Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

[Anonymous]

Who is the current rec gymnastics manager?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many qualified individuals who have applied for gymnastics instructor positions and DPR isn't calling them in. The shortage is manufactured. This is part of a bigger plan.

I am skeptical about this claim simply because I know of other gymnastics gyms in the area (including the DC parks and rec) that have really struggled with hiring in recent years. I know from personal experience this has been an industry-wide issue since Covid. It's not just a question of having qualified individuals, it's finding people who can work the times you need and carry the right number of hours to make it worthwhile. It's easy to find a gymnastics instructor who wants to coach two classes a week (preferably advanced classes) and they have to be on Thursday and Saturday and also they are not available at all in December or July. But what gym programs need are people who can work 20 or more hours, have flexible scheduling that accommodates when classes need to run, are willing to schedule vacations around class schedules (because you can't find people to fill in when they are out of town and have to cancel classes), etc. This is genuinely hard to find.

valid complaints but I suspect the pay doesn't entice people to accept that schedule either.

[Anonymous]

I truly think if the Board told DPR that they needed to figure this out and utilize this Barcroff as a county asset and figure out how to recover fees this could all be sorted. I think DPR is just not that interested in putting in the work absent community and managerial pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are many qualified individuals who have applied for gymnastics instructor positions and DPR isn't calling them in. The shortage is manufactured. This is part of a bigger plan.

I am skeptical about this claim simply because I know of other gymnastics gyms in the area (including the DC parks and rec) that have really struggled with hiring in recent years. I know from personal experience this has been an industry-wide issue since Covid. It's not just a question of having qualified individuals, it's finding people who can work the times you need and carry the right number of hours to make it worthwhile. It's easy to find a gymnastics instructor who wants to coach two classes a week (preferably advanced classes) and they have to be on Thursday and Saturday and also they are not available at all in December or July. But what gym programs need are people who can work 20 or more hours, have flexible scheduling that accommodates when classes need to run, are willing to schedule vacations around class schedules (because you can't find people to fill in when they are out of town and have to cancel classes), etc. This is genuinely hard to find.

valid complaints but I suspect the pay doesn't entice people to accept that schedule either.

Barcroft coaches are amongst the highest paid gymnastics coaches in the region. Pay is not the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is the current rec gymnastics manager?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaliah-lewis-59913359?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_android

[Anonymous]

Sure, industry wide to some extent because we could add more classes if we had more instructors. Would most gyms hire someone qualified if they walked in tomorrow, sure. Most gyms aren’t utilizing their space at 100%. I personally suspect the county could make it work. When I worked for the county I had some coworkers from around the region who worked part time on weekends because the gym was accessible by public transportation. That’s a big advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, industry wide to some extent because we could add more classes if we had more instructors. Would most gyms hire someone qualified if they walked in tomorrow, sure. Most gyms aren’t utilizing their space at 100%. I personally suspect the county could make it work. When I worked for the county I had some coworkers from around the region who worked part time on weekends because the gym was accessible by public transportation. That’s a big advantage.

According to an old-timer I was speaking, apparently the way they made it work before covid was by having over a hundred gymnastics coaches for Barcroft classes. Many were just handling one or two classes and the manager pieced it all together. It was a lot to manage so logistically, but they did manage it and offered rec classes to over 3,000 kids each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, industry wide to some extent because we could add more classes if we had more instructors. Would most gyms hire someone qualified if they walked in tomorrow, sure. Most gyms aren’t utilizing their space at 100%. I personally suspect the county could make it work. When I worked for the county I had some coworkers from around the region who worked part time on weekends because the gym was accessible by public transportation. That’s a big advantage.

According to an old-timer I was speaking, apparently the way they made it work before covid was by having over a hundred gymnastics coaches for Barcroft classes. Many were just handling one or two classes and the manager pieced it all together. It was a lot to manage so logistically, but they did manage it and offered rec classes to over 3,000 kids each year.

The pre-covid manager made it work and it could work again if the people in charge actually cared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, industry wide to some extent because we could add more classes if we had more instructors. Would most gyms hire someone qualified if they walked in tomorrow, sure. Most gyms aren’t utilizing their space at 100%. I personally suspect the county could make it work. When I worked for the county I had some coworkers from around the region who worked part time on weekends because the gym was accessible by public transportation. That’s a big advantage.

According to an old-timer I was speaking, apparently the way they made it work before covid was by having over a hundred gymnastics coaches for Barcroft classes. Many were just handling one or two classes and the manager pieced it all together. It was a lot to manage so logistically, but they did manage it and offered rec classes to over 3,000 kids each year.

