February 5, 2024 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Study Session

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] Form presence, or we can do call to work our study session for February 2024 we have an agenda. We're not gonna go to a formal approval process. I do have one suggested change to the agenda. And we had a email ported to us from City council requesting input on from all the different boards and commissions. And so I propose that we add that after to discuss how we're gonna proceed answering city councils question and sort of set an agenda for the next couple of months. And how to craft a response. And is that okay with everyone? Great? Okay, so I'm gonna turn it over to Sunny and Jason and let them run the show. So we want to welcome you to this retreat. It's fun to have a a setting where we can get to know each other a little bit better, and not focus solely on

[1:03] the business of crab so we have some icebreakers that will have to adapt given the situation here, but we're excited to to really dive into who we are, and and what ideas and gifts we bring to this group. So we'll just start with a very simple introduction. Your name, if you want to remind us what your job is that's always helpful to me, and maybe where you are in the crab cycle, if you're leaving, if you are, you know anything like that that's relevant, and maybe your favorite winter activity. But I'll begin. My name is Sunny Vanderstar. This is my second on Prab. I have one more year and I have been really longing to go cross country skiing. So this winter I've not gotten out but once, so, hoping

[2:08] there will be a shift in the the weather in my time. Allotment to get out there. Enjoy this beautiful snow. Okay, my name is yeah. So you're I'm coming up on my finished my first year on prep and I worked at Seabolder and the Terminal Engineering Department for the our biology lab working in schools in Denver and Boulder. and I like sporting. Do you want Staff to go to jail? Yeah, totally. In my twenty-first year? I love winter hiking. Take a moment. I'm like going to my twelfth year of the city of Boulder.

[3:04] I'm the recreation manager overseeing the rec centers. Gymnastics that stuff and I really like playing in the snow with my dogs. I'm Scott Schuttenberg. I'm the deputy director, and I've been with the city Buller just over a year in the winter. I love hiking in the summer, but the winter hiking is just I don't know not my thing. I'm gonna go different route here and say, my favorite activity in the winter is to kind of hibernate watch, college football, basketball, sports on TV, just like that's the time to kinda rejuvenate. And some of that time. So. Bryan Peery, I support our community building and partnership efforts. I've been with the city for for 7 years. Here the department may take a very similar tact to Scott, except my focus is hibernating and trying to make sure I've seen all the Oscar nominated. Not there yet.

[4:08] Yeah, what's your favorite so far, I think, Oppenheimer. I'll have it pretty handily, but I really like anatomy of a fall as it might turn. I'm Bernie or and it's like Anna's. The end of my first year on Prab. I love winter. Winter is like definitely one of my favorite seasons I'd love to hike in the snow ski on the snow. In my youth I did a lot of winter camping, and then in my slightly older youth I discovered huts, and I'd like definitely love taking hot trips. and I'm happy, very bad day, as you know, in addition to destroy my knee. I also was laid off from my job this morning. So as of today, I'm on the hunt for new employments. I'm a Pr marketing professional. And for the last couple of years I've been working at a virtual cycling platform gaming platform. So

[5:03] you know, if anyone knows anyone who's hiring in the bike industry or connected fitness, or any any sort of connected devices and applications all that is is completely with the Mobile House. And, as I said to Chuck earlier, I'm glad to be able to set all of my woes aside for a couple of hours and talk about parts rosen Rosa Coco. Perhaps secretary a year and a half. And my favorite activity. Yeah, we like to go snowmobiling. I'm Chuck Brock. I my regular day job is a air quality climate scientist at Noaa. Here in Boulder I am. I have 2 more meetings left on pram, and then I'll be done. 5 year term, it says. been through Covid. So it's been an interesting experience, and very different than what I expected coming in, but it's been worthwhile, and a lot of fun. Up until last year I enjoyed skiing in winter, but then I poured tendon to my knee, and

[6:09] now I am into snow showing this year, and maybe I'll be back skiing next year. But we'll see Elliot Hood. This is my ending. My third year going into my fourth year on pram. Can't believe it's been that long already. It's crazy, and I'm an attorney. and my favorite winter activities probably snow shoeing in the foothills outside of Boulder while listening to music, because you can go off trail, and it's really very peaceful. Everyone, Jason, this is my my fourth and I'm sorry to say, probably my my last year on Prem, I'm not sure. Maybe we'll be able to continue the news like that. But it's been amazing. For the first week of the week after the pandemic. And it's just been a really great experience to be on this board with this group and you know we'll save that for later. But I may I do. Federal policy consulting mostly education. But I just got a number of other issues as well

[7:13] winter activities. I did not like the winter when I was on the East coast and wanted to stay inside and hibernate. But now that we live in Colorado, I love the winter and all the activities. But my favorite is probably skiing with my kids. and you're an elected member. Some job. alright, he's gonna like to bever of the bbs, which is which is way out number 2 and not gonna be able to continue. It's just too much to to carry both or so I'm sorry to to not complete my term. But just yeah. I tried. I thought I could do it, and I think the reality last few months is they probably can't. So thanks for for understanding that for sure to support So real quick chuck, we have a slightly different slide scheduled to the agenda. Okay, could we jump right into this? Okay. And if you do, you want us to have that up on the screen? If you said it, I think Rosa has that she could share it. Yeah, if it's only Bernie.

[8:15] Think there's a way to do both to have a presentation and a gallery. Your Google slide. Rosa, in her happy place. She she's a Google gal here or office. It's all over better world out there, out. See? You switches. We used to be on Google. And then they switched us to office 365. But it's not. There's a lot of things that I might as well give me a second probably do. There's a presentation in 2 parts, or is it just one, our presentation

[9:01] just one, whatever you'd like. whatever whatever works for your event. This is Jason's slide deck. Yep. So we want Jason, or if you can use mine, but go back to How about we do? We'll we'll okay on the fly here. We'll just go to the icebreaker, and then we'll go to your presentation and go back to another. So if you go and go to the fourth slide. this one here. I pick a next slide speeding so we we hope there'd be more staff members. But I'm glad people are not here if they don't need to be. But we want to do this with staff and

[10:11] grab members. It's kind of a variation of speed dating. We're gonna I think we have. See how many people we have. 40, we have 5 and 5. Any person Bernie might have to be an observer. It might be a little hard to have you join, but questions at the end of each round. So we're gonna do 5 and 5. We'll have 5 people. Maybe the 5 of us line up against the wall, and then the other 5 could kind of stand next to us. We're gonna do 4 rounds. 2 min. Each group gets 2 min. The first minute for one person, second minute for the other person. And then we'll shift and have a new question. So does that make sense? It does. I do have a question. So for Bernie, we do have a couple of teammates watching virtually, that we could put on the spot, and we could mute the room, and you all get to know each other so that you're not bored for the next 16 min.

[11:02] II am, know nothing about zoom. So I have. What's your idea here, Rosa? Is there a way we could get, Bernie? If we just mute, can take down our slideshow. we could do that. Yeah. So if we just mute and take down our slideshow, they can all talk to each other in 9, it's recorded they will also be broadcasting their conversation to the public. Oh, yeah, alright. Couple of minutes in silence here and wait for the outcome. That's fine. You can turn it to the next slide.

[12:07] It's watch the chords here on the chords. we will. You guys can rotate around, and then we'll go to the next question, that work. So do we shift? We should just we stay. These guys shift. Okay?

[13:09] Alright. 1 min. Answer. I'll call 1 min. No, no 1 min. This is the first round. We're just doing the first question. So each one has a minute to answer and talk about it. You know some of the answers are, could be a single word. But use your minutes, or use your time to kind of elaborate ideal vacation, or those kind of things. So the first one is, what did you want to be when you, when you were young, when you were young, and you envision yourself in a future career. Wh, what was that? So we'll do 2 min. Let me grow up

[16:04] to the right. Alright. Now we'll start a new timer start 2 min now over the question, what is your ideal vacation?

[18:13] That's that's

[19:33] okay. But it's one of your favorite family traditions.

[20:27] What's going on

[22:27] so and move to the one more round.

[23:01] Oh, careful! This might be a shorter one, but it could also be a long conversation with your favorite boulder.

[26:45] It was good. We enjoyed getting it up. Yeah. good conversation. Got to know some clothing, but I want I know, Bernie. If you wanna answer one of the questions live, or if we just wanna move on.

