Park board approves scholarship policy 60-40 and one-year ARC Foundation camp partnership

The Elkhart Park Board on April 15 approved a departmental scholarship policy, labeled policy 60-40, and authorized a one-year partnership with the ARC Foundation to subsidize summer camp fees for eligible participants. Matthew Moyers, special projects manager for Elkhart Parks and Recreation, told the board the fee-structure policy (policy 60-10) allows a scholarship program if guidelines are created. He introduced policy 60-40 as the department's proposed guidelines and said legal and fiscal staff had reviewed the policy. Moyers said the scholarship fund must not use tax revenue to subsidize department fees: "the scholarship program will be used to defray the cost to the users for a program, and that, the scholarship fund, will make sure that, the cost that we charge for the programs, is still covered. So we're not using tax funds to subsidize the scholarship program." Under the approved policy, Moyers said scholarships may proceed only when donors provide cash in hand or when a memorandum of understanding (MOU) is in place. For the 2024 season, staff asked the board to permit camp programs to be included in the new scholarship program and requested that up to half of camp participants be eligible for scholarship assistance "until the money runs out." The board voted to approve the policy for this season and to permit the ARC Foundation partnership and the camp scholarships for the current year. The roll-call vote recorded Bill Murray, Sarah Santero and Christopher Baker as voting yes. Board members asked only procedural questions; Moyers said staff would run the program this year and evaluate whether it could continue in subsequent seasons. The policy change does not alter the department's approved fee structure, Moyers said: the scholarship fund is intended to be a separate source used only to offset user fees when donor funds are available. No dollar amounts for the ARC Foundation contribution or the total scholarship pool were specified in the meeting record. Moyers described the ARC Foundation commitment as "willing to enter to a partnership for us for this year's camp programs" but did not provide a specific donation amount during the board discussion. The board's action was a policy approval and an operational authorization for the department to run the scholarship program for the 2024 camp season under the terms described by staff.