Burbank Unified, Boys and Girls Club reach agreement

By Kelly Corrigan

Aug. 24, 2013 12 AM PT

Burbank Unified School District officials will charge the Boys & Girls Club $88,535 to use 10 school facilities during the current school year.

The facility use fee, school officials said, helps defray the cost for maintaining the sites and paying for custodial services.

The assessment, approved by the Burbank school board last week, is half of what the district could have charged the club. According to a district report, the full facility-use rate would have been $177,070.

Under the agreement, the district did not charge the Boys & Girls Club for use of its fields, which would have been $10 per hour for hundreds of hours of use.

In another move to reduce costs, the Boys & Girls Club — which serves 2,400 children with free or affordable after-school programs — moved its service at the three middle schools into classrooms, instead of auditoriums and cafeterias, because the fee to use those facilities is higher.

“I think that we finally have an agreement that everybody can live with,” said Tom Kissinger, the district’s director of elementary education.

The Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and the Greater East Valley first partnered with Burbank Unified in 2002 when it began providing after-school programs at more than 10 school sites. The district had never before charged the club to use its property.

But in June, the district proposed charging the club, sparking a sometimes-heated response from supporters, employees and clients of the Boys & Girls Club, who noted that the vast majority of its clients are Burbank Unified children.

District officials, however, cited ongoing budget problems and, in particular, the 20% cut in state funding the district has withstood in the last three years.

“Although there are fees assessed to the Boys & Girls Club for this school year, we know that BUSD is partnering with us to find other solutions for going forward,” said Shanna Warren, chief executive officer for the Boys & Girls Club.

One solution Kissinger mentioned during last week’s meeting explored giving the club a portable classroom no longer needed by Burbank Unified that the club could maintain.

“There is a renewed spirit of cooperation and collaboration between the school district and Boys and Girls club and we look forward to working with them this year and in the future,” Kissinger said.

Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.