[27:01] I'll just. I heard the first question, which is what you imagine yourself being that you grew up. And II always thought I'd be a writer, and then I was a writer, and it was great, and I had a great if brief, careers to writer before transitioning into marketing. Great alright! We will turn, you know we just did before I'll turn over to Ellie and the team. We. There was a real interest in the members, prime members of talking about equity and access. And so there's a lot of components to that. But the presentation, I think, deals with the whole range of things, including interest in swimming equity. And so turn over here. Yeah, Scott and Brian and Megan are, gonna leave this presentation. But I do want to do just a brief introduction to thank you all for for your interest in this topic, similar to last year and 2 years ago, where the retreat has given an opportunity for a deep dive on the topic. When I saw the way the team has organized this conversation. This is all really important work that's happening all the time, but because it's governed by existing policy, because, you know, there hasn't necessarily been major changes or need of grab input. Since I mean, we did some major overhauls and 17 and 18 around accessing the system. You don't hear about it.

[28:19] And so I'm I'm really grateful for your attention on the topic will be here for any questions you might have, and I look forward to Scott, Brian, and I can really just highlighting what? It's been an incredible amount of work over the last decade. To make sure that our program. Rosa, would you mind pulling up the presentation? So, as I mentioned, we, we just have about 14 or so slides that we want to go through, and then we'll jump in and and have some discussion.

[29:05] next slide, please. I think it's important that we always start off with a one boulder approach. And and this is something that I think is, is really important to us, so that we break down the silos of the different departments. And really, one boulder is is the north star. That help? What helps us to break down those silos and align our efforts to create positive change in the community and in the organization. And so really, the one boulder approach Cascades City wide. It's not just parks and Rec, it it oversees and and and really unites us. And you could see the funnel. I know you've all seen this image before. We're gonna talk about sustainability, equity and resilience in that framework here in a minute. But I will say, as we as we go through looking at this funnel, it is guiding our work, and really the direction that we're we go in the work that we do within our department. When I, before I came to the city of Boulder about a year ago, I really looked at our 2022 Bpr plan. We're gonna talk about that here in a couple of minutes.

[30:11] But I also looked at a lot of the documents that really guide the city of Boulder. And I will tell you equity is really weaved into everything that we do and all the plans that we have. And that's what's really exciting about as we go through each one of these. These items, we're gonna talk quite a bit about the Vpr 2022 plan, and what equity looks like in that plan. But there is a strong commitment in the city of Boulder, not just with Parks and Rec. But with every department to look at equity and and so I'm excited to talk about that today also, can you hit the next slide, please? So really starting off, I think it's important that we talk about our sustainability, equity and resilience framework. And this incorporates the one boulder approach to achieve our vision and in a future with equitable access to health, prosperity, and fulfillment, where our community adapts and thrives in response to emerging and sometimes urgent social, economic and environmental change and changes

[31:11] this framework guides strategic planning and budgeting by providing consistent goals necessary to achieve boulders. Vision of a great community and actions required to achieve that. So you can see on the screen there, there's 7 key areas, safe, healthy, and socially thriving, liveable, responsibly governed, accessible and connected environmentally sustainable and economically vital. And within each one of those areas we're talking about equity quite a bit, a lot of what we do in parks and Rec falls under healthy and socially thriving. But so much of what we do also hits those other areas, livable communities. Obviously, we need to be responsibly governed. Accessible and connected. the environmentally sustainable piece is something that we're committed to as a department and certainly that safety piece is addressed in our in our area as well. And so the scr framework is really this living document that we use all the time.

[32:14] Rosa, if you can please hit the next slide. So where does re racial equity and equity in general kind of fall into into everything that we do. And I will say that. You know the racial equity plan that we've adopted as a city is so vitally important. It's our living roadmap that guides our government through the process of prioritizing our goals, specifying details and assigning resources to achieve meaningful change. We look at that as as our responsibility. To make sure that we're looking at equity at all times. And so in 2022 city departments began to create justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion teams. So we call these our Jedi teams. And the role of team is to focus on identifying and advancing racial equity related to our our efforts within the department.

[33:09] The work and measurement of its success is done through coordination with and in support of citywide equity efforts. So you can see here on the slide. That bottom bullet point I wanted to address. And that's really our racial equity instrument. And so what we do with that racial equity instrument that the city has provided us is every program and service that we offer. We're looking at it from a a lens of of equity and making sure that we're making smart decisions related to our budget and operating and and really considering who benefits and who is impacted. So this is really that 10,000 foot view. Brian's gonna talk quite a bit more about what we're doing in our department. And then Megan's gonna share a little bit more about the aquatic space also. So we wanna really dive in. This is kind of that 10,000 foot view. Can you jump into the next slide.

[34:04] So the Vpr plan and and I'm really was so excited to read this plan when when I decided to to come here to the city of Boulder, because this was adopted in August of 2022 just before I arrived. And this plan is is absolutely amazing, and it was created with a lot of input from the community, from the staff. And really looking at how can we make sure that we're performing at that top level, and and guided by some really distinct goals and initiatives for the future. Rosa, can you please hit the next slide? So I went through and I pulled out just a couple of items. with our equity goals within the Bpr plan. And so the plan really identifies 6 key areas of that we're gonna focus on as a department. So the first one is community health and wellness. And now there are several initiatives underneath community health and wellness as well as these other areas. But first and foremost, we specifically called out, so we're gonna explore programming that unites people of different generations, abilities and cultures. We're definitely committed to doing that. We're gonna take a strong look at the Ada Transition plan and make sure that we're we have an updated Ada transition plan

[35:23] as far as financial sustainability. We're gonna prioritize sustainable approach for financial aid. And I know there's gonna be quite a few questions today about financial aid and where we're going with financial aid and what that looks like. We're evaluating a sliding scale for financial aid. So I think at the last meeting you mentioned that sliding scale. And we're gonna talk about that a little bit today. We're doing our best to streamline the financial aid application process and so all of those initiatives are really trying to break down some of the barriers to the financial barriers, the participating in our programs and utilizing our facilities

[36:03] in taking care of what we have. We're looking at conducting needs based mapping and so you'll see. And I know Mark has shared in some of his presentations. When we're talking about park development. we look at kind of a an overall map of our community and what areas. We need to focus our time and attention on Megan's gonna talk a little bit later on in this presentation about us going out into the community and and coming to them versus expecting them to come to us. Community building building community and relationships. We're prioritizing, equitable and inclusive outreach methods. That's with our our marketing and communication, and we're prioritizing partnerships that address barriers to access. And Brian will talk a little bit more about the partnerships as well. Youth, engagement and activity. We're working with the play Boulder Foundation to enhance the play pass program. We'll talk about that a little bit more today as well, and then organizational readiness for ensuring hiring practices, dismantle institutional racism.

[37:10] So what you'll see on the on the picture there on the right is currently we're operating in fiscally constrained. And so what I will say is. there's a lot we would like to do with the plan alternatives. And so you'll see the action steps in the plan alternatives, and so, for example, the sliding scale for financial aid. We don't have the resources at this point to implement the full sliding scale to the, to the level that we would like to if resources became available, we certainly would do more with that but for now we're evaluating the sliding scale and figuring out next steps from there. So Brian's gonna jump in on the next slide and talk about some of the work that we're doing. Currently. that's good. Thanks, Rosa.

