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Facilities committee recommends one-year KIA fee waiver and advancing KES sensory playground with district funds
Summary
The Facilities & Extracurricular Committee recommended waiving facility fees for one year to help KIA transition to a private organization and advanced a $220,392 KES sensory playground project, recommending the district cover roughly $80,000 from construction/bond funds so the project can be completed this summer.
The Facilities & Extracurricular Committee recommended two near-term actions to support extracurricular access and complete a long-planned sensory playground.
On the Kutztown Indoor Association (KIA), staff said KIA operates differently than typical booster clubs — charging a monthly fee and scheduling a major paid event — and suggested the group transition to a private, non-district organization that would continue to provide affordable dance opportunities. To ease that transition, staff recommended waiving district facility fees for one year so KIA can establish a new financial model. Staff confirmed the organization already holds liability insurance and said the waiver is explicitly time-limited: a one-year transitional accommodation to prevent a sudden loss of local affordable programming.
On the KES sensory playground, staff reported the most recent vendor quote is $220,392, up from an earlier $140,000 estimate provided roughly two years ago. That increase reflects delivery, surface choices (turf, poured-in-place surfacing versus wood chips), prevailing-wage considerations and other cost escalations. Staff said the Ed Foundation and donors have raised most of the funds but that completing the project this summer would likely require approximately $80,000 of district funding; staff recommended using construction/bond-related funds for that district share. “We’re looking at construction funds of about $10 million give or take, and dipping into that for $80,000 to get this done is kind of where I would recommend it at this time,” a staff member said.
The committee indicated support for both recommendations and moved them to the full board for action. The transcript records committee members’ verbal assent; no roll-call vote tally appears in the record.
What happens next: Both recommendations will be placed on the full-board agenda. If the board approves the playground funding and the temporary fee waiver, staff will schedule construction and confirm the KIA transitional arrangement and insurance requirements.
