Schools for rent

You don't have to be a student in Hernando County to benefit from school classrooms, libraries and theaters, but it will likely cost you.

Whether it's to hold a small meeting, church service or performance, few might know that $20 could get them a classroom meeting space. For a bit more, you could upgrade to a library for $30 or to a whole gymnasium for $200, not including $25 per hour for lights.

Desiree Henegar, chief financial officer for the district, said for more than a decade school district officials have offered to rent facilities to the public. To rent any of the facilities, simply contact the school.

While the buildings are taxpayer supported, she said the district charges most groups to rent the facilities along with charges for custodial cleanup and facilities.

Most groups are government and nonprofit entities that aren't charged deposits or have fees waived. In some cases, the district also waives the entire deposit and fee, such as for the Boy and Girl Scouts of America and school groups.

Separate fees are sometimes charged, such as for restriping a football field ($350), custodial fees, such as overtime, or if deputies are needed to provide security for the function.

"We do that because these groups are already supported by taxpayer money, so it would almost be like charging taxpayers twice for facilities," Henegar said. "But for other groups, the district's view is that if another organization wants to use the facility, they should pay a reasonable fee so that it isn't coming out of taxpayers' dollars."

Despite fee waivers, some groups spend thousands each year to the district to rent facility space. Crosspoint Church officials, for instance, spent close to $10,000 in 2009 renting from Challenger K-8, while dance companies paid a few thousand over a period of a few months putting on recitals at Hernando High School.

However, Henegar said the school district sees very little profit - if any.
While the district charges either a flat $500 or $125 per hour fee for theater space, not including $300 nonperformance use, Henegar said the fees many times don't cover utility and other costs. The same goes if groups rent field or other outdoor facilities.

That means despite the $110,722 collected during the 2008-09 school year, most of that is expended to cover additional costs each school building accrued, Henegar said.
"The fees are to cover the cost - not to make money," Henegar said. "That's never been the intent."

It's unknown how much each year is either garnered or lost due to renting because the money is put into the district's general fund. Denise Coit, district supervisor of accounting, said in an e-mail to Hernando Today that there is no record of a fund rollover from last year. The school district doesn't track actual expenses incurred when renting its facilities.

Meanwhile, Henegar said the district has received no complaints she knows of regarding the district renting facilities and doesn't expect there to be any changes in the near future concerning district policy. Coit added that the board recently approved to continue the policy with little fanfare.

"I think they're happy with how we have it," Coit said. "It's caused little problems."

For a detailed listing of which entities rent facilities from the school district and how much they pay, see Hernando Today's Web site at www.hernandotoday.com.