Numbers
Let’s
Talk Numbers and then create some Linkage to probable successes with
these numbers.
Questions:
How
big is the annual School District budget?
Follow-up
Question:
How
much impact can an expanded aquatics/athletic/fitness program
actually have upon the School District’s bottom-line budget?
Answer:
All
in all, the amount of money spent at the swim pool and payed to
employees to staff the programs is a drop in the bucket with the
overall school budget. If the board gave its permission to Mark
Rauterkus to go ahead and build upon the existing programs and create
the greatest community swim program the world has ever seen, the
total costs involved would amount to nearly nothing when compared to
the existing overall budget.
None-the-less,
if the people on the board feel it is their duty as elected officials
to examine and scrutinize every drop of water that enters the larger
school budget (er-bucket), then let’s examine the budget impact.
So, get out your microscopes and here is a lesson in water chemistry
and pool costs.
Question:
How
much does the pool cost per year?
Answer:
Now
that you have asked, buildings and grounds should provide us with the
costs to operate the swim pool per year. As an outsider, the swim
coach does not know, yet I’ve recently asked to answer your
questions to me.
But,
it is my guess that the grand total for the average yearly pool costs
for buildings and grounds is about $20,000. That includes: heat,
lights, water, electricity for the pump, chemicals, wear-and-tear
fix-ups, cleaning supplies, etc.
Given
a worst case examle of taking present-level-modest-usage of 20
swimmers per session and turning that into an extreamly populated
facility with usage at 200 instead of 20, throughout the course of an
entire year, the extra costs would amount to somewhere between $400
to $500 per year, maximum.
Expert
Answer:
I’ve
arrived at the maximum yearly costs of $400 to $500 per year after
talking with area consultant given:180,000 gals of water in the Plum
pool, given an extra backwash in the summers on a weekly instead of
monthly basis, given a loss of 375 gallons of water while
backwashing, given the price of water at $52 per 10,000 gallons,
given the price of chlorine at $125 per 100 pounds and the price of
acid at $4.95 a gallons, given that the pool probably consumes 100
pounds of chlorine a month and 20 gallons of acid a year.
The
same number of lights are on in the pool area if there are 20 people
in the pool or 200. The pump is circulating the water as the heat is
on day and night anyway. So some things don’t change at all.
•••
After
Coach Mark Rauterkus explored the projected costs with a consultant,
we can say that a significant increase in the existing aquatics
programs would have a negligible increase on facility costs to the
district.
•••
We
expect the chlorine and acid numbers to rise by 10 percent with my
plan in full operation. Lumped together, there is a good chance the
chemicals with increased usage could only amount to an extra $5 per
week. All-in-all, the extra cost for greatly expanded programs
amounts to a grand total of no more than $400–500 per year.
Getting
this technical is what Coach Mark refers to as an inspection of the molecules in the drop of water in the big bucket of the school
district budget. But at least I’ve done my homework.
Furthermore,
the water and the pool do not wear out like a football field. The
pool is a steel, concrete and ceramic tile hole in the ground that is
depreciating slowly throughout the next century. Swimmers can make
waves in a that swim pool for hours on end, and there is no chance
that the swimming tank will wear out. Playing fields needs to
drainage, seed, sod, cutting, grooming, expensive lighting, etc.,
etc.
Summary
Answer:
The
real costs that amount to anything are not related to the building’s
operation, but instead are staff programing (managers, life-guards,
instructors) and custodial worker’s compensation.
Question:
What
about the custodial worker’s compensation?
Answer:
I
come to understand from the November ‘92 committee meeting that the
custodians can make up to or beyond $29 per hour. I guess they are
union and a contract in place. As for specifics about costs and
compensation with regards to clean-up and custodial time, the board
would have a much better knowledge than the swim coach as it
negotiated the union contract.
I
don’t know what existing schedules and costs are associated with
buildings and grounds. In the winter the pool area is cleaned every
day, and those are fixed costs that should not escalate if 200 people
use the pool in an evening instead of 20. Now that the pool is idle
in the summers, perhaps the non-profit organization should cause the
schedules to change so that the pool is cleaned daily instead of once
a week in June and July.
It
has been my experience and opinion as a manager of other similar
facilities that :45 minutes of time per night would be sufficient to
regularly clean that facility even after the most populated, high-use
periods. Three-quarters of an hour would allow 15 minutes for each of
the locker-rooms and another 15 minutes for the either the deck or
the entry hallway on an every-other-day basis.
I
also know that the federal government was paying most municipalities to hire a young-person for a summer-job experience. Perhaps some
soft-money or some type of grant could be obtained to pay for
summer-time-cleaning. Or, the lifeguards and managers can operate a
mop and hose.
If
the pool is put to extensive use in the summer months and if there is
a daily clean-up of 1 hour at $7.00 per hour, then the costs for the
10 week summer period would be $490.
