the things that serve the county, but because it enables the facility to self-fund so that it can stay open for all the activities that do serve County residents broadly.

But surely you can see this is all naked self-interest to keep the thing you want going. And I get it. If my kid was doing this I’d feel the same way.

When you take a step back, our government should be looking at how best to use the space to benefit the most people across demographics. That’s what the rec centers should be for. I don’t think a cheer team and a birthday party venue and less structured gym time are priorities for this community or what anyone’s local government should be focused on offering. Even if they recover fees to support this work, this is space and staff doing something and therefore we are not doing something else. Sure, possibly there are ways to keep this particular facility going. But is that the goal? To me, it makes sense to re-evaluate the facility at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

They haven't been running makeup classes. Instead, they've been refunding fees for those canceled classes. So the gym just sits empty during the breaks. That's a change in how the gym operates and it affects fee recovery.

I'll add the DPR offers private and semi-private swim lessons during breaks to make sure instructors are offering services and the pool is being used. There are options here.

Focusing resources on teaching children how to swim vs open gym and ninja classes and cheer and birthday parties.

Hmm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

Look, I don't feel strongly about open gym either way (though having been to many of these, I think the hysterics on this thread about them are pretty strange).

What I feel strongly about is that DPR hasn't been trying to find ways to fully utilize the gym. And there are options they need to be considering beyond regular rec classes if they truly can't find gymnasts coaches coaches to teach them. I also think they need to look for ways to bring in higher margin fees during periods when the gym isn't currently being utilized. Not because those are necessarily the things that serve the county, but because it enables the facility to self-fund so that it can stay open for all the activities that do serve County residents broadly.

But surely you can see this is all naked self-interest to keep the thing you want going. And I get it. If my kid was doing this I’d feel the same way.

When you take a step back, our government should be looking at how best to use the space to benefit the most people across demographics. That’s what the rec centers should be for. I don’t think a cheer team and a birthday party venue and less structured gym time are priorities for this community or what anyone’s local government should be focused on offering. Even if they recover fees to support this work, this is space and staff doing something and therefore we are not doing something else. Sure, possibly there are ways to keep this particular facility going. But is that the goal? To me, it makes sense to re-evaluate the facility at this point.

I strongly disagree. Arlington has put money into building out this facility because it was something that was demanded by residents. There is still demand for the program. There are still 1,300 people on the waitlist. And all other local gymnastics programs have long waitlists too. I really think this is about investment Arlington has made in an amenity for its residents being mismanaged by DPR. Shutting it down is a waste of taxpayer resources. When if folks who are getting paid full-time salaries did their actual jobs, the facility could be self-supporting. I am not asking for Arlington County to dump a bunch of money into gymnastics. The proposal here is for them to make use of a facility that exists for the benefit of residents in a responsible way.

For services that don't benefit residents broadly the goal is not to recover fees but to charge market rate. It's to make a profit that then can be used to subsidize fee reductions and other programs that support residents more broadly. If you look at the DPR pyramid In their presentation it even says that individual activities should be charged at market rate and not subsidized. They're to make a profit.

The way to close the gap here is to bring more revenue in and to cut costs. They should look and see if there's management they don't need given the current size of programming. And they should look for every opportunity they can to bring in revenue and utilize the gym. Some of those like cheer classes may actually broadly support the community. There are lots of kids interested in cheer and that's not any less deserving than soccer or basketball or swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

They haven't been running makeup classes. Instead, they've been refunding fees for those canceled classes. So the gym just sits empty during the breaks. That's a change in how the gym operates and it affects fee recovery.

I'll add the DPR offers private and semi-private swim lessons during breaks to make sure instructors are offering services and the pool is being used. There are options here.

Focusing resources on teaching children how to swim vs open gym and ninja classes and cheer and birthday parties.

Hmm.

child obesity and screen addiction is absolutely a problem. What's your problem with movement classes? Question?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

Look, I don't feel strongly about open gym either way (though having been to many of these, I think the hysterics on this thread about them are pretty strange).

What I feel strongly about is that DPR hasn't been trying to find ways to fully utilize the gym. And there are options they need to be considering beyond regular rec classes if they truly can't find gymnasts coaches coaches to teach them. I also think they need to look for ways to bring in higher margin fees during periods when the gym isn't currently being utilized. Not because those are necessarily the things that serve the county, but because it enables the facility to self-fund so that it can stay open for all the activities that do serve County residents broadly.

But surely you can see this is all naked self-interest to keep the thing you want going. And I get it. If my kid was doing this I’d feel the same way.

When you take a step back, our government should be looking at how best to use the space to benefit the most people across demographics. That’s what the rec centers should be for. I don’t think a cheer team and a birthday party venue and less structured gym time are priorities for this community or what anyone’s local government should be focused on offering. Even if they recover fees to support this work, this is space and staff doing something and therefore we are not doing something else. Sure, possibly there are ways to keep this particular facility going. But is that the goal? To me, it makes sense to re-evaluate the facility at this point.

