Community Fields Use

Observations 37

• OB1 Page 11
  The ten-year Joint Use Agreement for Maintenance of School Sports Fields between the City of Napa and the NVSUD expired in 2010. The Joint Use Agreement provided funding to the School District for field maintenance.
• OB2 Page 11
  Inequities in field maintenance and appearance were noted in all of the fields observed; some of the fields were in excellent condition while others were found to be lacking in maintenance.
• OB3 Page 11
  Team rosters are not checked for billing purposes; an estimated number of players serve as a basis for payment.
• OB4 Page 11
  Collection of field use fees is not centralized or submitted on a regular basis.
• OB5 Page 11
  The financial reports from the NVUSD distributed at the Youth Sports Council meetings to the NYSO are inconsistent, often incomplete and lack transparency.
• OB6 Page 11
  Fields are scheduled manually at two scheduling meetings during the year.
• OB7 Page 11
  Fields are currently scheduled on a “historic’ basis with preference to those leagues that have been established the longest.
• OB8 Page 12
  Some non-profit sports organizations fail to pay their field use fees, but still have access to the fields.
• OB9 Page 12
  Safety and use requirement signage at many of the elementary school fields is often lacking, outdated or misplaced.
• OB10 Page 12
  Emergency work requests are processed verbally, but not always followed up and recorded through the electronically controlled system known as “School Dude.”
• OB11 Page 12
  The current field use application is outdated (1996) and consolidated within the application for rental or use of all school facilities. Users are required to complete separate applications for every field they request.
• OB12 Page 12
  There is a gopher infestation problem at many of the natural grass fields.
• OB13 Page 12
  Youth Sports Council meetings, agendas, and minutes are not published in advance for public view.
• OB14 Page 12
  The existing playing fields within the NVUSD have reached their maximum capacity to accommodate the growing number of non-profit youth sports organizations.
• OB15 Page 12
  The NVUSD accounting department is currently using outdate software to prepare financial reports for the Napa Youth Sports League account.
• OB16 Page 12
  Some volunteer work performed on the School District’s playing fields by adults from the NYSO often conflicts with the union rules of the California School Employees Association.
• OB17 Page 12
  The NVUSD assumed the responsibility of collecting field use fees from the NYSO in 2007. VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS The Grand Jury Recommends:
• OB18 Page 5
  Inspected 22 school district’s playing fields
• OB19 Page 5
  Attended field scheduling meeting
• OB20 Page 5
  Attended Youth Sports Council meeting
• OB21 Page 5
  Attended girls’ soccer matches
• OB22 Page 5
  NVUSD Maintenance Budget
• OB23 Page 5
  Napa Youth Sports League financial records
• OB24 Page 5
  Joint Powers Agreement – NVUSD / City of Napa / Napa Community College
• OB25 Page 5
  Youth Sports Fields Strategic Plan, City of Napa, January 2000
• OB26 Page 5
  Joint Use Field Maintenance Agreement – NVUSD / City of Napa, 2000
• OB27 Page 5
  Youth Sports Council Minutes -2010-2013
• OB28 Page 5
  Hartzell v. Connell, 35 Cal. 3rd 889, California Supreme Court, 1984
• OB29 Page 5
  Civic Center Act SB (1404) California Department of Education
• OB30 Page 5
  California School Board Association Policy Brief, February 2010
• OB31 Page 5
  Historical Review Of Parks and Recreation, City of Napa, September 2006
• OB32 Page 5
  Partnerships for Joint Use, Center for Cities & Schools at the University of California, September 2010
• OB33 Page 5
  Application For Use or Rental of School Facilities – NVUSD
• OB34 Page 5
  Application For Volunteer NVUSD Site-Initiated Improvements
• OB35 Page 5
  Field Use Certificate of Payment – NVUSD V. DISCUSSION A. Non-profit Youth Sports Organizations (NYSO) The City of Napa has seen a steady rise in the number of the NYSO using the School District’s fields that offer competitive sports programs for boys and girls ages four to eighteen. The NYSO include Little League Baseball, Babe Ruth Baseball, Cal Ripken Baseball, Napa “T” Ball, Tackle Football, Soccer, Girls Softball, Lacrosse, and Rugby. Approximately 4,000 students within the Napa Valley Unified School District boundaries are currently participating in one of the NYSO. The competitive sports programs offered by the NYSO serve as a supplement to the existing extra-curricula athletic programs offered in the NVUSD. NYSO do not qualify as school sponsored extra-curricula programs because they are not under the direct supervision of the school district. They are not considered an extension of the regular school instructional program even though they offer competitive athletic programs. 