The community centers in West Seattle, Southwest, Alki, Delridge, High Point and Hiawatha will all be affected by the recommended changes announced to day by City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.

A variety of service levels are included in the recommendations.

Under the plan the Hiawatha and Delridge Community Centers would offer Service Level 2a, open for 45 hours per week with one Coordinator, a 3/4 time Recreation Leader, 3/4 time Recreation Attendant, and one laborer. The Alki Community Center would offer Service Level 2b offering 25 hours of service per week with a half-time Coordinator, half-time Recreation Leader, half-time Recreation Attendant, and a half-time Laborer. The High Point Community Center would would change to Service Level 1 meaning 70 hours of operation per week with one full time Coordinator, No Assistant Coordinator (as there is today), a full time Recreation Leader , a full time Recreation Attendant and half time Recreation Attendant, and a full time Laborer. The Southwest Community Center will change to be exclusively a Teen Center (this won't affect the operation of the pool).

Dewey Potter, Seattle Parks Communications Manager shared this regarding the Teen Centers: "Here are the principles used to design the draft schedule for our teen centers for next year.

· Providing efficient, while effective programs and services to meet the demand of our youth programs
· Adjusting operating hours to increase and ensure our facilities have Saturday access outside of Late Night
· Formalize Home School/Academic opportunities for youth during our early morning hours (during school year only)
· Creating access on Sundays for rentals (youth groups/youth serving agencies, etc. but not limited to these groups)

We are not looking at increasing on our staffing levels at this given moment or requesting any additional staff, as our focus is to look at how we can best manage with the resources we have for teen programs. The next step for us is to gather input from our community of youth and families on “Teen Life Center Operations” and how we can best serve our targeted populations."

The recommendations, based on a data-driven analysis and process examined several models for staffing and operating community centers. Their plan would mean a savings of $1.23 million in staff and operating reductions and will be included in the mayor’s proposed 2012 City budget.

“We're changing how we do business in our community centers to be more flexible and responsive to community needs, to preserve direct services, and reduce operating costs,” said Mayor Mike McGinn. “I thank Councilmember Sally Bagshaw for her dedication on this issue and her thoughtful approach to delivering services to the public. I also thank the Associated Recreation Council for their input and support for this proposal.”

Seattle Parks examined alternative models for staffing and operating community centers based on budget reductions and the direction from the mayor and Council. Parks worked with citizens, including teens and seniors, City Council staff, Mayor’s Office staff, City Budget Office staff, labor unions, and members of the Park Board to analyze data, hold public meetings, conduct a public survey, and design the alternatives from which the recommended model was chosen.

“My expectation for the Community Center exercise was two-fold. First, I wanted to find a way to keep all of our twenty-five centers open. Second, I wanted our decisions to be community and data-driven,” said Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, Chair of the Parks and Seattle Center Committee. “This recommendation does just that without exception, achieving both of these objectives.”

The level of service for each center is determined by a set of criteria that include: the condition of the building and the costs of maintaining it, past use of the building for drop-in use, paid use, and rentals, and the number of patrons served by scholarships. Each of the Community Centers received points based on the criteria and with consideration of potential economic justice impacts determined the service level of each center.

The preferred operating model would consist of five geographically-based service areas, each with five community centers staffed by a team. Within each area, the centers would provide varying levels of service and each team would be led by a Senior Recreation Coordinator. This model preserves services to the greatest extent possible by keeping the centers open with varying levels of service. Details on each area and community center can be found at http://seattle.gov/parks/.

The proposal is expected to save $1.23 million on an annual basis, of which $784,000 is achieved through staffing and operating reductions. This number also includes $446,000 from Parks’ nonprofit partner the Associated Recreation Council (ARC) that would partially cover community center expenses. ARC will continue to provide child care and registered programming outside of the hours when a center is open for general public use.

Staff reductions would total 13.63 full-time positions and would reduce the hours of 75 people.