Facility Usage/Scheduling

Facility scheduling truly reflects the “lighted school house” concept of community education. A community education model provides the community with appropriate spaces for educational, recreational, cultural and other activities for its citizens. This is accomplished through the facility scheduling process.

Each school district establishes board policies as the guideline governing the use of the district facilities. The director/coordinator is responsible for establishing specific guidelines for the scheduling, coordinating, and supervision of all community group activities held within school district facilities, outside the normal K-12 school day. The director/coordinator maintains a master calendar of all events, both district and community events. The director/coordinator may be responsible for the scheduling process or additional personnel may be employed to assume this responsibility. This usually depends upon the size of the district, the number of buildings, the number of requests for use and other internal or external issues that affect the scheduling process.

Communication is a key factor in scheduling community use of school buildings. Good verbal and written communication is necessary so that all the appropriate persons are aware of the usage and user needs. Written communication, detailing each usage, should be directed to the user, building administrator, building custodian, the district buildings and grounds department and supervising personnel (as appropriate). In addition, the “facility scheduler” needs to work closely with the building administrators, maintenance administrators and the custodial staff to ensure that the building will be in “school-ready” conditions following use by community groups.
Usage fees and/or personnel costs may be established. It is the responsibility of the director/coordinator together with the community education advisory council to prepare a fee schedule. This fee schedule is then presented to the Board of Education for approval. Annual reviews of the fee schedule should occur, with any revisions taken to the Board of Education for approval.

Working with the district administration, the director/coordinator and the advisory council need to address the issue of building access and security. There are a variety of ways to handle this issue that are unique to the district, the community and community education model.