Leasing of MC schools eyed

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: July 24, 2008

Madison County’s school board may expand outside use of its buildings.

Officials are considering revising an existing policy to allow local organizations to pay to lease its property on an ongoing basis.

Currently, the county’s schools and athletic fields are open for local organizations to host one-time events for free, according to Superintendent Brenda Tanner. However, the school board doesn’t allow outside groups to use their buildings on a long-term basis, Tanner said.

The schools are used on an on-going basis by Madison County Public Schools- and Madison County Facilities and Recreation Department-related groups, including youth sports.

Even if the school system revises its policy, groups connected to the above-mentioned county departments would continue to receive priority, requiring outside organizations to plan their use of school property around the schedules of school and facilities and recreation department groups, according to the superintendent.

In May, a new Madison County church – called The Summit – first approached school officials about paying them to use Madison County High School for its weekly Sunday service. This new church is an offshoot of Mountain View Community Church in Culpeper, which meets at Culpeper County High School each week.

School board member Doug Farmer brought the request before the board, adding that this could be a source of extra income for the school system.
Although the new Madison County-based church – which plans to have its first service Sunday, Sept. 14 – is still interested in possibly leasing the schools, representatives of the church have recently started to look at alternate locations, according to Pastor Mark DeCourcey.

“It seems like [the school board is] moving toward adopting the new policy, which is good news, but we are in a time crunch,” DeCourcey told The Eagle in an e-mail response. The school board is expected to vote on this policy at its next regularly scheduled Monday, Aug. 11 meeting, however “waiting until [then] would make it very difficult to be prepared for our Sept. 14 launch,” DeCourcey said via e-mail.

The revised policy may charge different fees depending on which building or room within a building is used, according to the superintendent.

Tanner suggested that the schools require groups to hire one of their custodians to work during the hours the buildings are in use in order to regulate entry to the indoor properties as well as clean them after they are used. Organizations would have to pay the custodian directly and agree to hire him or her to work for at least three hours, according to the superintendent’s recommendations regarding the possible policy revision.

Currently, the schools require that organizations that use their property – including Madison County Facilities and Recreation Department-related groups – clean any areas they use themselves, according to school officials. However, some school board members noted that the schools are not always sufficiently cleaned following an outside event and suggested that the revised policy state that if the buildings are not left in their initial, clean condition the group will be charged a custodial fee.

If the policy is approved, any outside group interested in renting a school building would be required to submit an application to staff at the school board’s headquarters, according to Tanner. Consideration of these applications will require additional administrative work for school officials, she said.
School representatives are currently working with Madison County Facilities and Recreation Department Director Ross Shifflett to figure out possibly available dates for outside organizations to rent the schools, the superintendent said.