As a result of the school district’s new rental-agreement policy, the town’s Girl Scouts will have to pay $30 per scout annually to hold troop meetings in Lynnfield High School’s classrooms. Members of the Girl Scouts contested this policy during a School Committee meeting.
Diane Courtney, the service unit coordinator for Lynnfield Girl Scouts, requested an exemption from school-facilities fees for troop meetings.
“First-grade Daisy Troop 77647 has 21 members,” Courtney said. “So, the troop would owe Lynnfield Public Schools $630 before their first troop meeting of the year. That’s equal to the profits earned from them selling 700 boxes of cookies.”
Courtney said that the explanation she received for the new policy was that Girl Scouts would be treated like other youth groups, like youth volleyball or basketball, and that the requirement is similar to Lynnfield High School’s new policy of charging the public $150 per hour for the use of gyms and basketball courts. Courtney said that she disagrees with the Girl Scouts’ use of school space being considered similar to youth league sports.
She added that Girl Scouts meet in small available classroom spaces once or twice a month for one to two hours, and only while school buildings are open for business.
“We leave the place better than we found it, so we don’t require any additional custodial services,” Courtney said at the meeting last month. “But in contrast, the use of school-space league sports requires much larger spaces that are in high demand and have more participants involved in the use of space for many more hours a week, including evenings and weekends. The need to accommodate spectators adds to the maintenance costs of fields and courts, requires additional custodial services, and impacts town traffic and parking lots.”
Courtney presented a list of towns to the committee that allow Girl Scout meetings in their schools at no charge, including Boxwood, Burlington, Duxbury, Lexington, Lincoln, and North Andover. She said that even if only one town were to grant such an exemption, that town should be Lynnfield, as the Girl Scouts closely align with the values of the town’s community.
The request is currently under review by the School Committee.