Yes, there were a lot of staff in those days. And, everyone who was responsible for managing aspects of staff development (mostly the coordinator, but jobs were delegated such as lesson planning) did so while also coaching in the gym 5-6 days a week.

Staffing is definitely a challenge. I mean it must be in other programs as well. Perhaps some sports do have a bit of a wider base but I imagine that doesn’t erase the challenges of finding those who are responsible, etc. You just have to keep recruiting, hiring, and onboarding.

[Anonymous]

When I coached at Arlington pre-2017 expansion, there was a truly huge number of coaches, doing everything from parent-child and tot classes up to the highest competitive levels. I actually did almost nothing but little kid and beginning rec classes, because that's what I loved to do. I didn't coach team at all. There were plenty of other coaches who did primarily or only rec, too, often part time. We never cancelled classes for lack of coaches. And I always enjoy mentoring the team girls who often got their start coaching beginner classes with me. It's very sad to hear that that is basically all gone now.

[Anonymous]

We certainly benefited from the rec program when kids were younger, and considered, but ultimately did not pursue joining the competitive team. I am sad to see this proposal. I do wonder how much of this is the unintended consequences of making most instructors full time employees. Full time employees get a lot more benefits, and there is no incentive for them to teach extra classes. Similarly, there is no incentive to get makeup classes done, etc. Whereas part time employees who are paid by the class have an incentive to teach more classes, they make more money. They have an incentive to take on additional things like staffing a parents night out (which we definitely attended some of those in the barcroft gym pre-covid.)
Its kind of hard b/c you want your gymnastics instructors to be treated better- to get benefits etc. But you also want a functioning profitable (or at least break even) program.

That being said- it seems absolutely insane to shutter the building for a year. Keep it going for another year and do a study on whether or not it should continue- fine, but just to shutter everything and close the building seems like a massive waste.

[Anonymous]

Barcroft should drop to one program manager (instead of two) since the rec program is half the size it used to be. The current rec gymnastics manager could go back to teaching classes. That would remove the overhead of one manager and fill one of the three vacant coach FTEs. That single change would make a significant difference in cost recovery for both programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We certainly benefited from the rec program when kids were younger, and considered, but ultimately did not pursue joining the competitive team. I am sad to see this proposal. I do wonder how much of this is the unintended consequences of making most instructors full time employees. Full time employees get a lot more benefits, and there is no incentive for them to teach extra classes. Similarly, there is no incentive to get makeup classes done, etc. Whereas part time employees who are paid by the class have an incentive to teach more classes, they make more money. They have an incentive to take on additional things like staffing a parents night out (which we definitely attended some of those in the barcroft gym pre-covid.)
Its kind of hard b/c you want your gymnastics instructors to be treated better- to get benefits etc. But you also want a functioning profitable (or at least break even) program.

That being said- it seems absolutely insane to shutter the building for a year. Keep it going for another year and do a study on whether or not it should continue- fine, but just to shutter everything and close the building seems like a massive waste.

Totally agree. It would be super wasteful. There's nothing wrong with the facility at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We certainly benefited from the rec program when kids were younger, and considered, but ultimately did not pursue joining the competitive team. I am sad to see this proposal. I do wonder how much of this is the unintended consequences of making most instructors full time employees. Full time employees get a lot more benefits, and there is no incentive for them to teach extra classes. Similarly, there is no incentive to get makeup classes done, etc. Whereas part time employees who are paid by the class have an incentive to teach more classes, they make more money. They have an incentive to take on additional things like staffing a parents night out (which we definitely attended some of those in the barcroft gym pre-covid.)
Its kind of hard b/c you want your gymnastics instructors to be treated better- to get benefits etc. But you also want a functioning profitable (or at least break even) program.

I sort of agree although I guess if the program is being properly supervised and managed then I don’t get why it would be anyone’s choice about makeups, kids night out, etc. It would just be scheduled. The people who are coaching aren’t in charge of setting the schedule. And when there was one salaried coordinator who coached, that person was present at kids night out every single time.

When everyone was part time/temp, we weren’t allowed to report overtime on our time cards (it wouldn’t get approved by the county since those positions were ineligible for overtime). So people couldn’t just say they would sub for 20 classes extra or something like that. I'm sure the subbing system did work much better when everyone was hourly. But if they are eligible for overtime now, it seems like in those cases where special events or whatever did push someone over 40 hours they would get OT? I’m not exactly sure how those positions in the county work. But I would expect that would motivate some people. Also, it seems like financially that would work out better than refunding the whole class.

As far as I know though, the coaching staff isn’t asking for the program to be cut down. They have also been part of suggesting many of these things come back.

[Anonymous]

See the facts at:

www.dprdata.com