5 The NYSO operate as independent, private organizations staffed by adult volunteers. They retain their own league name, purchase their own equipment and select their own coaches. Each individual youth sports organization is required to maintain its own certificate of insurance listing the NVUSD as an additional insured. Each of the NYSO collect a participation fee from individual team players, which ranges from $100 to $300 each season, depending upon the level of competition. The fee is managed by the NYSO through their individual league treasurers. The participation fee covers insurance, officials, equipment and the purchase of uniforms. Many of the NYSO have private sector sponsors that help offset the cost of operating their programs. All of the NYSO offer scholarships to players who are unable to pay the full participation fee. B. The Playing Fields The Grand Jury conducted a thorough and comprehensive inspection of every school playing field in the NVUSD used by the NYSO. The Grand Jury focused on the safety aspects of the playing surfaces and on the overall conditions of the equipment on the fields. The Grand Jury also examined the location and visibility of the signage at each of the schools to see if it complied with School District guidelines indicating that a Use Permit is required to use the field. The NVUSD maintains more than 800 acres of playing fields. They include twenty-seven natural grass fields and seven all-weather, synthetic turf athletic fields. Memorial Stadium, a state-of-the- art multi-use high school facility for Napa and Vintage High Schools, is also maintained by the NVUSD. Memorial Stadium is available to the NYSO for use under a separate use agreement. The synthetic turf fields at the high schools and middle schools are all well marked and well maintained, with adequate signage listing the rules and regulations for use of the fields. The natural grass fields at many of the elementary school sites were also found to be in good condition, with safe playing surfaces and useable equipment. However, several of the elementary school playing fields were found to have portions of their fields in poor, unplayable conditions, with inadequate signage and a notable presence of gopher infestation. The natural grass fields at the middle schools and high schools also showed signs of gopher infestation, but to a lesser degree. Redwood Middle School has a natural grass combination soccer/football field that is known as “Raider Field.” The Oakland Raiders Football Organization use this field for their summer training camp from May until September each year. During the school year, Raider Field is maintained by the NVUSD and is used by the students at Redwood Middle School. Raider Field is also used by the NYSO for their soccer and rugby teams from September through April. The Oakland Raider organization pays an annual use fee to the NVUSD. There are three joint use partnership sports complexes in the City of Napa that are used by the some of the NYSO for league games. These joint use partnership sports complexes were built over the years by a combination of volunteer labor, private sector funding and donations with the use of public land from the NVUSD and the City of Napa. They serve as models for joint use partnerships among public and private entities. 6 The joint use partnership sports complexes include: Garfield Park: Garfield Park is not part of School District property, and is not part of this investigation. Garfield Park is managed under a separate use agreement with the City of Napa. It is used exclusively for Little League Baseball. Kiwanis Park: Kiwanis Park is also not part of school property and is not part of this investigation. Kiwanis Park is managed by a separate use agreement with the City of Napa. It is used exclusively for girls’ fast pitch softball. Napa Valley Girls’ Jr. Softball Complex: the Napa Valley Girls’ Jr. Softball Complex is located on School District property and managed by a use agreement with the School District. This sports complex is part of this investigation. The NVUSD and the Napa Girls’ Junior Softball Association jointly maintain this playing field. It is used exclusively for girls’ junior softball. C. Field Maintenance Maintaining the fields at all of the schools is the responsibility of the School District’s Maintenance Department. The natural grass fields are watered and mowed on a regular basis with attention given to periodic aeration, weed control, and annual fertilizing. Gopher infestation at many of the fields is an on-going problem. An aggressive mechanical trapping program has recently been implemented to help reduce the gopher infestation. The Grand Jury found there were inequities in field maintenance and appearance, primarily at the elementary school fields. The high school natural grass fields were found to have well-maintained, excellent playing surfaces, with only a limited amount of gopher infestation. The middle school natural grass fields were also maintained reasonably well, except for an on-going gopher infestation problem. The elementary schools’ natural grass fields suffered the most from the lack of routine maintenance, with major gopher infestation and rough, uneven playing surfaces observed at many of the fields. The synthetic turf fields were all found to be in