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City recreation officials warn summer camps will be strained after PCTA becomes unavailable
Summary
Board members and staff said construction at PCTA will reduce single-site sports-camp capacity, leaving hundreds on wait lists and forcing multi-site plans; staff gave enrollment and hiring figures and said capacity is constrained by staffing and facilities.
City recreation officials told the Recreation Advisory Board on May 13 that construction at a longtime partner facility, PCTA, has materially reduced the department's ability to run large, single-site sports camps this summer, contributing to long wait lists and a scramble for alternative sites.
The board heard that sports-camp enrollment for the 2026 sports-camp season stands at 461 with "almost 300" children on a wait list, and that the department will use Hope High School as a contingency because PCTA is unavailable for the season. The director said PCTA previously allowed rotating weekly programming at scale and that Hope's gym and cooling conditions cannot replicate that capacity.
The loss of PCTA prompted board members and staff to discuss multi-site options, outreach to colleges and splitting programs across multiple locations. Staff cautioned that multi-site models fragment the single-location convenience families want and that colleges and schools often have their own summer programming or construction schedules that limit availability.
On broader summer programming, the director reported a larger set of numbers for the department: a 2025 summer-camp enrollment total listed in the packet as 6,725 and a separately stated summer-camp capacity of 696; department staff said capacity is ultimately determined center by center and depends on seasonal staffing and facility size. The transcript shows the numbers as presented to the board; staff emphasized capacity is a function of budgeted seasonal hires and physical space per center.
The department also reviewed seasonal hiring and lifeguard recruitment. Lifeguard training and hiring were discussed as an operational constraint: the transcript shows 130 lifeguard applicants last year and 51 this year to date; staff said last year's hires were about 42 lifeguards and that the department typically hires 350 to 450 seasonal staff across summer programs. The lifeguard supervisor, Ira Montana, described in-house training and certification plans for newly enrolled candidates.
Board members and staff said they will continue contingency planning, including spreading camps across more city sites and working with the school department and property managers to secure cool or shaded spaces. The director asked the board to monitor enrollment numbers and budget decisions ahead of a June budget deadline.
Next steps: staff will continue to pursue alternate sites, finalize summer staffing, and report updated enrollment and capacity figures at the next meeting. The packet and staff remarks contained the enrollment and hiring figures cited above; some totals reported to the board appear in the meeting materials and were stated during discussion.
