Palo Alto staff review middle‑school athletics program; commission asks for more data before considering outsourcing

Senior community services manager Adam Howard told the Parks and Recreation Commission on July 22 that the city seeks options to align the middle school athletics (MSA) program with universal access goals and to test whether outsourcing operations to local groups is feasible.

The program — run by Palo Alto’s recreation division and operating at the three public middle schools (Green, Fletcher and JLS) — charges a $335 registration fee per sport and offers a fee‑reduction program of up to 50 percent. Howard said the program recorded 1,230 registrations this past school year and maintained a roughly 75 percent cost‑recovery target; staff listed staffing as about 80 percent of program expenses.

Howard reviewed program operations: a full‑time recreation coordinator oversees hiring, registration and administration; each site has an hourly athletic director; volunteer and paid coaches run teams. He described capacity constraints the program faces, including coach recruitment, team size limits and limited gym and field space, and explained a lottery registration window the department uses to reduce first‑come, first‑served access barriers.

To test alternatives, staff issued a request for information and received two responses. Howard summarized proposals that the commission has also received in writing: a partial management proposal from a local nonprofit (Palo Alto Middle School Community Organization, PAMSACO) to run cross country and track and field at $200 per student and a full‑management proposal from Rising Stars LLC, an out‑of‑area provider that proposed a $225 per‑student fee in its written materials. Howard warned that partial outsourcing could shift fixed costs to city‑run sports unless covered by other funding.

Public commenters urged a staged approach. Tom Haxton, president of the Palo Alto Middle School Community Organization, recommended a partial model that would let nonprofits expand responsibilities if successful. "A partial approach preserves flexibility and reversibility," he said. Parent Seongjoong Kim recounted a successful pilot and warned that a for‑profit vendor appeared neither local nor nonprofit; Kim said the Rising Stars proposal’s cost figures were not comparable to local nonprofit experience.

Commissioners and speakers raised access concerns for vulnerable student groups, in particular students living in East Palo Alto who participate in district programs (referred to at the meeting as VTP/Tinsley students). Commissioners asked staff for more data about how many unique students participate (staff currently reports registrations, not individual students), how many registrations come from low‑income or VTP students, and how seasonal participation breaks down. Several commissioners asked staff for a comparative financial table showing the city model, partial nonprofit management and full outsourcing, and to estimate the staff time needed to administer partial models that would involve multiple partners.

No formal decision was taken. Staff said it would return with additional data, including participation breakdowns by school and season, clearer cost comparisons among models and further analysis of nonprofit fundraising or partnership overlays to reduce fees.