[38:02] So Scott outlined many of the goals that were in the 2022 plan. I'm gonna share a little bit more about how we've implemented some strategies to to meet those goals. And I'll get into detail on each of these and few slides here, but at a very high level. There's really been 3 main approaches the first is really to just simply remove or lower financial barriers that really shows up in the financial aid program where we subsidize facility entry at 100. Right? Of course, a significant course subsidy and then work with partners like the play pass program, where, in addition to that course, subsidy folks that have a play pass, can you guys that to have those dollars go further. And it's actually let us be top play past service provider. Because of those dual benefits that strategy is very much in line with what any community, member or visitor to recreation facilities or programs, it's generally self directed. You would self select what you might be interested in participating in

[39:09] the next approach is for dedicated discrete programs, freely targeting specific populations and supporting them. Those are the Ysi program expand for programming people with disabilities, our license camp programs. And one thing to to noting here, while many of those may show up as you know, a semester long or a year long program that you might participate in. There are some elements like inclusion support for our expand team that is really more of a department wide service. And so that's when, our certified recreation therapists, would support anyone's use of the Recreation Center any of our services, and that could look like someone with low vision getting oriented to the wait room and and having accommodations set up for them. Or it could mean, you know, a neuro diverse

[40:01] student and gymnastics that might need someone to support them through a full semester in that programming. So that's a little more of the service side than it is on on the program side. and then the last approach is a little bit more recent for us, I think, in about 2,01720 18, this really became a focus in that. What we heard from the community was, it's lovely that it's we're we might be able to access and participate in Corpson Rick facilities and and programming. And it's great that there's maybe a Ysi program. But there are still barriers to participation. There's transportation. There's childcare. There's A multitude of of reasons why coming to our smart facilities might not be an option. So that's where the focus became on outreach. And that's trying to be adaptive. Going out to community. Our red on wheels program within Ysi is is where we have a branded van full of play equipment and

[41:04] professionals that go out to mostly manufacture on communities to bring programming on site. Working with the I have a dream foundation is another place that we've had a good crossover with a community that is already in other programming activations like resource fairs, special events. And then what Megan will talk about here in a few minutes, which is addressing emergent community needs that that we've heard. So now dive a little bit deeper on each of these individually. If you can go to the next one. Rosa, financial aid, and our subsidized access is the largest portion the largest part of our approach here. And so there are nearly 3,500 enrollments in the financial aid program. That's up from 2022, and that represents nearly 50,000 visits to facilities. as it compares to 2019, we are at the highest level of subsidy we have ever been for these programs and these services. And let's say, 2023, we be pre pandemic levels, which is exciting to say by about 15%. And it represents almost half a million dollars of of subsidy for financial aid

[42:18] playpass represents an additional 10,000 that might look a little bit low. As a number and really, that represents that this voucher, in addition to a course subsidy many times, isn't used in full. And so folks and that might have a play pass, receive a $250 voucher. I think our average is around $140 that someone might spend of that voucher. And in turn that that unspent funding goes back towards Play Pass, and they're able to to to extend more play passes out to the community. Yeah, sorry. Interrupt. what do you attribute the pretty sharp rise in subsidy total between 2022 and 2023. I know we've talked about this before, but I think it's been a little while.

[43:09] There are 2 pieces. If it's the dollar amount, a lot of it is a fee increase right? So greater fees, greater subsidy. Another piece is simply just service levels have increased so much. And so we've been able to have all the pools open this past summer. All the facilities are open, longer hours, and so folks are coming back and participating more. So it's not just the dollars that have increased the visits. I mean, it's one of 25. I wanna add, Brian. And please correct me if I wrong, I believe there's a third element that there is greater need in our community. And there are more folks who are qualified for these programs. They'll talk a little bit more about qualification. But and I. We don't have data in front of us around this, but I know anecdotally because we're about to talk about all things homelessness on Thursday night. There is greater family. Another interesting Stat just kinda goes in line with that is, we we've seen the numbers on any given day or week per month within the rec facilities. Somewhere between 10 and 20% of all entries are through financial aid. They're subsidized entries.

[44:15] So it's a significant program. And Scott and I were on a call on Friday with other Service providers across the city organization, and they are quite astounded that we have 3,500 community members that are enrolled in our financial aid program. And this is as compared to even the guaranteed income pilot, low and middle line income housing, assistance, food tax rebate. We're on that call. And I say, Wow, that's really a lot of people. You have that participate in that program. So in order to participate in the financial program, you need to be enrolled in it. Okay? And then how does one do that? Is there like a form on a website that we have. And you can. Is it? Can it be all done online pretty easily? It now can be all done online. That was a post pandemic post pandemic improvement both in English and Spanish. And you can enroll in any of the rec centers, and then we also have ambulance through our programs, which I'll talk about here in a second. But, our wivesi program. All participants are provided with

[45:13] the the recent, you know, support and the materials to register for financial aid. The play pass program also that whole pool. If you're eligible for a play pass, it's the same criteria to be eligible for financial aid. So even if you might not receive a play pass, they're limited. You would still be able to enroll in the financial aid program. And what's the eligibility criterion for? I'm glad you asked second, too. But it is 50, currently, as of right now. It is at 60% of area and area Median income for the year previously, that had been 50. That was a change as of January. First press to to bump that up to 60. Talk about here in a minute. But that was very much driven by the elevate boulder guaranteed income pilot. They had started to housing and human services had started to increase that threshold for self sustainability in the city. And so we we raised to match that

[46:14] we're gonna see. And we're gonna see how that goes. Right? I mean, this is the first time we're trying it. So in terms of enrollment and utilization, I would expect there to be more participation. I would hope that there would be more participation. But it's it's probably a little too early to tell is that is that area meeting, because that the boulder area is that, like Denver Metro, that that is boulder specific. And it's set by the Federal Government. It is a very strange calendar of when that comes out, and it scales, depending on how many people are in your family or in your household. And just one question. Now, you might know this. How does this compare just to other kind of pure cities around the country? Not to get ahead of slides? Hold that question. But is this

[47:00] these numbers system, pure cities, are they? It's very generous. I'm looking to the team. I'm happy. Yeah. I think a lot of communities are struggling. What I will say is, we are so committed to making sure that we're serving. I think we're doing an amazing job of, you know, nearly half a million subsidy at this point. That being said to really implement to the level we want, we would need another half 1 million or or more. That number to be infinite as to to what we could do with more resources to be able to subsidize our programs and and facilities and services. There are some communities that again depending on their how their funding is structured to have it set up different. In Denver, for example, right. Older adults and kids in grade school are provided recreation passes. And that's part of their funding structure. I'll let you guys say something to.

[48:05] I think it would be a great thing to list. We might even have it from the 2022 planning process or part of the Nrp. Metrics. But to look at our event. We have selected communities that are a benchmark community selected because they're similar in demographics, college towns, high performing. So we we benchmark against folks who are either accredited like we aspire to be, or one of gold medal. I think that'd be a great question to follow up anecdotally. I suspect that our program is very robust and highly utilized, but it'd be great. And then just one other pillar here is working with a State sponsored county managed program for childcare assistance primarily through camps and licensed child care. And that's called ccap, and that is supported for mostly in our in our Epr self account programs. Do you mind? Jump to the next one? Rosa? Thank you. These are programs I won't spend too much time on. I think you you have heard about that many times. But our Ysi program focuses on underrepresented communities. It was formed about, I think, almost 17 years ago at this point based on direct community feedback to address vandalism gang related violence safe out of school option

[49:16] and again, 3,500 participations in 2023 for 600 h of programming. an incredible mentorship program that can really reach teams in a way that we don't reach teams and and all of our programming. And it's actually been a great employment pipeline for Bpr and Ysi program and the Rec centers and life birds. To be able to provide opportunities that kids feel comfortable with services being provided and as they grow older can can find employment. And then our Isi team really are just the the Swiss army knife of partnerships and collaborations. They work at multiple boulder housing partners, sites. They work in manufactured home communities. They work with initiatives and Junior Rangers and

[50:12] really take that goal of building community partnerships to another level. And in there the way that they didn't become integrated in the community. Next one is our expand program. Again, highly utilized programming for our disability community over 2,000 participations. Youth teen and adults. I would underscore the adults here as an interesting point that most folks may not realize that our expand program, especially for adults with dev developmental disabilities provides a lot of support beyond that inclusion support. But programming support. And even camp programming over the summer. we have 5 staff and a robust internship program that we shared information about in the last consent agenda and and our expand program is really seen as a highlight in the whole county. There are folks that comment participate in our in our programming across a wider

[51:15] location demographic than just. And this is a group that is very much involved in the Ada transition plan. That? that Scott mentioned. Yeah. Ellie, who runs the programs for expand again. What kind of training do they have at their certified. certified therapeutic recreation specialists? And again, they need to typically have interned and participate and have a certain number of hours. It is a license certification that they need to hold and so we have a team of or Ctrs that do we provide that certification, or they do it through some sort of university program. So they can major in in therapeutic recreation at different universities or in recreation with a therapeutic specialty.