And to be clear, the proposal to do those other things in the facility are only for times when it's not being used for for higher priority activities. The point is to make for the facility is always being fully used when right now DPR admits that that it's sitting empty for periods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every gym in the area has open gym for children. Some insurance restricts it heavily. Common sense should restrict it as well, but not my circus I guess. Maybe they are just lucky so far. I’m personally not in favor of open gym but I think the county could hire more staff to teach more instructor led gymnastics programs if they really wanted to.

I love all these opinions from folks who haven't been and observed. Lots of arm chair warriors making tons of wrong assumptions. They're not a circus and gymnasts are well behaved. Usually the staff mostly help to make sure the kids have the mats and equipment adjusted properly. I've never seen a behavior issue.

I guess our opinion just differs because I’m a professional gymnastics coach who has been to and observed nearly every type of gymnastics program for more than 30 years. Including the program in question. This is besides the point but I was just pointing out that there could be an insurance barrier.

I don’t think they need open gym and I don’t agree that every gym in the area has open gym for children. You have a different opinion on that, and clearly some gymnastics professionals do since some gyms do have it. But other profitable gyms don’t. So it’s certainly not the only path forward if there are barrier. Other than that we’re probably on the same side.

Look, I don't feel strongly about open gym either way (though having been to many of these, I think the hysterics on this thread about them are pretty strange).

What I feel strongly about is that DPR hasn't been trying to find ways to fully utilize the gym. And there are options they need to be considering beyond regular rec classes if they truly can't find gymnasts coaches coaches to teach them. I also think they need to look for ways to bring in higher margin fees during periods when the gym isn't currently being utilized. Not because those are necessarily the things that serve the county, but because it enables the facility to self-fund so that it can stay open for all the activities that do serve County residents broadly.

But surely you can see this is all naked self-interest to keep the thing you want going. And I get it. If my kid was doing this I’d feel the same way.

When you take a step back, our government should be looking at how best to use the space to benefit the most people across demographics. That’s what the rec centers should be for. I don’t think a cheer team and a birthday party venue and less structured gym time are priorities for this community or what anyone’s local government should be focused on offering. Even if they recover fees to support this work, this is space and staff doing something and therefore we are not doing something else. Sure, possibly there are ways to keep this particular facility going. But is that the goal? To me, it makes sense to re-evaluate the facility at this point.

I strongly disagree. Arlington has put money into building out this facility because it was something that was demanded by residents. There is still demand for the program. There are still 1,300 people on the waitlist. And all other local gymnastics programs have long waitlists too. I really think this is about investment Arlington has made in an amenity for its residents being mismanaged by DPR. Shutting it down is a waste of taxpayer resources. When if folks who are getting paid full-time salaries did their actual jobs, the facility could be self-supporting. I am not asking for Arlington County to dump a bunch of money into gymnastics. The proposal here is for them to make use of a facility that exists for the benefit of residents in a responsible way.

For services that don't benefit residents broadly the goal is not to recover fees but to charge market rate. It's to make a profit that then can be used to subsidize fee reductions and other programs that support residents more broadly. If you look at the DPR pyramid In their presentation it even says that individual activities should be charged at market rate and not subsidized. They're to make a profit.

The way to close the gap here is to bring more revenue in and to cut costs. They should look and see if there's management they don't need given the current size of programming. And they should look for every opportunity they can to bring in revenue and utilize the gym. Some of those like cheer classes may actually broadly support the community. There are lots of kids interested in cheer and that's not any less deserving than soccer or basketball or swim.

So it’s back to DPR is just doing it wrong and the employees are lazy and incompetent. And they are lying about struggling to staff it.

No need to argue these points. You believe that or you don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was speaking to an insider tonight and there seem to be three major issues that aren't dependent on more coaches, namely:

There is more management than there used to be when the program was running 2x more rec classes. The program is now top heavy and those salaries are expensive.

DPR is leaving breaks between sessions when there used to be classes, so full time staff are getting paid for several weeks a year without teaching when there could be classes.

Even when working, full time coaches are being scheduled for fewer classes with lots of breaks.

Really, the person managing the gymnastics program and who was responsible the budget for the past few years just got a cushy new promotion in DPR a few months ago. There is a strong element of poor management and them saving himself here.

There are definitely more people who are salaried now. Although even ten years before Covid the county always scheduled two week breaks between classes. They were used for makeup classes if any classes had to be cancelled during the session. Since almost everyone was part time/temp, otherwise you just didn’t get paid or only got paid for team, cleaning, etc. That probably wasn’t great for staffing either although there was a lot of staff then that did it as a part time side hustle.

They haven't been running makeup classes. Instead, they've been refunding fees for those canceled classes. So the gym just sits empty during the breaks. That's a change in how the gym operates and it affects fee recovery.

I'll add the DPR offers private and semi-private swim lessons during breaks to make sure instructors are offering services and the pool is being used. There are options here.

Focusing resources on teaching children how to swim vs open gym and ninja classes and cheer and birthday parties.

Hmm.

child obesity and screen addiction is absolutely a problem. What's your problem with movement classes? Question?

No problem. I think it’s a role of government question. And a question of priorities with limited resources. Not a popular line of thinking. Clearly other governments in our area have determined this type of space isn’t their role to provide.

I wish more people were saying where else the county should cut to save this $1M. Make suggestions. Or maybe it’s just pay even more taxes.