In
the final conclusion, paying union wages to clean-up the pool, or as
someone suggested at the meeting, having a custodian at the pool
every moment that the pool is open, would be the kiss of death for
expanding the aquatic’s programs. This is something that the board
has to deal with, and I can’t address the existing facts that
getting the floors mopped is too much to overcome when educating the
public safty in water skills. I only hope that Plum isn’t like some
other districts that I’ve heard about that have set itself up to
contend
with
a four-hour minimum of pay going out to have a janitor come in for
:20 minutes of work to empty a hair-catchers on drains. Recreational
activities can’t absorb those types of premium expenses.
Question:
What
about costs for staffing (managers, lifeguards, instructors) for
programs.
Answers:
With
my expanded aquatics plans, the innovative, dynamic programing will
require expert instruction and a solid educational mission. Staff
costs would be significant, but they would be paid for from user
fees. Staff programing costs are a variable cost. For example, as
more classes are taught and as enrolment increases, more teachers can
be hired and perhaps at higher rates as the paying customers will pay
user fees. If no classes are held, no teacher is paid.
Today’s
aquatic program offered by the district is not based upon the
philosophy of user fees. Plum’s aquatics programing takes all comers for lessons and has nominal evening swim programs. Now that
I’ve witness these programs first hand this fall, I have my
opinions.
It
is my guess that Plum’s present aquatic programing staff costs
average about $12,000 per year. There are two programs: evening swim
which takes into account a pool manager at $8.50 per hour and a
lifeguard at $7.00 for 2 hours each night and 4 nights per week for
32 weeks for $4,000; and then the free-Saturday-afternoon lessons is
for 4 sessions at 7 weeks each with a $10.00 per hour salary for 3
hours each week with 8 instructors is close to $7,000.
Now,
if the lessons were to be a huge success and the evening program grew
to accommodate scouts and such, then the staffing could double in one
season and easily triple with successful experiences and some
marketing efforts. It hasn’t happened yet, but with the involvement
of Mark Rauterkus and responsible staffing levels given the existing
hours with modest latitudes, the staffing expenses could exceed
$25,000 per year. This growth of existing programs would be an solid
increased to budget expenses as there is only nominal user fees
collected in the evening swims.
Dilemma Answered:
As
the recent-interim-pool manager I have not gone overboard with the
budget and created new programs yet and hired lots of new people. Mr.
Neff gave me the job and was supportive to me in September and said
that I would be able to staff the pool to suitable levels. However, I
was told I could not get a second lifeguard in the evenings and there
have never been any clear-cut guidelines for increasing or decreasing
the staff. I proceeded to do the best I could with what I was given,
witnessing the program run at status quo, and implementing minor
changes as time progressed.
Vision
and Solution:
The
swim pool staff (managers, lifeguards, instructors) should have a
specific budget line-item.
Given
the existing programing, the budget spending cap should be raised to
$25,000 for the next year and up to $35,000 for future years. A
projected spending amount and a spending ceiling should reflect a
wide latitude in the time of growth. In a few years, as programs are
operational at full or near-full capacity, then the budgeted numbers
can be much closer to targeted amounts.
The
manager should be responsible for staff schedules and ensuring proper
management of the human resources.
In
future years, the manager with the approval of the HR director, should establish a more competitive and more subjective pay
scale for workers based upon certification, experience, merit and job
performance. We should not have to pay more than $10 per hour to
first-time, junior instructors. The swim staff will not be excited to
hear I’ve made this recommendation, but I feel it is the right thing
to do.
In
my plans to the board regarding Plum’s expansion of its aquatics
programs, I’ve always tried to make it clear that maintenance and
supplies would be paid for out of the operating expenses of the
non-profit organization. All costs would also be paid for
by the non-profit organization too. Either way, the salaries were accounted for in the plans and those clean-up charges were not to be
taken from the district’s 10% of the revenue or in the recent
proposal its $100 flat rental payment each month.
In
summary, it was the goal of these aquatics proposals to have the
aquatics programs pull their own weight in a fiscally responsible
manner and have user fees pay for any extra costs. The new
non-profit organization would pay its share.
Question:
Some
people thought that numbers Mark projected in the expanded aquatics
plans were too high, too unrealistic, too much for others to
understand. Can you prove those projections?
Answer:
“I’ve
played in Peoria.” Literally, I moved to Peoria, Illinois, a market
one-third the size of Pittsburgh, in the heart of the not so nice
(Central High School) city, suffering the worse depression with
Caterpillar Tractor falling through the floor with huge, year-long
strikes choking the city, and my program went gang-busters. Every
program in the region was cutting off whole limbs, and mine was
turning a $15,000 surplus even after mid-year budget adjustments. I
moved to town and there were 35 swimmers on the team. In three months
we had 6 coaches and a rental agreements at a second H.S. pool and a
waiting list because I could not take more than 200 swimmers. We
eventually settled down to 150 on average in the program at any given
month, 12 months per year. Plus, the YMCA program took one of my
former assistant coaches and north suburban team sprang up from
nowhere too, all because I promoted the sport and we were just too
good.