[52:09] So it's actually coursework at college level, correct with continuing education, they have to create behavior plans. They are incredibly skilled at whatever you whatever recreation you want to participate in, whether you have a developmental disability getting you playing right off the side of the community. They're amazing. What's the certification call that certified therapeutic recreation specialist. So folks, the other places you'll find a Ctrs are the Va. Employes. A lot of certified therap specialists. Craig hospital often used for folks who have some type. The the military is huge with the loss of when so you also see Ctrs in supporting

[53:00] youth, behavior and nursing homes. II would just add to that. Ii have some expertise in this area. Ii have a a part time job, fortunately, at a foundation called the Kelly Brush Foundation. That's helps people spinal cord injuries return to activities. they don't employ these threat therapists, but they work with a a huge network of adaptive sports programs around the country, including a couple ignite at all. Dora is is a big one, and so a lot of these recreational therapists work in those types of settings as well, where there's sort of place based. Adaptive sports programs. Can I have. One thing that isn't on here is that the incredible talented staff is not enough. This is the area where we see them. Most amount of volunteers in the department. Programs like the expand beyond water ski on Thursday mornings, the boulder boulder racing. We have many, many programs that require 2, you know, a 2 to one ratio. So for every 2 participants there's one employee, we simply couldn't afford to do that. So, for example, last spring, at track, you know on any given night. We had 10 participants

[54:11] and 5 staff and volunteers, because to keep kids safe, you know, on a pretty wide open environment, you need lots of folks there. It it is some of the best work. That's pretty incredible, are you? Really? I'm looking at the requirements. I really do have to like major in the space split. That's that's amazing. How many people do you have? We have 4 Ctrs on staff. And then we actually, we have interns. Each semester that that come over. And and I think right now. 2, 2, 2 now. But they're from all over the country. So anyone's from Virginia wants from Arkansas this year. Same? Yeah. So we have a reputation for our program being one of the best programs in the country. It it's amazing what we do for people with disabilities and and the commitment to

[55:00] these programs, it's just awesome. Last year Goldman, who is the program supervisor, is amazing. Started as an intern over 20 years ago. They're impressive. and Brian gets to to supervise them, and like hear amazing stories every single day. It is Sasha, do we? Sorry to continue on this pain? Do we, as a program or as a department, help subsidize people to get the Ctrs like if they're on staff, and they want to go back to school. Do we like help them do that. looking at me? So there's a couple of things that we do so. The way that our learning and development is set up is that if you so once you have your Ctrs, you have to get ongoing Ceos that continue in education units, and for any certification there's there's several that are in our field. There's a Megan is a certified part. All 3 of these folks are certified parks and rep professionals.

[56:13] Scott's certified Parks recreation executive. We pay for the ongoing curriculum that you need to get that the city has just returned an education assistant program that went away with budget cuts in 2020. And so for up to 4,000 a year. If a person came to us. I don't know. The cost required was getting a Ctrs, and it would cover it. But say, I chose to become a Cpr. The the cost is $500. The city would pay for that through that program, and then the the ongoing part of it is is covered through our education assistance. so you probably couldn't get the initial certification with our funding. But we would support the ongoing similar with you. Right like, no, you have to go to college, and we can probably pay, you know, the 4,000 a year, and then support your ongoing education.

[57:00] Great like, I said. 2 more quick slides one is just about how we gather feedback and make decisions to go to the next one. Rosa. Really adopting that mantra of nothing about us without us. We really seek out feedback for these programs each year. And in addition to soliciting feedback, we also turn to our partners to and participants tell share information. To get the word out. We talked about that a little bit in terms of you know, boulder housing partners shares our financial aid enrollment directly with eligible residents at at Low and Midland housing sites and for housing choice vouchers our Ysi program advertises for department services in community spaces. And then we do a lot of cross promotion with partners like the playpass program and play boulder and then, you know, 1. One of the the ideas, particularly with Ysi, is that

[58:01] The program should empower participants to feel comfortable coming to services that are provided by the city on their own. And so we even write those outcomes into our grants each year. To make sure there's a percentage of Ysi participants that can feel comfortable participating in recreation of these or activities on their own, and understand why they're important to their health and wellness. And then all of our community programs are aligned with our service delivery model, just in terms of of constant evaluation and improvement on an annual basis. One more for me, Rose, and then I'm gonna turn over to Megan. And these are the highlights for 2024. Specifically, most of that info that you're shared with you as a snapshot of 2023 for 2024 give you this one as a spoiler. Alert, we have increased the qualification for financially pre programmed to be 60% ami to align with housing human services on that same

[59:00] note, we have worked very closely with housing and Human services and the Health Equity Fund to move from an annual competitive process for that funding to a multi year award. Something that was really pivotal pivotal to the Financial Aid program. Programming was in 2,017 and 2,018, that first round of support from the Health equity Fund, and it really helped provide a proof of concept that if you remove the financial barrier entirely, would you see participation go up? And it did significantly. And so we really feel like that. We made a case that we can move into a multi year award for that. Our work some of the racial equity initiatives that Scott mentioned is showing up in 2024 by embedding an equity champion in each of our Capra work teams is for accreditation project that we're working on this year. And all of our matrix teams. Those are the cross departmental and and across organizational teams that are really applying that lens of the racially equity instrument to this entire process of accreditation, and is really our sole work focus for 2024 we'll have that built into it

[60:20] likewise. In much of our advertising for summer squad. As we as we test still, summer squad is still stick with the name summer squad. We really, we really try to make sure that We were using the resources available to us through the communications and engagement team, and specifically our community connectors to help with advertising outreach and representation in some of our advertising to the community to provide those seasonal hiring opportunities. And then the other piece for 2024 is focusing on an emergent community issue just drowning prevention.

[61:00] Turn that over to Megan. Now. alright, so yeah. Drowning prevention. Right? So unfortunately, last year, here in Boulder there were 3 people who died from drowning. There were 13 in the state and so it's horrific to think about. And certainly one of our our goals is to prevent that in the community. I'll keep keep the community safe. And so A year ago today. we didn't have any of our swim lesson programs restarted yet. We didn't have enough lifeguards a year ago to have all of our bodies water open. And so I, when I say current state, I think we actually have a lot to celebrate even today, which is that over this past summer we had over 200 Lifeguards, the most we've ever had. We've restarted our swim lesson programming. We're now operating swim lessons. 2 days a week. We have a future goal going 7 days a week at multiple locations. Right? But we're working our way back up. We've been using our service delivery model to help us with that

[62:12] and of course, some of the biggest hurdles there continue to be just hiring and training people. Wsi, which is a water safety instructor. It's a 3 day class training. And so that usually is that is a certification that we offer to people and we pay for it, and we pay for their time in it, but also getting a student 3 days of training. You have to be careful and time. Now, with that said, we're we're doing the work. And we're actually making a lot of progress here, which is great. So but what about what we can do? Better cause we can certainly do better. Yes, we're gonna keep using our service delivery model and growing our program from the 2 days a week. It is right now to, you know, multiple locations, multiple days.

[63:01] But we know that drowning prevention is a really key component, especially as you go into the warmer months, and people are wanting to get in the water to cool down. And so for this next year, we're focusing on some things that we think can help immediately, while we also look at long term goals. and so in April and May. We intend to offer 2 free drowning prevention classes in each of those months where the 2 in April would be at an indoor recreation center. It would. The class would be free. It would be focused and tailored towards families or anyone who can attend, and it would include access to the Recreation Center those days with free, open swim for anyone who attended the class in the pool afterwards. And then May, we would intend to offer 2 of those driving prevention programs. really, key, here is our water, our our new program coordinator for recreation program leads our swim lessons is bilingual his name's Carter. He's really great, and he's gonna help us teach these classes bilingually. So we will be offering these in Spanish and English.

