A number of community organizations that have used Ceres Unified School District facilities have scrambled to find other locations since a higher fee schedule went into effect as of July 1.
Nonprofit organizations, non-school youth sports teams, and community youth organizations such as Scouts are being impacted by the higher fees, which the district said are needed to align with the costs associated of staffing, janitorial services, utilities, maintenance and use.
The CUSD Board of Trustees ordered the fee increase effective July 1, in addition to existing custodial fees to “help ensure district facilities are maintained in excellent condition for students and community organizations,” said CUSD spokeswoman Beth Parker Jimenez.
“The district established nonprofit and for-profit fee schedules based on the type of organization requesting facility use,” Jimenez said. “In developing our fee structure, we reviewed facility use fees charged by both Turlock Unified and Modesto City Schools.”
CUSD Supt. Amy Peterman noted that district began planning to transition to fee-based use a year ago due to “increasing demand by external organizations and associated costs for the district, alongside fee structures in surrounding districts.” She feels the district developed a “thoughtful and fair approach that balances community access with the responsible stewardship of district resources.”
According to Kristi Britton, CUSD’s Assistant Superintendent, Business Services, CUSD began experiencing significant increases in use from organizations, including those outside of Ceres, because surrounding districts were charging for the use of facilities.
“This heavier use was an important consideration as we evaluated how to balance public access with the costs of maintaining and staffing facilities for external use,” Britton told the Courier.
CUSD teamed up with Facilitron, an online system for booking, compliance with insurance and facility rules and fee collection.
CUSD’s fees have caused the Ceres Junior Bulldogs to turn to Smyrna Park for practices and the Ceres Seahawks to use Roeding Heights Park since the city doesn’t charge.
Willie Solario, president of Ceres Seahawks Youth Football & Cheer, complained of the “ridiculous” new fees and new online system make it hard on his organization. For the first time ever, CUSD is charging for use of the fields for practice, he said.
“We’ve been a part of youth football here for 31 years,” said Solario. “We have been at Blaker-Kinser since 1994 when the school first opened and that’s where we’ve practiced. And now, for the first time, we are not practicing there because of the fees that they want just for the practice field as well. It’s just too overbearing. If you add everything up I think it comes out to a little over $3,000 a month.”
The Seahawks are practicing at Roeding Heights Park since the city isn’t charging for use of the public park.
“The game fees went from $400 a year per game to nearly $2,000 a game now,” said Solario. “And I do understand that they built a $20 million stadium and there’s going to be some sort of fees, but we had no heads-up. We were told July 1 that they went to Facilitron.”
Solario said he never heard the district complain that the teams were beating up the field at the junior high school.
“We’ve always tried to keep it in good shape. That field’s never been torn up from public use of the football team, baseball teams, and soccer teams, and everybody that uses them.
The Seahawks have played at both Ceres High School and Central Valley High School and will play on August 29 at the new stadium. Solario said the organization will pay about $1,600 for the night.
“So you gotta bring in $6,000, $7,000 at that gate just to maintain,” he said. “It just means you hope your gates (receipts) are high enough.”
Solario said Seahawks’ other expenses include referee and standby EMT costs.
Another hardship he cited is that Ceres Unified requires a $5 million insurance bond when other districts only require a $1 million policy.
“If I go rent a school in Modesto, I’m only required to have a $1 million bond,” said Solario. “If I go to a school at Ceres Unified School District, it is now a $5 million bond.”
That equates to higher costs than what cohorts in other cities pay, he said.
Britton said the $5 million insurance bond is required by the district’s insurer, Central Regional School Insurance Group (CRSIG) for football, cheerleading, wrestling, indoor soccer and swim groups. For all other uses, a $1 million bond meets the requirement. Britton noted that these requirements were in place long before the July 1 implementation of facilities use fees and unrelated to that change.
The new fees policy has created headaches for Kimberly Araquistain of the Ceres Jr. Bulldogs youth football program.
“We haven’t been able to use their facilities because we can’t afford it,” she said, noting how the team was priced out of use of fields at Cesar Chavez Junior High School (now Louie Arrollo Junior High) and now practicing in Smyrna Park which she called “a hot mess.”