excellent condition. Beginning in the spring of 2014, the NVUSD maintenance department plans to launch a five-year field restoration project for the purpose of repairing the playing surfaces at many of the school sites. The restoration project will initially target fields that receive the most use. The project will require portions of the affected fields to be completely shut down during restoration. The Grand Jury also looked into the procedures for tracking field maintenance work orders from the initial request to job completion. Emergency work orders are handled immediately through a verbal request, but sometimes lack follow-up paper work. Tracking of non-urgent work requests is done electronically through a district-wide system called “School Dude.” The Maintenance Department makes every effort to stay on top of all work requests, but on occasion there has been a backlog of work orders due to a shortage of personnel. For example, the records show that a set of bleachers that was donated to the NYSO took two years to be installed. 7 The Grand Jury found that, on occasion, volunteers from the NYSO perform maintenance work on some of the fields. Most of the work is time-sensitive, such as marking a field before a game, or spreading dirt over the infield of a baseball diamond. Performing skilled work, such as electrical or plumbing maintenance that is normally the job of school personnel, has often caused friction between the School District’s union employees and the NYSO. The School District has a site-initiated volunteer work program that allows volunteers to perform projects that do not conflict with union guidelines. An example of this kind of volunteer work would be a group of parents painting the markings on the playground. The school principal approves each project in advance before the work is performed. However, the guidelines that govern the kind of volunteer work that can or cannot be done by the NYSO on the playing fields are unclear and do not appear to be enforced consistently. The issue of field overuse continues to be the major problem facing the Maintenance Department. The demand for use of the existing fields exceeds the current budget of time and money allocated to the Maintenance Department to maintain them properly. Many of the NYSO are operate year- round programs that make it difficult for the Maintenance Department to allocate and schedule time and resources that will not conflict with seasonal playing time. D. Fee Structure and Financial Regulations The leaders of the NYSO that the Grand Jury interviewed expressed concern about the lack of transparency from within the NVUSD accounting office regarding the fees the Napa Youth Sports League had paid for field use. The Napa Youth Sports League is the name of the account holding the funds for the NYSO. There were occasional spreadsheets distributed to the NYSO at the Youth Sports Council meetings, but the entries were not clear or easy to understand. The Grand Jury reviewed the concerns about the accounting procedures with the NVUSD accounting department. School District personnel clarified the process of accounting and explained the systems used by the school district as required by the state of California. The current software used by the school district is outdated, and does not readily report a spreadsheet showing revenues and expenditures charged to the Napa Youth Sports League funds. The timing for presenting financial reports to the NYSO was irregular, and often times the reports lacked clarity. Upgraded software would facilitate the timely preparation of financial reports to the Napa Youth Sports League. The practice of charging the NYSO a field use fee for each player dates back to 1980. The original per player fee was $10. Today that fee is $15 per player. The purpose of the fee is to help offset the cost of maintaining the fields. However, the actual cost of maintaining the fields at today’s labor costs is close to $50 per player. The School District absorbs the difference through its maintenance budget. The practice of charging a fee to the NYSO for the use of the fields on public school property during non-school hours is based on the guidelines stated in the California State Education Code section 38130, pursuant to the Civic Center Act (SB 1404). The Civic Center Act authorizes school districts to charge for the “operational direct costs” for the use of school facilities and grounds. The 8 term “school grounds” includes, but is not limited to, playing fields, athletic fields, tennis courts, and outdoor basketball courts. The payment of fees is currently arranged on the honor system. In the past, the NYSO members have not been required to supply team rosters to verify the number of team players. Some NYSO members pay their fees at the time they reserve the fields, while other NYSO members are billed at a later date. In some cases, the records show that a few NYSO members failed to pay any fees, but were still allowed access to the fields. The NVUSD is considering introducing a policy that will require the leagues to pay their field use fee at the time they