[64:16] So 2 in April indoors. 2 in May outdoors. most likely at Scott, Carpenter again free access to the facility that day we would teach a class and then provide free swim for families and then in June there's this really fun world's largest swim lesson day and the goal is to get as many people taking a swim lesson as possible. And so Carter's actually really looking forward to trying to plan something to coexist with that day to be another opportunity for for a drowning prevention program. Now, with that said yes. We need to continue using our service to lot delivery model to grow our programming. We know that 2 day, a week programs or 2 days a week of, you know, 8 week long sessions is not enough right now, and we are actively growing it. Every, you know. Just

[65:13] just 6 months ago we maybe had one page in the Rec guide. And now we have 2 pages in the and we're hoping to build to, you know, 3 or 4 on this next one. And so we're making a lot of progress. And the good thing about that is like everyone we train. That's not just one more class that's potentially 6 more sessions that we can offer on any given day. With just 2 or 3 more people hired. And so we're actively working, growing that. And with that said, like, we know, we need to use our racial equity instrument as these classes grow so that we're not just doing the cookie cutter. This is what it was before, and this is what it is again. But when do we need to offer the classes to make sure they're accessible to everyone in the community. And how do we potentially offer the classes bilingually? How are we helping people? You know, have a class, not only they can attend, but when they understand

[66:12] and and even it comes down to. And this is kind of a another point that's more, for all the programs is registration right like, are we allowing registrations to happen at a time and at a pace where there's so those are some of the questions that we'll ask ourselves through the use of that tool, not only in this program, but and other programs. oh, go ahead. I've been like perfect So I just asked about the drowning incidents. So I remember reading in the paper last year that they were drowning incidents in Boulder Creek. where they're incidents at pools or rec facilities on boulder.

[67:01] not in boulder, but and and Megan and I've talked about this quite a bit. And we feel like that. A great starting point for us is drowning prevention, which is a one day learn the basic techniques to hopefully be safe in a pool and not put yourself at risk when you're trying to save someone else. Not that we need to have a drive to justify these amazing classes, but I just wasn't familiar. If there was an incident, I didn't know about it. Okay? But you. So the drowning instance you're talking about last year we're the creek once. Okay, open water. Was there nothing in the res, either? Nothing in the res, either. A little more context on that. There's not been a definite older pool since 1,984, there have been severe incidences. 90% of them are related to a cardiac event, and older adult or teams have been first responders and deployed aeds

[68:00] at the reservoir. They have incredible protocols to protect small kids. It's hard when you can't see the bottom of the water. And I and II do think it's through incredible training and response that we have been able to have that that track record. There have been sorry. Let me clarify. There have been deaths in the boulder reservoir that were related to endurance events and cardiac events. I so with kids, especially, yeah. who can ask about the classes like what? Let's start there versus like a several week swimming class. What do you? What do you learn to mention? Class? Sure. So drowning prevention is different than, okay. So this is actually a really great opportunity. Learn to swim is is Red Cross programming. That's like 24 weeks long tailored to second and third graders. I'll talk about that a little bit more later. We don't offer any technical learn to swim by the Red Cross Book

[69:07] have to be certified to teach and get a certain degree at the end of it. It's just not realistic, but drowning. Prevention is about more than that, it's so it's if I find myself in swift water or instill water. And this is happening. What are the ways I can save myself. and also as a parent or a guardian, or someone who is there? How can I help save someone else without putting myself at risk? Unfortunately, one of the drownings last year was actually someone that was attempting to help another individual. And it did not. You know it resulted really badly and and so drowning prevention doesn't touch just like on how I save myself. But how do I also safely help others in this situation without putting another person at risk is the the reality is, if you put yourself at risk. Now, when emergency personnel do get there, they're gonna have to try to save 2 people instead of one. So it's

[70:09] it's you know. It's what can be taught in a 1. One day class versus you're not with learning, swim strokes and things like that. But just like what are the really vital tools to help? So absolutely? Is there a logic to practice their logic first widespread beyond. Just there's more question I don't know, but it seems like that could be a way to incorporate to get that across the community. And well, and II think, certainly like these one day classes that can help just prevent drownings like that's why we want to do these out there for free. Get people in the Rec center for free that day to kind of help, encourage. Please attend, do do it, you know, in in 2 languages, so that we can really reach the most people. You know, it's very different from a swim lesson, and that a swim lesson like you're you're gonna get in the pool. Yeah, you're gonna learn how to not drown. But you're also gonna learn strokes. So you're also gonna learn

[71:20] more aspects of, you know, swimming even as a, as a sport as well as a as a safety component on that community awareness piece, though just the Boulder Creek management plan, that first initial phase that's going to be ready. May June timeframe is going to be on Creek signage, community education. Some of this is also just education, that if you, if you don't know how to swim, any amount of water is deadly, and so that whole communication effort is another. You know, track running fast. Moving water can be deadly. Ellie. I was about to ask about that because II witnessed and what could have been a drowning last summer, where you know, someone was playing. The creaking got freaked out, and I know spread. I was about 3 s away from Fire Department. This guy's friends helped him. But I think signage go a long way, and I assume that we would do that in multiple languages. Right?

[72:10] Yep. And then another element that just fyi is boulder fire rescue has been working mostly with the county and the State around. A stream flow protocol. So right now we only Close Boulder Creek to tubing and recreational activity beyond Kike kayaking at 700 cubic feet per second. My understanding is that I don't want to make up the number, but I believe all 3 drownings occurred at 400 cubic feet between 3 and 15. So they're revisiting those protocols. How was that communicated. and when you know, getting in and then realize, oh, the water is pretty high when it's actually been closed their signage regularly across the creek. But that threshold at 700. I think it only happens once every 3 or 4 years right now. And so they're revisiting that based on data based on. There's obviously a lot of emotion around this topic.

[73:06] But what makes sense revisiting protocols? If you visited Clear Creek and Golden they have a flag protocol similar to beaches, where you know it's a red flag day, yellow flag day, green flag. So I think we can expect to see something similar people like the one that's like, right at the end of the library. So II watch like 5 people most around there last summer, because, like parents like, put their kids down in the kitchen flip, and then they would not. So I think there's like certain spots that are more risky that people might not be aware of what they're getting into if they just like show up, and they're not the other element being explored. And I'm not sure how Regina set up on this. If she's in prepared to speak, we can. You know what? Let's let's follow up on that in April or May, when we have more details like jackets for kids as part of a conversation, stay with fires them under the age of 12. So that would be a good thing to communicate

[74:13] what's going on in the water and the creek and stuff like who which city agency ultimately like has jurisdiction. I suppose the word over what's going on in the creek. So, but I mean like, is there a particular department? I know it's the city, but like so boulder, fire, rescue was responsible for safety and response utilities, manages actually the water. We manage the river like we. You can't untangle it. Multiple agencies have jurisdiction over what's going on. But the decision around like the protocols. is older fire, rescue the share of the state, like we are there to support implementation and signage, but are not weighing in on decision making around rescue protocols. Got it. Okay. make sense.

[75:02] They're not a park. What's that? They're not a park. They're like if they're they're they're like a thing that runs through the city that, like the State, manages the actual water way. That's why there has to be a conversation like you can't just go off and do your own thing, and it's connected with the county. So it's fairly complicated. But she called her Us. Was this great guy, and working really hard on it. So actually, I'm gonna this jumping to opportunities, some of these take a little bit more effort to realize then, which might be realistic this year, I will say our our new aquatic supervisor, Hilary, is really excited about the idea of offering targeted classes and community pools. And so that's something that we wanna start looking into right? But it takes partnering with those communities getting permission to actually teach in there like knowing who's in that neighborhood, and

[76:02] what they need to support their a access in that community. And so that's gonna take a little bit more work. But it's definitely something that our our teams really passionate about exploring. And then if you really talk about, learn to swim programming, which is again like 24 week long sessions of learning how to swim. That's usually talk to second and third graders. They sometimes have to repeat levels and classes multiple times. That if if we wanted to offer something that huge it needed to be, it needs to be a really big coordinated effort. And this is this is where I think it would be great if we were into the future explore partnerships. And, for instance, I know we're talking about potential partnerships with Bbsd for sites being able to partner with Bbsd on something like this and include that in that conversation might make sense to be able to capture a second and third graders, and again and and it would also be very expensive

[77:02] to to do that. And so how we pay for it, how we have access to that many kids. The amount of instructors we need can be something that we vision for the future, probably in future conversations. At the same time, when we're talking about, what does a future aquatic facility look like? Potentially also swim teams. So we're parks and recreation. We teach swimming from the very basic levels generally until what we call level 5, which is about for 12 year olds. And then we kind of typically are passing people off to swim teams for more competitive swimming or school teams. And so we may have an opportunity in the future to work with swim teams either to help develop and get even more swim instructors to help teach the lower levels. or to figure out how we do that balance. Again. This we would be at the very beginning stages of starting that kind of conversation to explore for the future. It's hard to to know what it would exactly look like. And so we have some of those conversations with potential partners.

