Understanding Facility Priorities, Closures and Reschedules

 

 

County Facilites approved for Freedom Area Recreation Council use

 

Carrolltowne Elementary

Piney Ridge Elementary

Freedom Elementary

Eldersburg Elementary

Sykesville Middle School

Oklahoma Road Middle School

South Carroll Senior Center

 

 

Linton Springs Elementary is NOT under the Freedom Area Recreation Council

as such, Carroll County Rec & Parks will not grant FARC access to this facility

 

 

 

Recreational programs are at the bottom of the priority list when it comes to Public Schools usage.

 

 

The order is as follows:

 

• Priority 1 - The needs of the specific school  (ORMS has a back to school night)
• Priority 2 - The needs of other county public schools  (LHS bball needs ORMS as LHS has a Craft Fair in the gym)
• Priority 3 - County school needs  (CCPS has a meeting or activity requiring a facility)
• Priority 4 - Recreation & Parks usage

 

FABL and our affiliated FARC (or any other recreational program or REC Council) has no (zero) jurisdiction, decision making or input when it regards the needs of priority levles 1-3.

 

 

Common Misconception

If I had $.05 for every time in the last 35 years, when a parent said to me....

 

"They can't do that!!  We pay taxes, so we control the schools!!"

 

 

This is simply not the case.  Wether it be something general, such as overall facility use, or something specific, such as a custodian or AP at a school threatening to take away our UoF.  Our taxes have no impact.  The schools make the decision for who uses their facilities.  If our program does not take proper care of them, CCPS is within their right to block us.

 

 

 

 

Required Notice for cancellation of Rec & Parks Activities

 

There is no requirement for advanced notification to be provided. 

 

CCPS makes every effort to provide in advance, as many dates and events as they are of aware prior to September 4.

However, many events are not always known that far in advance (band, chorus, etc) OR, the event was not yet passed through the CCPS facility scheduling program.

 

The CCPS facility scheduling process has become more automated and electronic now, as opposed to the past.  The Rec Councils can no longer request or communicate about facilities directly with the schools.  Thus, we only know about changes either through automated communications to the Rec Council, OR last minute emails/phone calls from a specific school to the reps for the Freedom Area Recreation Council.

 

Freedom Area Basketball (and other affiliate programs) is not permitted direct contact with facilities regarding use.

 

This means we may find out 'same day', because someone at a school forgot to schedule the event correctly into the CCPS Facility Scheduler, OR it was a late decision where there was no time to follow the process.  Either way, FABL must yield to the schools.

 

 

Here are some common examples:

 

Example #1

• FABL has UoF (Use of Facility) approved at ORMS on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 for a division tryout.
• ORMS has a meet the teacher night planned this same night.  Parking and Noise will be a problem.
• ORMS believes the date has been fully vetted through the CCPS Facility Scheduling, but then someone at ORMS notices that the calendar was not blocked off, or they were tipped off that FABL is not yet aware of this activity.
• This is noticed at 11am on Wednesday, October 11.
• ORMS contacts the Freedom Rec Council (FARC) to advise.
• As they are also volunteers who work day jobs, they might not get this information until maybe 2pm.
• By 230pm, FABL officials are made aware of the situation.
• FABL officials make every effort to communicate the change to the impacted folks.  This is generally through an email blast from the registration site.  The only additional option is to post a sign on the doors of the facility and/or post a FABL representative to advise parents as they arrive.

 

Why did I put that into so much deatail?

There is a belief that FABL controls the facilities we use, and that ALL scheduling issues are the result of poor FABL scheduling and communication.  We often have irate parents whose schedules are impacted by such events, and they feel the need to take the frustration out on FABL and FARC, when the reality is, we are the last to know when changes happen, and can only act when we receive notice. 

 

 

 

Example #2

• FABL has UoF (Use of Facility) approved at SMS on Friday, December 8, 2023.
• The Rec Council officials receive a phone call or email on Wednesday, December 6, communicating that this event was not entered into the system, but we must vacate and cancel our UoF that night.
• In some cases, FABL officials find out from parents in advance, and we can ask for verification earlier, to provide families more notice.

 

This scenario provides more warning than the last, but the result is the same.  FABL yields to CCPS.

 

 

 

Provision for make-up or rescheduling of cancelled activities

 

FABL cannot guarantee a reschedule for every missed activity.  There are instances that take place reqularly:

 

• Inclement weather closings
• Holidays
• Last minute CCPS revocation of days
• Elementary school PE equipment rotation

 

As outlined in our Facility Days & Times information, each division has a certain amount of time allocated, based on several factors.

If FABL has the availabliilty to reschedule, they will, but it is not guaranteed.

 

Example:

A team practices on Wednesdays.  The last 2 Wednesdays, snow has cancelled schools and that team missed 2 practices.  Likely that team and several others missed 2 practices.  What happens next?

 

The Division Leader will try to rework the schedule, likely canceling a night from the other teams who didn't miss 2 nights, in order to balance out the sessions.  This could mean a change in practice night for a team.  It won;t likely satisfy everyone involved, but this would be the only immediate option in these cases.  If we want to make it up, there have to be concessions made.

 

If there is no opportunity to reschedule any time throughout the remaining season, then we share our apologies and move forward.  We can't just 'create time' for every instance we encounter.

 

 

 

Final Note:

The information provided above may not be met with understanding and agreement by everyone who reads it, but it is the situation we (FABL) must work under throughout the season.  We address concerns regarding dissatisfaction with facilities as best as we can, but we really have no bargaining power to make any changes at that level.