Town of Brookline FY23 Program Budget
Leisure Services l Recreation
Program Description
The Recreation Department provides high quality, affordable activities and services year round. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life through enriching experiences, which support the Brookline Community in developing and maintaining healthy lifestyles.
The Park and Recreation Commission consists of seven residents appointed by the Select Board and services as a policy-making body to the Recreation Department. The Commission is responsible for providing year-round, high quality indoor and outdoor recreation activities for children, youths, and adults. The goals of the Commission are the deliver active programs that provide cultural, social, mental, and physical elements to get to health and fitness of the whole person. Furthermore, the Commission goals is to ensure the programs take place in a well-maintained park or facility. The Commission is also concerned with meeting community-based needs with programs that are cost-effective and within the reach of the overall community resource base, while providing the highest level of participant satisfaction through supervised programs, have safety as top priority, and well presented. Individuals with special conditions are entitled to full participation in any Recreation Department program.
The Recreation Department maintains three budgets: General Fund, The Golf Course Enterprise Fund, and the Recreation Revolving Fund. Please see the detail of these two separate funds that follow this General Fund Budget Recommendation.
The General Fund has two categories: Administration and Aquatics.
The Administration Sub-Program is responsible for the overall workings of the Department in accordance with the policies established by the Park and Recreation Commission. Staff organize, maintain, and control all recreation services, either as direct department functions or in cooperation with other municipal agencies or volunteer groups. These individuals recruit, select, assign, supervise and evaluate personnel, conduct training sessions, and recommend new programs. The management team monitors the expenditure of funds, prepares annual estimates of financial need and master plans, and supervises the record of receipts and expenditures.
The Aquatics Sub-Program funds the Evelyn Kirrane Aquatic Center complex that consists of three pools: a 42’ X 75’ lap pool, a 30’ X 36’ diving pool, and a 25’ X 36’ teaching pool. The Aquatic Center is available to the Public Schools of Brookline during the school year for high school athletics and health and wellness classes. Hundreds of Summer Campers enjoy The Center during summer months. Community members of all ages enjoy the facility on weekends, evenings, and early mornings. In FY19, the Aquatic Center reported 81,0000 user days.
FY23 Objectives
- Continue to CAPRA Accreditation project (In year 3 of 5 year project)
- Initiative to get back the General Fund to pre-Covid-19 pandemic funding level
- Implement Recreation’s Community Engagement Goals
- Implement Recreation’s Equity Goals
- Add new Engagement Coordinator Position
FY22 Accomplishments
- Completed fifty percent of the required general policy updates to qualify for CAPRA Accreditation
- Recreation began implementing our Recreation Community Engagement Plan
- Recreation began implementing our Recreation Equity Plan
- All Staff Training incorporated staff training and input into the Recreation Equity Plan
Cost Recovery
Financial Assistance
Cost Recovery measures the extent to which the cost of the Department is supported by user fees versus tax dollars. Many recreation departments across the country utilize a cost recovery model for long range strategic financial planning. The model is “best practice.” The Brookline Recreation Department has utilized the policy and model since 2010. The Cost Recovery Policy identifies the percentages of programs and services that are to be subsidized by tax dollars by assigning a level of community benefit; each program area is given a goal percentage that needs to be “recovered” based on the community benefit, then a subsidy is applied accordingly.
For example, a program or service that provides the highest level of “community benefit” will have a smaller cost recovery than a program or service that is “highly individual.” This approach to cost recovery follows the “Pyramid Methodology” that was developed in 2009. The Park and Recreation Commission adopted the methodology that year with a three-year implementation goal. The Commission’s fundamental purpose in implementing a cost recovery methodology is to provide accurate accounting and transparency to the community, and to achieve a clear consistent approach to the pricing of programs and services that the Recreation Department offer to the community.
The Recreation Department will not turn away any resident from participating in a program for financial reasons. The Department provides financial aid for program fees to all qualified Brookline Residents. Park and Recreation Commission’s practice is to support families in need and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in all that Brookline Recreation Department has to offer.