Education First
The Culver City Unified Districts primary responsibility is to educate our children. The annual funding for their education is becoming more severely limited each year. The District and the local school sites are concerned with maintaining and securing facilities, not with worrying about providing free recreational facilities for local weekend warriors. This, of course, is the primary responsibility of Culver Citys Parks and Recreation Dept., as its name implies.
Allowing Community Recreation
Through a City-District Joint-Use Agreement, the community has been able to use local district facilities for its pursuit of recreational activities. For years, the community has been taking advantage of local school grounds without giving much thought to the costs being incurred by the District in maintaining these sites.
The key phrase here is taking advantage of.
School facilities are still being taken advantage of by some professional coaches in giving private lessons to their students on school tennis courts. There is little doubt that teaching pros should be required to rent a court through a use-permit to help with the cost of maintaining the facility.
Mr. Cherness concerns expressed in his essay about the lack of community notification by the high schools administration and the abruptness of the security actions are valid and should be addressed. But, at the heart of the matter is whether the regular weekend players should also be required to have permits to use the high schools tennis facilities and therefore become involved in maintaining the site they use on a regular basis.
No Free Sunday Brunch
There should be a clear distinction drawn between the more dedicated, organized amateur athletes use of district facilities and that of the occasional user, the neighborhood track walker or jogger. If organizations, such as AYSO, Little League, softball leagues, Lancer football, track clubs, adult basketball leagues and other sports organizations pay to use District facilities, then why should this regular weekend tennis group be exempt and treated any differently?
Safe School Facilities
This past year, the high school has paid to upgrade the tennis court facility installing new posts and nets. The courts are on high school property and are being maintained by the school district. Originally, the high school administration moved to secure the courts because they had become an unsupervised gathering place for students during lunch hours. The local school administration must be able to assert its control over its own property and facilities.
Inalienable Rights?
Does Mr. Cherness public showing of outrageous indignation in the matter suggest that these weekend warriors have somehow acquired, over the years, certain inalienable rights as local tennis players? That among these are the Rights of (their weekend Sporting) Life, Liberty (to play free) and the Pursuit of Happiness of finding a rare, empty tennis court on a Sunday morning.
Short-Term Memory
Have these weekend warriors forgotten state education funds are getting tighter and tighter? Have they forgotten that the Culver City Unified School District paid to install new posts and nets? Have they forgotten that other organizations pay for using school facilities. Have they forgotten that there are other, numerous tennis courts are available elsewhere in our city?
Right Complaint, Wrong Department
If Mr. Cherness and his group of regular weekend players are still at odds with the security changes being implemented at the high school, instead of trying to bully the Culver City Unified School District into changing its security and safety concerns to suit their weekend recreational demands, I have a suggestion.
Maybe they should be talking with the citys Parks and Recreation Dept. about the lack of weekend tennis courts and the citys continuing inconsistency in maintaining its tennis court amenities and in upholding its part of the City-School District Joint-Use Agreement elsewhere in the community.