“We can’t afford to be at Cesar Chavez right now, because I added it up and it’s about $16,500 (a season) to use their practice fields.
Araquistain claims the Junior Bulldogs were not informed of the forthcoming changes in time to adjust player fees and were told the cost of game day play would be “slightly higher than it was before.”
“If we were aware of that ahead of time, I could have had a crab feed or a tri-tip dinner, or did something to make extra revenue if I was worried about paying these increased fees, but we weren’t aware of it,” said Araquistain. “We were told at the last minute about it, right before our season would be starting.”
Parents had been volunteering two hours before and two hours after games to clean up bathrooms and the Ceres High stadium but CUSD now requires payment of custodial costs for the entire day at $40.86 an hour for the 13-hour duration of the game day.
“And then on top of that, there is almost a $200 opening closing custodial fee on top of that. And then there’s a $28 processing fee. Facilitron gets their cut. And then, if you use the field lights, that’s $30 per hour.
“So my games are about $1,600 and something dollars,” said Araquistain.
Previously the Junior Bulldogs were charged an average of $500 to $700 for use of a stadium or field on game days.
The Facilitron also requires advance payment which has stressed out Araquistain.
“They didn’t notify us that we have to pay in advance 14 days a minimum in advance before it, and then to secure my six days for the season, I had to pay a percentage of that facility fee to lock us in,” said Araquistain. “So I had to come up with $3,500, plus I had to pay almost $1,997 for this week’s game, and then I have another game within the 14 days. I had to pay that also at Central Valley. So we had come up with out of pocket approximately $5,500, before we’ve made a dime, before we’ve charged anyone, before we hosted a game. And that puts a real stressor on it, because we’re nonprofit.”
Araquistain said her group is resistant to charging players more money since Ceres families are struggling to make ends meet.
“We only charge the $250, $225 for returning and if they have multiple siblings we give them an additional discount on top of that. So we don’t charge a lot of money. We’re providing a service to the kids and the families. We know Ceres doesn’t have money.”
While there is no charge, practices in the city park are not ideal, Araquistain stated. She claims Smyrna Park neighbors don’t appreciate the extra traffic and street parking issues and parents and players don’t like dealing with homeless people, some who are “passed out on the floor in the bathroom.”
Araquistain also complained about her organization’s 70 cheerleaders and approximately 130 football players subject to wasp and bee stings, red ant bites, roaming dogs and breathing in marijuana smoke at Smyrna Park.
“It’s just been nonstop chaos since we’ve been out there, and I have no choice, but we’ve been pushed out.”
Araquistain hopes the money will be there to keep the program moving forward but said “I don’t know how I’m gonna have money left over when it comes to … an award ceremony at the end of the year.”
According to Ceres City Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra, Boy Scout leader Jen Rushmore publicly shared that her group was quoted approximately $238 per hour to continue using a school facility for Boy Scout meetings. The group has since turned to host meetings at Del Taco without a facility charge. The Courier was unsuccessful reaching Rushmore for further comment.
Two weekends ago Vierra posted on Facebook about the changes and one board member asked her to delete the post or “at least edit it.” Vierra saiod she did some editing but said she wouldn’t delete it “because the underlying information was based on a public action taken by the Ceres Unified School Board.
“The board member was very understanding and transparent,” said Vierra, “stating it was a public decision and didn’t understand all the district administrators’ concerns about the information becoming public this way.”
Vierra said she understood that CUSD didn’t communicate the changes to the public. But Jimenez claims CUSD communicated the fees and platform with prior facility users this past spring and with youth football organizations during the district’s annual spring meeting in 2025.
“I think the larger question is what these changes mean for community organizations that have historically relied on school facilities and whether there are alternatives or accommodations available to them,” said Vierra. “Unfortunately nothing is truly free.”
She’s also concerned about whether the hikes will affect soccer and baseball season in full swing and will result in groups flocking to the city for use of its facilities.
“The city has existing agreements with both organizations that give them priority use of certain city facilities and parks,” said Vierra. “If additional youth organizations can no longer afford to use school facilities and begin looking to city facilities instead, we need to understand whether we have the capacity to accommodate that additional demand. Do we have an appropriate available space to accommodate a football team?”
