This week, the MBUSD Board of Trustees and the Manhattan Beach City Council held a joint meeting to discuss the proposed revisions to the Shared Use Agreement between the two entities. The current agreement has been in place since 1999. The City has a clear interest in providing parks and recreation facilities for the youth in our community, and MBUSD is proud to help the city achieve that interest.
In the current agreement, the following MBUSD-owned facilities (40 acres or 1.5 million square feet of property) are shared with the City of Manhattan Beach:
- Polliwog Park
- Begg Field
- Begg Pool
- Mira Costa Tennis Courts
- Fields at all elementary schools
- MBMS Fields
- Mira Costa Fields
Every year over 5,000 children use MBUSD fields in AYSO and Little League. Thousands of children learn how to swim at Begg Pool. Hundreds of thousands of people each year enjoy the beauty of Polliwog Park. Yet under the current agreement, the City pays MBUSD nothing for the leasing of these facilities.
For years any other cities, such as El Segundo (over $1 million a year), Santa Monica (over $8 million a year) and Beverly Hills (over $9 million a year), have had shared use agreements that provide some lease payment to their schools for fields and facilities. These agreements provide great recreational resources for the communities while simultaneously supporting the schools. These communities provide this compensation because the cities would have had to purchase or lease parks property if it were not for these agreement to share with the schools. Yes, our City does help to maintain the fields, but if the City owned them it would incur that cost anyway.
The proposed revisions to the shared use agreement are:
- Continue the lease of all of the properties listed above.
- Continue City maintenance of all the properties listed above.
- Allow the City to use all outdoor hardscape, playgrounds and courts on school campuses.
- Allow the community to use the Mira Costa Pool .Provide an annual payment of $500,000 from the City to the District.
- Provide new maintenance support for MBUSD hardscape in the form of slurry sealing.
The MBUSD Board of Trustees strongly supports this new agreement. MBUSD hopes to see this agreement approved as soon as possible, so that it can be included in the adopted budgets for 2013-13 in both the MBUSD and City. We encourage MBUSD parents to take an interest in learning about the City budget. Please email Superintendent Mike Matthews if you have any questions about the agreement.