Great question! Here’s how a plan for this would emerge. Once commissioners are elected, they’ll have lots of work ahead to get systems in place. In public meetings (which anyone can attend), they’ll develop a budget, write procedures, establish bylaws, and create the structure and systems for doing the work of the District. This will, of course, develop, grow, and change over time and community input will be an important part of that process along the way.

The most immediate need is to fund high school and middle school sports (and thus free up funding to be focused on core education). Commissioners will work to establish an interlocal agreement (the legal term for government agencies working together to create efficiencies of public resources) with the school that sets out the terms of the collaboration. This will involve making school facilities available for Rec programming.

Once the structure of Lopez Rec is in place, there’s lots of opportunity to grow programming to reflect community interest. And because participation fees help cover programming costs, it’s usually at no additional cost to the District. Participation fees are ideally paired with scholarships to ensure low-income folk don’t have to pay those fees – again, this is a policy and procedure to be developed by the commissioners.

Let’s take a look at youth soccer as an example of elementary sports. Elementary sports are not currently offered by the school but are offered in a patchwork of community programs. Currently the Pack and LIFRC offer elementary soccer at the school in the fall (and in summer camps as well). If they want to hand off the programming to Lopez Rec, they would take the idea to the commissioners or Director.

As a little detour, the process of hiring a Director will also be the work of future commissioners. The hiring process will likely involve two commissioners working alongside a community advisory group to conduct a salary study, define the role, and lead an open hiring process. Because of open public meetings laws, boards often work in teams of two and then report back to the full board for final decision making. Community advisory groups are great assets to these processes as they bring in additional voices and perspectives.

Back to our elementary sports, the Director would work with the Pack and LIFRC to identify the structure, facility, timing, and registration fees, all in response to guidelines established by the commissioners (through more of those policies and procedures – sometimes boring, but always important). Once the plan was outlined, the commissioners would vote to approve the plan and make any necessary accommodations in the budget.

So, in summary, Lopez Rec offers a great opportunity for providing community programming, including sports opportunities for elementary aged youth. Recreational programming (everything from K-5 sports, art classes, nature walks and anything else Lopez dreams up) tap into the structure of Lopez Rec, leveraging its insurance, registration software, and advertising. Because participation fees help cover the cost of the programming, this doesn’t add budget strain, but it does make for a more connected community!