[78:13] One of the things that's also challenging is and you've heard from some of the aquatic groups that Coalition. There's already a concern about full availability. and as much as we would like to have some lessons offered 7 days a week in our facilities the space. To do that would be tough, because it would mean taking away from platforming for community members. It would mean turning away some of the rental groups, and and the swim teams that don't have anywhere else to go, which they want more space as is so. As we start to have future discussions with Bbs, data and other community partners, I think there's the opportunity to think about things from visionary standpoint and the the broader perspective of yes, we would love to teach every single second and third grader in our community. So license

[79:04] and create a program where it's it's free for those kids. There are other communities that have done that but we need to have the space to be able to to make that happen, and and also the staffing and the funding to to do that. So there's a a vision of of what could be and so for now I think a great job with her team to say, Alright, let's focus on these interventions in 2024 to start and and we'll build and go from. There. Is there a role for a course that lies between one day drowning prevention and a 24 week? Learn every stroke and become an expert swimmer. That is everything we offer. So we actually on the city of Boulder. We do not offer any actual learn to swim programming that would at the end of it give you, you know, a Red Cross certificate. We offer usually 6 to 8 week sessions.

[80:00] That are designed to be parts parts of that bigger 24 week program. So everything we offer. And and that's actually why and and most municipalities do that as well. Just to be clear. Most the municipalities, and at least around here do not offer 24 weeks sessions that you then have to take twice before you move to the next level. What about like having for swim lessons where you can learn the basics of keeping yourself afloat and not really learn any, you know. That's that's really a form of drowning prevention. But it's more advanced. The basic one lesson. Prevention class, do you have? Now? Yeah, I actually think the younger groups. The preschool ages might be 4 and 5 week options. But I wanna say most of our options are 6 weeks, you say 6 weeks. How many classes is that in 6 sessions?

[81:01] So to answer your question? Yes, there's there's a place for it. We know that. And and that's where we're trying to find that happy Median and continuing to evolve, evolve what we offer for for Megan and instruction there. So so if bbs, for example, were to require that students get rounding prevention course. you could conceivably craft a class that would, you know, if if we were told we had funding and space to make that happen. So if we built a new aquatic facility at Belmont or somewhere else, and and Bdsd made a commitment to ensure that everyone in the school district or in the city limits one of these swim lessons for all their second graders. We would then establish that curriculum and and put together a proposal and make something happen for sure. Yeah, the amount of access that you would need to those kids for that level of programming would almost be like, you're taking them for their entire class for a year.

[82:06] but how would you if you build a new facility? How can you guarantee that it would be available for? that's a great question. It's about community priorities and and what's important to the community. So I think we would have to do a lot of research prior to to coming into any agreement with the school district or you know, obviously creating a new facility. There's there's a lot of discussion that needs to happen there. You mean, like neighborhood pools and apartment pools and stuff like that. Alder meadows has a pool. Just another chest hasn't put one. We already have agreements with some of some of those locations through where you know, if we can get agreement to offer some programming at their locations in the pool. I think I think that's where our most realistic opportunity is that would be a doable do. The other one is very much a

[83:17] wish. Lists might not happen. It depends on what the community sees as a priority hypothetical situation, where, like a few schools or district did that, provided the funding, the issue would just be the capacity. There's no like that's not a that's not possible, right? Not with our current resources. Well, if Bbsd provided funding or staff time, for example. you still wouldn't run into the having enough pool space. And

[84:03] and it depends on what levels we're talking about. Because certainly a number of levels like right now, our leisure pools are only open on opposite days. We can run levels for some younger kids in the leisure pool that's not open. But as soon as you need a higher level in a lab pool, and we have a lot of open water from one to 3. If a kid was in gym class from one to 3 but again, like we can't do that on an island. But this is where the surgical approach is going to be so helpful. Every child and Bdsd does not need to learn recreation, you know so many of the children, the Boulder Valley district have incredible privilege and access to resources and trips and training and schools. And so this targeted approach of getting the public parks and recreation to the kids who needed most is really what we're gonna have the effect. And so I think the problem is is still complex. But it's not 56,000 students.

[85:04] Each of them is our plan right now. and I. I'm not sure I you know I'm hoping that if we market this out there and say it's also with a free day, and bring your whole family, and we make a thing out of it that we get people coming, and maybe some of them don't need the class, but maybe they learn something from it, anyway. So I'm I'm hoping that and and you know I'm hoping that the having people come in and swim afterwards is enough of a a draw to make them want to come and it attend the class. But you, we I just I don't know until we try it. You can't not try. How many people could you have in the class? I think that would just be based on the capacity of the water that we're talking about. So I you know, for instance, if we did, one of them in April, at the north Boulder Rec center. Well, we get 60 people showing up. Well, maybe we have. We're using 2 bodies of water and for instructors instead. You know, II think so far we've talked about it as an upper number, being maybe 60. What we're comfortable with. But I we haven't.

[86:25] You know it. It just if it's a free day, maybe it's like you sign up ahead of time so that we figure that out. We're still working out some of the details. And are you marketing to the school district? So we'll market through Ysi programs. For sure. And then we do work with the school district directly as well. So yes, there would be marketing through the school district and then through social media. Program participants, current participants from other programs. And really look at as many strategies as we can to get the word out there. and there will be in English and Spanish. I remember, I think, when I met with you guys last year you talked about. I think it was with gymnastics that you said, like the gymnastics opens up. And then online registration fills up within like 2 min of

[87:12] camps does the same thing. Yeah. And my experience with working with some of the Spanish speaking families. To sign up for soccer is that like a lot of times, the online is not their preferred sign up mechanism that they rather have like a paper application. So what it's gonna be done to ensure that there's not like a and I think that's where we are considering early registration for certain demographics or or groups. I think if we get the marketing out to like Wi-fi cameras first and give them the opportunity to sign up prior, opening it up to the entire community. I think that's that's a good option. I think we need to continue to look at our marketing efforts and how we do that. I know our our camp program. Camps filled pretty darn quick

[88:09] for this summer, and and that's tough as we wanna make sure that we're serving the kids that really, and the families that really need that serviced so I think we'll continue to look at marketing strategies to to find the best way to to make sure. Now, I will say that I think it's 90 to 95% of of the folks of the 3 3,400 people that are getting financially are applying through our website. They're not doing it in person. I think it's 3, Rex. And there's only 5 to 10% of those applications we for finance later coming in person. So it's it's a balance, and we can look at it. Well, I mean you know, right now, especially with swim lessons. We're still at the point where we're trying to offer more and more to meet the community demand. Gymnastics is tough because we just expanded to a 7 seventh day of the week and we're still trying to grow that program. And at the same time, I think they got over a hundred kids off the wait list into a class somehow. And so even just getting if someone can't get registered immediately. Get on the wait list.

[89:14] Our team will will work with them directly to help and whatever way we can. So we've shared a lot of information. Rosa, if you want to hit the next slide, I think it's just really II know we've been answering questions. We can certainly answer more questions about some lessons or anything else from an equity perspective that y'all would like to talk about. I had a question about the migrant families that are recently arriving. Both my son that goes to said that there's a huge influx of migrant students right from Mexico. And I was just wondering about if there's like special outreach for them that may not have like documents like they're not good.

