Reply to Arlington proposing to close county gymnastics program

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Like I keep saying it's staff run amok.
https://www.arlnow.com/2026/03/09/staff-defend-eliminating-gymnastics-programs-as-county-board-weighs-options/[/quote]

This leaps out at me:

[i]In fiscal 2025, the recreational program recouped 57% of its $931,000 in costs, well below the amount desired by county officials. In fiscal 2019, it had recouped 96%.

The lack of trained staff has led to class cancellations, further cutting into the program’s viability, Rudolph said.[/I]

If they choose to keep the program and keep Barcroft open, I want to see a really concrete and actionable plan to address these problems directly. A program running almost a half-million in the red that ALSO frequently cancels programming due to lack of staffing, is not acceptable to me as a tax payer. I'm not anti gymnastics but that sounds like a boondoggle to me. Either the program figures out how to cover more of its costs or it needs to go.

I continue to have questions about the degree to which the program is subsidizing competitive gymnastics for families who can afford to pay a lot more for it. I want more info about these fee waivers for the competitive teams (sounds like 20 fee waivers across both teams, which is a lot of money). I also think either non-county residents should not be allowed to participate OR they need to pay a big premium to participate because it's insane for county tax dollars to subsidize competitive gymnasts who don't even live or pay taxes in Arlington. [/quote]

Just to be clear it is not fee waivers, it is fee reductions and it varies % wise. So some may get more than others i am honestly not sure how the county determines fee reductions (what formula they use) but it is only in county residents.

Arlington wants about 85% fee recovery for programs like this. Years ago we were told that the county would raised the out of county % to a standard 15% across all levels to help with this. The county didnt implement this. They also dont collect fees that they told us to collect..

The competitive team has proposed fee increases, enrollment fees and out of county surcharge increases to get us to 85-100%.

We have also proposes fee increases for rec. Classes are currently less than half that if private classes. We do think there is room for increase while still making classes affordable (they are a little over $13 a class now)

I fully agree that the staffing situation is unacceptable. We have proposed lots of solutions to increase revenue and have had these ongoing convos with DPR for years and it just goes into a black hole.

I would obviously love the program to continue. I think we can make cost recovery goals with a few simple changes
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