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City, CUSD come up with new facilities use policy
Community Center Ceres
The Ceres Unified School District uses the Ceres Community Center quite often, more than the city uses CUSD facilities so the facilities use agreement has been tweaked in the city's favor. - photo by JEFF BENZIGER/ Courier file photo

The city of Ceres and Ceres Unified School District have torn up an old agreement about using each other’s facilities and replaced it with a new one that benefits the city.

Both agencies were aware that CUSD was using city facilities – such as the Ceres Community Center – more than the city was using CUSD facilities, explained Interim City Manager Steve Williams.

The 2011 Memorandum of Understanding outlined that the city could use the district’s facilities unlimited for no fees, and the district could use the city’s facilities unlimited for no fees.

“It was recognized amongst both the city and the district that this agreement needed to be updated … the district would use the city’s facilities much more often than the city would use the district’s facilities,” said Williams. “So the agreement was somewhat lopsided; they would get much more use out of ours than we would get out of theirs.”

Under the new agreement, instead of unlimited free use on both sides, the city and CUSD will meet twice a year to plan out how each party wants to use facilities and when.

“There will be a dollar amount assigned to that projected use based on their fees. That’s the credit that we will give the district when they use our fees.”

He gave the hypothetical example of the city planning to use district facilities totaling $5,000 for the year. “Instead of the city paying $5,000, the city will give the district a credit of $5,000 so that they can use our facilities. Once that $5,000 is exhausted, the district will then pay for each additional use beyond that $5,000.”

The new agreement also does not allow for either party to use facilities under third party arrangements, “which means when we want to use their facilities or they want to use our facilities, it has to be a true city event. They use their facilities, and it has to be a true district event to use our facilities.”

The lone exception to that is the aquatics swim program and Hoopsters basketball program.

“It will allow us to use the district’s pool if we want to engage them in the summer aquatics program next year, as well as the district’s facilities for hoopsters, even though it’s not city staff that runs the Hoopsters program.”