[90:04] I think you have to upload like that you're receiving snap or rick or text paid or information. Sure. I don't think it's I think, that we have to show government systems I know for the financial aid one you have enough to. You can show in covering and show another thing. But I think for play fast. You have to show another government support like individual schools. I don't know for all. No, he doesn't school last week, and then so it's Pop. I don't know. There's a couple of different like alternative methods to add locations for financial aid that we accept. One would be in lieu of the, since everyone qualifies for the free lunch program. Now. In lieu of that we can get a letter from the school that just says they would otherwise qualify for the free lunch program. And we have accepted especially for like college students,

[91:19] like visas if the visa says like, they're not allowed to work in the country, then we know they have no income, and then we can approve it. As long as it's paired with like wherever they're staying, some kind of proof of where they're staying, and some kind of proof of no income or will. And what if they're like doubling up with other? We've accepted like. They received mail of the place, or you know anything that kind of shows, if that's what they're saying. You did not

[92:03] so in terms of the support financial support. Is it restricted to people within Bulger City limits? Or what about people that are in Dunbar or in the Mobile Home park on the end of Belmont. It's just outsicing limits. For example. we are a municipality in the city of Boulder, and so so our our tax dollars are supposed to be spent on people within the city. True for Hhs granting and and any typical city support rooms. So financial aid all of the programs they just mentioned that that subsidize access are not available. The the differences for expand programming folks can register. They pay a non resident rate that is still typically about an 80% subsidy. Yeah, like the same. Just how you know

[93:10] Marshall. And there's there's several mobile. So you see, limits. But we give discounts for people who don't live in the city who are working in the city. But that's because it's not too federal currently supporting programs. That's strictly a border policy any way to mix that the biggest loophole the best way. If I had unlimited funds I would write, play a big fat check and let them expand the play pass to folks because they don't have the same limitations with their. That's that's the biggest best. We probably do this. I know

[94:13] just a recap of the swim lessons. You said that right now. There's from lessons 2 days a week, 3 or 4. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I like again, ideally, we'd be offering swim less than 7 days a week at least at one location. Even if it's just the lower levels, it would probably be in the the leisure pools when they're not open to the public when sorry. Where are these lessons happening? I wanna say, there's lessons at north and East currently on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So just speaking off the cuff, it seems like this is an easy sell. The city Council to get more funding for support for these programs. I know you don't go directly to city Council and ask for money. You go through city manager and through the whole budgeting process.

[95:04] which is an annual exercise. but I think that, given the equity focus of the City Council. you'd have a very strong case to make if you can manage it through the process and get it presented to the city council as part of city's budget. Keep trying. I'll let me know. Just note, you know, the 24 budget for the first time. We are using point. So in the past the point to 5 cent sales tax dollars had been pretty strictly limited to park Development Park maintenance things not funded outside of recreation with the gap that we've continued to see post pandemic with funding recreation. The 24 budget $750,000 in funding the support recreation so that we can maintain these service levels and a lot of it for stuff like this. Megan, do you want to share some news about January that hopefully will be helpful? Our our usage? This was in the consent agenda, and so our our usage at the facilities is now matching where we were in January of 2020. So, just before the pandemic for usage per hour. Now remember, facilities are open as many hours. But we did just expand our hours in January.

[96:20] so the fact that we kept up hours and had the usage kind of support it is really great actually, north and south usage per hour is either matching or a little bit higher than it was where total usage is still a little bit down. But again, we're not we're not open as many hours, so we're not also spending as much on some of our operations that we do. So. The connection to that is is pre pandemic. We got 1.5 million dollars a year from the general fund for subsidizing recreation, and 20. We did a one time transfer from the point 2 5 to bolster things and 21 and 22. We had a one time support of an additional 600,000

[97:03] that went away this year, and we said, We still we don't want to reduce service levels. We ask the community, we ask our board. We don't want to reduce service level. So instead, we are not spending more on taking care of what we have an asset management. So with these numbers. if we don't need all of that money, it can go back to fund balance and be able for months. So these numbers are exciting because recreation is a volume based business. As that volume returns, it means we. We could have more funding just already in budget well. And at the same time, though we in 20 early 20, maybe 9% of our usage was financially free access. And now it's closer to 14 or more in between 10 and 20, based on what month it is. And so we have maybe just as much usage, but more subsidized usage that we used to have, which is both a good thing. And you know another way for us to advocate for the funding that helps for the community.

[98:01] What we really want is a bilingual access coordinator, so that we can have more full time language translation available. And and what we're doing now is building that in with some of our current staffing, we want people. We want to do more, so that people feel welcome. I think it was our Nepalese community in Boulder. I know it's it's relevant for the violet apart. But I don't have a number off the top of my head. native speakers, and might be 500.

[99:00] Great thanks. So much, Peter. Really good. I think. Chuck your last question when leads to our next discussion. Yeah, thank you all very much sounds really great, I think, more than we hope for a great scale. That information and a lot of good numbers, like things are. think it back to normal pre pandemic levels. That's crazy. I wonder if for Anna and Berry an overview of this item? They haven't seen that note the background instructions on that. It's II put it on one of our slides. We'll just look at that. I got a note from the clerk's office that I forwarded to the chair and vice chair and said, I recommend you. Add this to the agenda tonight. Send you business meetings. So yeah, actually asked you to forward it onto Jason.

[100:12] I can't email 6 of you and propose business. I mean, I suppose I could. It would be wrong. It still, your meeting. But you know, just based on our last conversation, I think. And so we need to discuss. maybe not discuss the topics today. But we'll have have a plan for what we want to when we want to discuss responding to this. So we have 2 meetings where we we can discuss this the last one probably needs to be crafting actual words.

[101:00] because we can't do that outside of the meeting with a without having a board meeting or violating more meeting rules. Chuck and I for a little more context for Bernie and Anna, and that so this election, we have 4 new members of council. typically councils have a major retreat every 2 years at the start of that term. And they said, a 2 year work plan that as a council, those 9 folks. What do they want to achieve together? And so at that retreat it's scheduled for April fourth and fifth. They will over 2 days talk about both how they work together in their work plan and so to set that work plan. Of course, council members have their own priorities and things that they talked about during the campaign. But in the past, and typically they rely on input from boards and commissions. And so. if you like for your February packet. We can share the last 2 examples of what grabs have submitted, typically in the form of a letter. And you do have it's due March 22, you have 2, which is great. That means you can

[102:10] figure out you want to get this so we could in this meeting propose just throw out a couple of ideas for what we might suggest that could give us a start on this. and then we could have a more in-depth meeting discussion of it under management in the next meeting. and then between the next meeting and the March meeting. we can develop a letter draft and then we can approve it in the March meeting. That would be my proposal. Yeah, just to give you some examples. Things we've done in the past. with communicated to council about addressing the unhouse population. we also. I think, in our 21 letter, you said restart Area 3 planning

[103:04] and reserve studies. So talking about Area 3. And did we do a letter in 22, or they didn't do it, so they would did away with the Midyear retreat last year. So it's every 2 years when they do a major retreat and ask for this type of an input in between year is more of a hey. We have these 85 things left. Let's down to a reasonable 5 and be dramatic, you know. based on today's discussion, I would suggest that we highlight the financial support programs equity. and have a request for council to consider supplementing those with a returning to the levels. We have pre pandemic, which was 1.6 million. So he said. we're there. That's what

[104:00] 1.6 we're we're still at that that we had gotten 600,000 plus and 21 and 22 that is now gone away. So we have a 10.6. Okay, okay. but expanding them out available so that we can expand these programs conceivably to reach some of these communities that are just outside city limits. I don't know what numbers to throw out there, or if we should throw numbers at them, it's a general support, for that's one I don't like that skits. It's a wait list like that. They get way more families that they can. They can actually. yeah. giving a sense of the scale, a sense of the need scale, the need and and the shortfall that we currently have, and asking more funding. Because I think think this council is really focused on equity. Housing and equity are, those are 2 main. Does Angie have a list of yeah, wait list. Right now.

[105:06] II will wanna confirm with our team and get back to you. But it could be at the February meeting. So last year there was the potential that there would be additional funding because of the passage of the library district. Now it turned up that money went to continue existing programs and never came to fruition as far as being available, that in lobbying for it our team did write some proposals on how we could expand in what it would cost. And so it might be that those can be recirculated. We might be able to share some information that would help. That will be very helpful still support swimming one of the 3 issues as as a special part of this, or completely separate. completely separate. make sure that. and with the populations right now that are working to swim or getting access to that

[106:04] web services about. I love that we're expanding our services. But I also feel like I'm anticipating that we're closing down some of the tools in the near future for renovation, and some are dying. And so I'm just curious like how where the intersection. Is there like? Is this an opportunity to ask council to like, actually fund. or find a revenue stream to actually create a new South border rec center or you know, help out with East, or whatever cause. If we don't have the facilities. I don't know where you know how it's how it's gonna work. If we if we start getting more people to go is that just gonna make people feel real frustrated with the system again and go elsewhere. So I just feel like II don't honestly know how the how the system works well enough to know. Is this an opportunity to say that to counsel like we need a a bond, or we need a bill, or we need money stream to actually get the system

