Districts 25, 214 to share Arlington Heights Park District facilities

The Arlington Heights Park District recently reached agreements with Northwest Suburban High School 214 and Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 to share or lease its facilities over the next several years.

The District 25 deal allows the park and school districts to share one another’s properties for free through April 30, 2018. The District 214 agreement has the school district paying the park district a weekly fee, adding up to $286,650 over the next three years, for use of the Olympic Indoor Aquatic Center.

The Arlington Heights Park District board approved the agreements earlier this month, and both school boards gave their approval last week.

District 214 agreed to pay the park district $2,450 a week for 39 weeks of use at Olympic over each of the next three years. The district uses the pool for its boys and girls swimming and water polo teams.

The weekly fee is a $250 increase over the previous deal, though fees had stayed the same since 2007, said Brian Meyer, director of facilities and recreation for the park district.

Only three of District 214’s six high schools have swimming pools and one of those — Buffalo Grove High School’s — will be closed next year for major renovations.

Under the agreement with District 25, the park district and school board agree to share field and park space for the next five years.

Meyer said the park district will be using District 25 fields for soccer, a major park district program with more than 1,300 participants. In turn, the schools can use park district fields and facilities for physical education classes, track and field or other after-school activities, he said.

“It has been a long-standing agreement that the park district and school district share facilities, we certainly share the children, so it’s mutually beneficial to everyone,” said District 25 Superintendent Sarah Jerome.

Jerome said the park district and school district each shoulder some of the costs for upkeep to the fields and facilities.

“There are certainly some costs involved, but these are important uses for our families and our children so we think it’s a good investment,” Jerome said.

Park and school district officials meet to work out scheduling each year, which Meyer said is not a problem because of varying programming times. For example, the park district can use school property from 8 a.m. until sundown during summer months, as well as from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on school days.