I
got a large raise to move to New Trier School District. While I was
there, New Trier was rated the best public high school in America by
Town
and Country.
I mainly coached the community kids. I had nine-lanes-full of
10-and-unders, and we had a total of 350 kids in the winter swim
program from ages 7 to high school with one pool. I grew the team to
reach those numbers dramatically, and that’s one of the reasons
they hired me—to build the base of their team in an area with a
shrinking demographics for kids as the real estate prices were too
high and prohibitive for families to purchase homes.
In
Waco, Texas, I worked for the City and its hard to get children of
cowboys to do a sissy thing like swimming lessons, but we boomed with
an awesome program at the city’s huge outdoor pool.
Building
numbers in a swim program is easy. Even locally I’m having an
impact with the PAYS team. In the winter of 1991, my first season
there were 48 swimmers. Now there are 78. That is an 80% increase.
And I’m only engaged at a very-part-time level. But I have to
admit, there isn’t a day when I don’t speak to Coach Jerry O’Neil
on the phone. Oh, and this past summer, we went to Boyce
Park
for 3 days per week for dry-lands and swimming for 150 minutes each
session. The summer before my arrival there were 32 swimmers in the
program and last summer there were 68. And funny thing, if I try
modestly hard again this summer we will double again. We can garner
140 swimmer in the summer of 1993 using the wave pool and the YMCA.
The
scarry thing, is if we used the Plum High School pool, taught lessons
and still had swim team activities, with some advance planning and my
supervision, we could have 200+ swimmers. And, I’m talking 80% Plum
and without kick down the local teams too. I’m a builder.
How
can Mark Rauterkus attract those numbers?
Answer:
Notice,
we worked out with the kids for 150 minutes this summer. It was cold
and rainy all summer long and the rates were nearly $100 per kid as
the County rental molded the program badly. We were not giving
anything away in terms of cost, convince, tons of assistance, etc. I
worked alone, and Jerry O’Neil had only one college kid helper.
But
the secret is to offer a challenge to the individual. Show them how
to improve by teaching. And then the rewards become quite intrinsic.
I can motivate and I have the technical skills to support my methods
which yields better and better results which in turn puts the program
on a high level of excellence and the snowballing effects are
nurtured. Work and learning is fun and I guarantee all three.
Vision
and Solution:
You
can’t sit on your hands and babble away the time. At Plum, I will
build a first-rate, world-class, dynamic teaching program. We will
not replicate anything already being done. We will not replicate
anything already tried before and failed. We will not have one lane
line in recreation swim as we need three or more. One was a failure.
Three or more will be a success. I know.
A
huge advantage to Plum is the teaching center. The pool is connected
to the school, we have a great track, we have tennis court, a gym,
class rooms. With the roof, there will be climate control, never a
rain-out policy. We will hold long courses in odd times and be a Mecca of fitness learning.
You
can’t throw out a beach-ball and expect people to come back. With
great teachers, you can have higher course fees as it is more similar
to college tuition than lessons.
We
will reach for the stars and grab the tiger by the tail. I’ll make
quick decisions, change course, accommodate teaching, keep the lessons
fresh, experiment in classes and with classes. I’m going to be persistent, but in the back of everyone’s mind, we will guarantee
that the program pulls its own weight with finances.
Question:
Who
is going to benefit?
Answer:
The
people at Plum are going to be in these programs to 80% levels. We
will get some from the next door neighborhoods. But soon they will be
trying to copy us and that will keep away some of the casual
drifters. When something great comes to your own neighborhood, people
will respond and come out for the programs.
Furthermore,
Pittsburgh is a habit-forming word of mouth town. I am surprised so
far that so much can be accomplished with the lessons and evening
swims with so little marketing. Certificates, stickers, flyers,
posters, phone calls, surveys and the like can accomplish so much. I
know marketing too.
I
will study participation levels from our citizens. We will document
user levels and report to the board. I’ll target Plum residence.
There is no validity to the lie that I’ll be turning the Plum pool
into anything other than a great place for Plum kids and adults to
enjoy and learn.
Question:
What
about that other 20% that Mark predicts will come from out of the
district?
Answer:
Visitors
will travel to our programs because they are so special. However they
will pay a slightly higher fee. And, we will be seeking their
attendance at certain times, especially special events.
For
example, if Matt Biondi came to speak to the swimmers, and if we
invited a few hundred other swimmers and coaches, we could have a
great turn-out, which would be necessary to pay for his appearance
fee and travel costs. We will use the visitors to beef-up our numbers
which in turn will allow our level of excellence to keep on climbing.