reserve the fields. In December of 2013, the NVUSD drafted a Field Use Certificate of Payment Form that will be used beginning with the 2014 spring season. The new form identifies the teams using the fields, along with the season of play and the number of players on the teams. The new form also requires the leagues to provide rosters of all their teams using the fields for that season. Currently, there are several ways for teams to pay the field use fee: they can pay at the field- scheduling meeting or they can take a check or cash directly to the NVUSD accounting office. Also, they can ask to be billed at a later date. The Joint Field Use Agreement also requires the NYSO members to show proof of insurance. E. Scheduling Procedures The field scheduling process for the NYSO begins with the completion of an Application for Use or Rental of School Facilities form listing the dates and times for use at each school site where the fields are located. The current use application covers all facilities in the NVUSD including swimming pools, gymnasiums and classrooms. Separate applications have to be filled out for each school the NYSO reserve. The Facilities Application form was last updated in 1996. Completion of the Use Application form also serves as proof of insurance by the NYSO. A valid application for use of school facilities and payment of fees guarantees the NYSO the use of the fields they request. Two field-scheduling meetings are held each year: one in January at the beginning of the spring season, and the other in July at the beginning of the fall season. Representatives from each of the NYSO members attend these meetings and participate in a “bidding” process for the fields they wish to use for the upcoming season. Historically, the leagues that have been established the longest in the City of Napa get priority scheduling. Adult leagues are always scheduled after all of the youth teams have made their selections. The demand for field use by NYSO is high. It is estimated that more than 300 individual teams, representing eleven different sports leagues, will compete for field use in 2014. Because the scheduling process is done manually, the chance for duplicate field reservations where two teams are scheduled at the same field at the same time is not uncommon. When this occurs, an on-call school district supervisor can be reached via an emergency phone number to help resolve the conflict. 9 Currently, one NVUSD staff member is assigned the job of scheduling fields. The scheduling process is labor intensive and time consuming. Computer software that could modernize and expedite the process is not being used. Even when there are conflicts for the reservations of fields, the NYSO were found to work extremely well with one another to ensure that every team was satisfied with the field reservations they requested. Once all of the fields' selections have been entered onto a master scheduling spreadsheet, a NVUSD staff person is responsible for transferring this information onto a color-coded, scheduling matrix. The scheduling matrix is given to league representatives who distribute this information to all coaches. Using a web-based software program to schedule fields would allow teams to view field assignments on-line or by smartphone. With this kind of software, every coach in the league would have access to the master scheduling spreadsheet through his or her cell phone. This would help eliminate any conflicts in scheduling. Field selections by the NYSO members are coordinated with the principals of each affected school in the district well in advance of the playing seasons. Schools have priority use of the fields from seven a.m. until five p.m. on every day when the school is in session. They also have priority use of the fields on any weekend that the school wishes to schedule a special event. F. Youth Sports Council The Youth Sports Council was first formed in the 1990’s by a group of dedicated adult volunteers from the NYSO. During the early start up years, the Youth Sports Council worked cooperatively with the NVUSD and the City of Napa to upgrade and maintain the playing fields. As the number of NYSO grew, the Youth Sport Council evolved to represent the broader interests of the youth sports organizations. In previous years the Youth Sports Council had an organizational structure with an elected president who represented the interests of all the NYSO members. At the present time, the Youth Sports Council does not have a spokesperson. However, at the initiative of the NVUSD’s Director of General Services and Facilities, a plan is underway to elect a president for a one-year term. Broader representation from NYSO members should strengthen the level of communication between the school district and the youth sports groups. Youth Sports Council meetings are generally held bi-monthly, but attendance is difficult to determine, as there are no attendance records of who attended prior meetings. The members of the NYSO are given advanced notice of the meetings, but the meeting dates, agendas and prior minutes are not currently made available for