Board directs superintendent to revise community-use policy, removing nonprofit youth exemption and adding field and energy fees

The Howard County Board of Education voted to direct the superintendent to have the policy office revise Policy 10,020, Community Use of Facilities, to (1) institute a revised energy fee for all community users, (2) change “facility fees” to “use fees” so charges include sites and grounds as well as buildings, and (3) rescind exemption status for nonprofit youth organizations. The board motion to begin the policy review, made by Chair Mallow and seconded by Ms. Chamblee, passed by roll call vote, recorded as 8-0.

Board members and staff framed the action as the start of a policy process rather than an immediate price change. Cornell Brown, the district's chief operating officer, said the intent is to put the changes through the normal policy-review cycle and then determine an appropriate start date: "My understanding is that the motion is to enact these changes for the school year 26-27, and I'm not really familiar with how long it would take for us to go through the entire process," he told the board, noting a realistic March-through-August timeline for policy drafting and committee review.

Dan Lubley, executive director for capital planning and construction, clarified that the proposal changes definitions inside the policy (for example, broadening the definition of "facility fee" to "use fee") and that the actual numeric fees are published on the district website as a separate fee chart. "The actual fees were brought to the Board of Education recently...on our website, under schools, at the bottom is a link to the use of facilities...that brings up a PDF for the actual fee chart," he said.

Several board members asked that the policy process include public hearings and committee time. "I want to make sure that, as we go through the policy process, that we do have an opportunity first for community members to testify, because this is such a very short timeline," said Ms. Watts, who pressed staff to ensure community input and to consider whether implementation could be delayed if the policy committee cannot complete chartering in time.

Staff noted two distinct but related actions: the policy definitions themselves and annual updates to the published fee chart. Cornell Brown said the district previously asked the board in December to consider fee adjustments because of climbing utility and materials costs; those annual fee decisions (for example, utility-based increases) are separate from the policy-definitional change the board authorized to begin.

What happens next: the motion instructs staff to begin a full policy review and to lay out a schedule for the policy review committee, including public hearings and the policy committee chartering process. Staff will return proposed language and fee calculations to the board and incorporate community feedback as required by the policy charter.