Question:
What
about the numbers of economics?
Answer:
In
this time of high unemployment in our state, and with the large
medical and service sector in our region, and with the growth in
high-tech areas, this expanded swimming plan fits right in like a
glove on a hand.
We
will hire 20 or more instructors. We will put a good boost to the
local economy.
Question:
What
long-term money aspects can be reviewed as a benefit to this expanded
aquatics program.
Answer:
We
will make better citizens of our youth by providing specific job
skills training and experiences, plus the scholarship factor is
intense money due to the program.
Question:
How
is Job-Skills-Training a part of an Aquatics program?
Answer:
In
this area in any given summer, there are more than 500 different
summer job openings related to lifeguarding. We will train our
students to become great lifeguars and instructors. Our kids will get
the best jobs around and we will have high standards.
Beyond
this area, we can place lots of kids in summer camps, at lakes, with
scouts, etc. There could never be a saturation of lifeguards as kids
will always be able to go away to guard, either at camps, or at the
ocean as Mr. Painter did as a young man, or at colleges.
With
steady summer work, teaching lessons and with the proper energy, we
can show students how they can pay for their room and board through
college. Yet alone, we are giving hands on teaching experiences.
Perhaps some may go into education, or at least be good teachers
should they grow up to be engineers and one day want to coach a
diving team or something.
We
had a hard time finding an assistant coaches for swimming.
Furthermore, all the other area schools are in the same situation. We
can train coaches who can then go on to coach throughout the WPIAL.
Question:
The
college education is important part of the HS experience. Is there
more to explain, especially with scholarships?
Answer:
Mark
Rauterkus predicts that the Plum kids will earn, on average, college
swimming scholarships to the amount of $160,000 per year. This is
money that stays right in Plum because the kids don’t have to pay
their tuition elsewhere.
Getting
the district to pay a few extra thousands of dollars for the swimming
program is nothing when your son or daughter can get a scholarship to
go to college for nothing. Sure this is a localized list of people
who will benefit, but when the matter is fully explored, I can prove
that all the kids in the district will benefit.
If
four swimmers and/or divers graduate each year, two guys and two
gals, typically the captains or best swimmers on the team, these kids
will be at All-American ability levels and will be able to, with the
proper coaching and support and decision making, cash in with
swimming scholarships. There are all types of scholarships at all
types of schools.
For
instance, Jim Rumbaugh could have gotten a full-ride to swim at many
schools. He went to a major university with a big-big-time NCAA
program, and his scholarship is his own private business, but they
were out there for him. Plus, with additional years of coaching, we
will have many more opportunities to develop our own swimming stars
year in and year out. This year’s graduates of Jay, Tom, Karen, and
Susan are in the scholarship range. The class of 94 looks strong too
with Karin, Erica, Emil, and Mindy.
Not
only do you need to have talent to get offered a swim scholarship,
but you need to have connections and the right guidance. I can assist
by telling our upper and lower class students what to look for, where
to apply and what to ask. Kids who are engaged in our program for
four years will know that getting scholarships for college will be an
every day occurrence, much like getting a drivers license is to them
now.
To
figure the $160,000 average contribution to the district community
for swimming scholarships, give 4 athletes $10,000 each and multiply that by 4 years at school. Each year there will be some starting and
others leaving, and individual amounts going up and down, but the
dollar value is significant and directly attributed to an excellent
aquatics program through their high school years.
Beyond
the hard money of scholarships, this program will shoot out lots of
letters of recommendations, write strong cover letters for employment
or admission to graduate programs and the such. In the
last
five years, Mark Rauterkus has coached two swimmers who attended West
Point. They both swim and they both are getting great educations and
careers, in large part because of the excellent swim programs they
were involved with as adolescents. Coach Mark takes these matters
seriously, and these extra benefits to the students will make
positive changes to all the kids in the program.
Finally,
other students in the school will also get some benefits to having a
great aquatics program, as the Aquatics program at Plum will set a
standard and enhance the school’s national reputation. From meeting
with the County Commissioners to the features in Sunday newspapers to
eventual Sports Illustrated and Newsweek mentions too. The Pull Your
Own Weight program from Jefferson Middle School in the Quad Cities in
Iowa got attention from Clinton/Gore and Bush/Schwartznegger, and we
can duplicate the same efforts in Plum and with our Governor’s
Council on Health and Fitness. If Plum does not become a household
word like Stanford, then at least those in our end of town will know
good things about Plum and the local pride can grow significantly.
In
the beginning, many of the teachers will not be as expert...
Money
to the Community
Lets
talk economy:
Jobs,
Scholarships, Tourism, Materials.
College
Scholarships:
Track
Record
Typical
Swim/Diving Scholarship
Summary
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