public view on the school district website. VI. CONCLUSION The topic under investigation in this Report centers on the management of the Joint Field Use Agreement between the NVUSD and the NYSO in the City of Napa. The issue of transparency and 10 accountability in dealing with the financial operations of the Napa Youth Sports League must continue to be addressed. Scheduling of playing fields should be managed with the latest online technology, and field maintenance should continue to emphasize the need to provide the safest playing conditions at all fields. Finding additional playing fields within the City of Napa should also be a high priority with the Parks and Recreation Department to help offset the overuse of fields at most of the NVUSD schools. The NVUSD and the NYSO are major stakeholders in the future development of youth sports in the City of Napa. The School District functions as the management and organizational team. The NYSO provide the volunteer framework in which school-aged boys and girls have the opportunity to compete in organized sports. Together they unify communities as joint partners in pursuit of a common goal of promoting youth sports by “Putting Kids First.” When public and private agencies work together sharing resources it becomes a win-win situation for all parties. The growth of youth sports in the City of Napa has a promising future thanks to the efforts over the past years of the NVUSD, the City of Napa and the NYSO. VII. FINDINGS F1. The ten-year Joint Use Agreement for Maintenance of School Sports Fields between the City of Napa and the NVSUD expired in 2010. The Joint Use Agreement provided funding to the School District for field maintenance. F2. Inequities in field maintenance and appearance were noted in all of the fields observed; some of the fields were in excellent condition while others were found to be lacking in maintenance. F3. Team rosters are not checked for billing purposes; an estimated number of players serve as a basis for payment. F4. Collection of field use fees is not centralized or submitted on a regular basis. F5. The financial reports from the NVUSD distributed at the Youth Sports Council meetings to the NYSO are inconsistent, often incomplete and lack transparency. F6. Fields are scheduled manually at two scheduling meetings during the year. F7. Fields are currently scheduled on a “historic’ basis with preference to those leagues that have been established the longest. F8. Payment of fees is restricted to either cash or check. 11 F9. Some non-profit sports organizations fail to pay their field use fees, but still have access to the fields. F10. Safety and use requirement signage at many of the elementary school fields is often lacking, outdated or misplaced. F11. Emergency work requests are processed verbally, but not always followed up and recorded through the electronically controlled system known as “School Dude.” F12. The current field use application is outdated (1996) and consolidated within the application for rental or use of all school facilities. Users are required to complete separate applications for every field they request. F13. There is a gopher infestation problem at many of the natural grass fields. F14. Youth Sports Council meetings, agendas, and minutes are not published in advance for public view. F15. The existing playing fields within the NVUSD have reached their maximum capacity to accommodate the growing number of non-profit youth sports organizations. F16. The NVUSD accounting department is currently using outdate software to prepare financial reports for the Napa Youth Sports League account. F17. Some volunteer work performed on the School District’s playing fields by adults from the NYSO often conflicts with the union rules of the California School Employees Association. F18. The NVUSD assumed the responsibility of collecting field use fees from the NYSO in 2007. VIII. RECOMMENDATIONS
• OB36 Page 14
  Napa City Council: R1, R14, R17
• OB37 Page 14
  NVUSD: R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, R14, R15, R16 It is requested that each person responding to the foregoing recommendations certify above his or her signature that the response conforms to the requirements of section 933.05 of the Penal Code. X. COMMENDATION The Grand Jury commends the Napa Valley Unified School District, the Parks and Recreation Department and the Non-profit Youth Sports Organizations for their combined efforts in promoting youth sports in the City of Napa by “Putting Kids First.” The foregoing report was duly approved by the 2013-2014 Napa County Grand Jury in regular session on April 15, 2014. No member of the Grand Jury involved with a youth sports league participated in the preparation or approval of this report. /s/ Alan Galbraith Foreperson, 2013-2014 Grand Jury 14 Gopher Infestation at Redwood Middle School Raider Field at Redwood Middle School 15 Field Damage at El Centro Elementary School Field Use Permit Signage at Memorial Stadium 16 Girls Jr. Softball Sports Complex NVUSD Synthetic Turf Field 17 18

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.