[107:12] to a point where we can then bring more people in. What makes all the sense to me. I think that's a lovely point is that you know that the current 24 budget, the plan, spending funds. most of the renovation East, but the renovations for South and North, and any additional facilities that the community desires are not funded, so we could also look and see what information we can provide to support that if you want to explore it, actually, maybe we'll wait till you land on your topics for February, and then we could figure out, if if for now you want or need information from us. Thanks for updating that. But we won't be able to land on our topics until February. As we get discuss. I think I think in the past we've always just had kind of general asked without giving specific dollar amounts or service numbers inside this case, with, you know, like Number one highlight, this, you know, the financial aid programs and how well, they work, and we'd love to be able to support more. And then I think a number of just here's the facility needs. Here's the work from our community about swimming or about

[108:13] whatever it is. So not getting into like this. I think. Just kind of a like we're we're in dire need of new facilities, doing expanding facilities. And along those lines where it's just the general aspect. We're not getting into the weeds on budget line items. I think. Yeah, I think that South Polaric Center is a huge issue for the town. And I think we obviously it's not the rebuild of that. It's not funded. But I think we should be reminding counsel that like that's a big deal, and we need to have a stream of funding to to actualize that. fixing it. either rebuilding it or making it better. I don't know but it's at least a big issue for me, so

[109:00] send me for be like the the Swim equity piece is different than like, are these going to be future clients that your rec centers? And how is that going to impact your business model like, I feel like it's like a basic life skill that the people need to have, regardless if they're in their own backyard, or if they're in the community pool, or in, like the neighborhood pool, or like, wherever they are, that it's like a basic life skill that they should have. That all kids employers should have. And then there's a certain population that isn't getting access to those skills. So I don't think it should be looked at in terms of like, will this increase our population of people that don't have any particular swimming? I think it's like, are they gonna potentially not like, be at risk of joining when they are near the body, whatever. and be able to like, enjoy the same things as other kids their age can do. And I think these topics will naturally are right. We start with. we need more funding for equity programs.

[110:00] One of the one of the key equity programs that we're missing is teaching. Swimming is all kids right? And then, in order to do this, we have good facilities to teach something. Yet right? So it's sort of floating under it. Priority across departments. I don't know how we frame that, but seems like that is a very worthy goal. which, were the cities that you said they had done as far as universal. II don't know any of our benchmarks and and and where they're at. I have to do some research and get back to. But III have heard of it happening.

[111:00] Bigger cities are better at it from the aspect of like I know Denver, like Scott, someone was sharing earlier has made their rec center. All children now, typically Seattle, right now has a program called Swim Seattle, where they are very, do doing what we're doing on a larger scale. They have more resources and more facilities and more. So there's there's there's models for this. I'd be curious to do research to see how this might align with, like the rights of a child and the Usf. Child friendly studies offer. Is it? Is it a right of a child to to have the life, safety, skill of of swimming. And and what the nexus is there, Brian or Megan? I'm curious. If you guys. we can do some research. What I hear you saying is that what is some net nexus? I mean? I gotta be honest. It's for me I'm I'm from somewhere else, and we had pools in all of our schools. And I learned how to swim in Gym plus. So yeah in school, and we didn't have rec center. So for me, it's like complete, like the idea that we're the only ones meeting that need is a bit foreign to me and

[112:08] And I, you know, I think as a community, we we have a lot of people that could help solve this problem together. Just be a parks department issue like, it's not the burden of the this department should feel safe and be safe. And it's not just like the first department to provide those 6 classes in 3 months, like, you know, a value of our city. And we can part over the district if we can. Partner with all. Yeah. But yeah, yeah.

[113:01] Bernie. do you have any thoughts. Rory, do you have anything you want to add? Sorry I was having a hard time on muting in general or specific to the Rec center admission piece. Anything? And for me, the the most pressing issue based in this community is just the general on affordability of this community. And I think that certainly impacts everything we do with person. Rec, and it was a huge part of the presentation tonight which I appreciate, and II hope that that is a a prominent part of the City Council's discussion at their offsite. I'm sure I will be just general unaffordability. You mean, oh, yeah, yeah. obviously, it's like hugely impacted with the parts and recreation department does. But it impacts every aspect of life in boulder and

[114:00] in. In my personal opinion, the cost of living here makes the city worse because it keeps people out who would add to our community and make it great. Okay? And back over to you for anything else. You you have planned. yeah, we just just. I guess this is a closing activity. Are we anything else for next steps to make sure we're all aligned if that's help. So what I heard is to put a matter from the board on the February agenda, where you would discuss your topics. Chuck's recommended approach was, you have that discussion at February? Perhaps one person in the past. One person hit person has volunteered to author a draft, but then you would approve it, your March meeting and get submitted to council meeting, and then you approve it. That would be part of your packet. Yeah.

[115:00] okay. I think we had the agenda setting for February. But we'll just get that added, and all good. That's easy. I'm so glad that timing came out that you all had this extra shot at talking about it. Yeah. I guess just as a closing activity and kind of verse, if you would like go to the next slide. So I mean, I were talking about this. I did this at a recent event, and I thought it was a really cool way to kind of end an activity in a forward thinking away and just kind of continue this conversation we've had here. And so slide so if everyone could participate Brad members and staff, you guys don't mind so just take a minute to write a potential headline that we might see in the cover of the camera. Related to parks and rec centers, and it could be any topic could be a topic we talked about tonight, or something else.

[116:00] but something your your personal vision, or what you'd love to see, you know, come true in in a year's time. So go ahead and share those at the end. So not just the centers, but any parks, recreation, facility or activity, anything related to parks, correct in dealing hammer style, grading. including typos. But the same slack. And

[118:00] that's a long headline.

[119:36] I changed my mind halfway. That's what this is, sports writer for the camera that so? He covers the right now it could covers the high school sports. Oh, yeah, Brett Brett Brett, you is that right?

[120:00] I don't. Wanna and to to wrap up classic. She said it. You know I'll give you extra credit. The camera she had to cut it. She had to cut it off pre-hedge fund dates, too. Oh, yeah, yeah. Have lots of stuff. I think they have a total of 7 riders. Now they had 70 in the 87. Now right headline. Alright. If anyone wants to start, we can just go around.

[121:05] Mine is also mine is pithy and short. Ii hope and expect this will happen. City council announces funding for new tennis and pickleball courts. Some had recent community study found significant need. Excellent. But so many years. We just go clockwise. Okay, coach, prime headlines, golf fundraiser for play for equity program. 11 million raise 11 billion days. I love that city strikes oil pledges that all royalties will flow to parks and racket. And it's it's possible guys.

[122:01] but you never know. Didn't you know someone just shot a gun? Right? I'm sorry. The fitness core at North Boulder Park has become a popular destination for American Ninja Warriors and Training city Council approves funding for funding to build and modernize. Rec Center says Director Road. that's great. Mine is South Boulder Rec Center breaks ground on the new Sogo Cafe, which will serve cheap, healthy food on a wraparound porch, perfect for watching pickleball or gazing at Bailey Lake.

[123:10] Sure it's older works out its pandemic slump. Good! Mine's a little bound by reality and timelines that ties to several of yours. But in January of next year the headline is access for all and future facilities. Funding strategy approved. Get ready for November. It's a little aspirational boulder. Discovers how to heat pools in a climate friendly way. First ever net 0 wreck facility planned at Ebc. I was along the same lines as as Bernie, Bpr. Launches into 2025, with 44 new courts for pickleball and tennis. No more fighting between the 2 groups.

[124:04] because there's a fence between. I think the camera will be nothing but clickbait. By January 2025. So my headline is. Bpr. Serves entire community with this one easy trick. That's great. Well, we do have 2 more teammates online. I'm not sure if they're participating. Yeah, I think they're listening, and we don't want to put them on the spot. You don't. Well, I mean we could. But I did not require them to have appropriate attire on. They are listening. And so I feel like it would be really unfair, because maybe they're listening and semi working. or, you know, like city council meetings. I'm like

[125:04] Rocky, and I do long walk on Thursday nights, but I don't have to be a counsel, but I have to know what's going on. So one is to take up the mantel from Mary Scott and needs to be on their exercise bike. I remember the first meeting I was the first couple of meetings. I'm like, what? Why is she? It's selected. Our next Board Board meeting is February 26 at 6 Pm. Bernie, you have anything bad. No, thanks, everybody. I apologize. I couldn't be with you in person. I hope you heal well and quickly, Bernie, I'm so sorry that happened to you today.

[126:11] Thanks for sending me and the food. It's pizza.