City Government
City & Schools Team Up For Rec Centers
November 20, 2008 
Boise City and Boise Schools are teaming up with some after school programs and according to a recent letter from Team Dave’s Mayor Dave Bieter, he has visited the centers and plans repeat visits.
The city ponied up $71,000 for “tenant improvements” after the schools built recreation centers within Grace Jordan and Morley Nelson elementary schools. The city has budgeted a little over $300,000 for operation of the two centers in the current fiscal year. Parks and recreation employees staff the centers.
We talked to a Parks administrator and learned the “Rec Centers” provide several levels of programs aimed at elementary, junior high, and adults users. The centers are equipped with computers, art supplies, and game items.
A third rec center will open at the new Whitney Elementary school next fall. The city will spend $600,000 for that one and another $174,000 to operate it for a year.
The GUARDIAN has advocated combining the resources of schools and city services at a single location, including libraries. The library-school joint facilities sounds like a no brainer, but there are always mutterings about the caliber of people attracted to libraries which isn’t good for kids.
But kids go to the libraries. Go figure.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 20, 2008, 9:22 pm
Hard to believe they’d be doing something that actually seems to make sense.
Must be a bug in it somewhere!
Nov 21, 2008, 12:03 am
Just goes to show that if you throw enough “stuff” on the wall, eventually something will stick!
Never the less, when kudos are due…. This is a high point for Team Dave and they should be pleased with their efforts here.
Nov 21, 2008, 9:08 am
Put schools on the list for Neighborhood Association Meeting places also.
Nov 21, 2008, 8:03 pm
I think I’d rather sit with a homeless person than a person wearing a suit and tie right now. The ‘suit’ crowd is desparate and dangerous, whereas the homeless person probably has lots of great ideas how to help cut your budget.
Cramming more into buildings saves on heating and cooling, maintenance and a host of other things.
Another thought… for just a little more, 10% I think, we could build super insulated, passive solar buildings that require no heating or cooling except on rare occasion. This should be the ONLY way we build right now.
Nov 22, 2008, 8:22 am
To expand on Mr. Anderson’s comment…
I believe it is truly criminal that here in the High Plains Desert, solar isn’t required in new construction.
Paying to heat water in the desert?!
In the Summer?!
S. T. Upid!
Nov 22, 2008, 8:16 pm
I am happy to see we have an adult supervised envionment for kids.
The time between school is out and Mom or Dad get home from work is simply a bad societal deal for kids. It gives them an opportunity to make poor choices that can compound over time.
Anything we can do to aleviate this problem simply has to be inherently good for all of us.
Kids deserve to feel safe and get a decent chance to succede in life.
Nov 24, 2008, 6:02 pm
I agree with Paul. What is wrong with community centers? What if we didn’t have community pools for the kids in the hot summer? There is no way I’d trust my kid with the Boy Scouts or an Idaho Senator.
Nov 25, 2008, 2:41 am
Hey I guess censorship still exists! Shame on you Guardian, I guess those of us that aren’t in the choir should learn we’re not the ones being preached to.
Dec 1, 2008, 5:37 pm
I have long advocated for joint city-school libraries. Reno does it very well. Doing it when building a new school is ideal because you can design the separation, but it’s possible to retrofit. They could do it if they really tried.