SAUGUS — The School Committee and district officials are in the midst of overhauling the process by which school buildings are rented out and the fees groups are charged for use of the buildings.
The committee’s current rental-fee policy is out of date, having not been updated in the wake of the construction of the new Saugus Middle/High School complex and the renovation of the Belmonte STEAM Academy. And, with the district’s reorganization taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, renting out the buildings became out of the question.
But, with the pandemic in the rearview mirror for the most part, the committee is considering allowing outside groups into the buildings. Town-based programs, like the Youth and Recreation Department, have been allowed to access the buildings for only the cost of the custodial fee, though that price is set to rise with the district looking into hiring additional after-hours security that those groups would be responsible for covering the cost of.
The rental-fee schedule currently in place sets out different rates for Saugus-based religious groups and nonprofit organizations serving Saugus residents — meaning the groups’ event rosters have to be made up of more than 50% Saugonians — than for non-Saugus nonprofit organizations and for-profit groups.
The committee intends to overhaul both the language governing the policy of renting out the buildings, and the fee schedule — meaning two different bodies will need to work in tandem to hammer out the new policy and fees. The language will be taken up by the School Committee’s Policy Sub Committee, while the fees will be addressed by the Finance Sub Committee.
To that end, the Finance Sub Committee began the process of amending the fee structure last week.
Acting Superintendent Michael Hashem said he would meet with Executive Director of Finance and Administration Pola Andrews and Operations/Maintenance Assistant Steve Napolitana to hammer out the actual fees and ensure the district is not undercharging for use of its facilities. The rental fee will be set up as a flat rate for four hours with additional costs for each hour beyond.
School Committee Chair Vincent Serino emphasized that the committee — and the town — want the new buildings to be open to the community. But, the committee also discussed the need to implement some sort of policy where the district could turn down proposals to use the facilities. That language will be up for discussion at a future Policy Sub Committee meeting.
An idea floated by Finance Sub Committee Chair Ryan Fisher to vary the rates based on the particular building, not just by the area of a building a group wanted to use, failed to gain much traction, with Andrews saying she has few options on what she can actually use the funds gained from rentals for.
“In reality, it doesn’t work,” Andrews said.
During a meeting of the full School Committee on Thursday, Hashem said he would likely have a revised fee schedule before committee members early this week.
“What we really want to do is clean up the document to make sure that we have everything all tightened up,” he said. “What’s going to have to happen is I’m working on the language for the policy, a template for the fee structures depending on the type of organization. It’ll go to Policy for the language and it probably (has) to go back to Finance to confirm that the rates match.”
“I’m putting numbers in as placeholders and then you as a body can act on what you want the numbers to ultimately be,” he continued.
A meeting of the Policy Sub Committee has yet to be scheduled, according to the calendar posted to the town’s website, but Sub Committee Chair Dennis Gould said one would be held in the near future.
