Rec Department Goals And Priorities Get Thumbs-Up From Bourne Select Board
The Bourne Select Board voted last week to accept the recreation department’s updated goals and programming priorities for Fiscal Year 2023 following the handing off of the town’s youth basketball program to the Bourne Basketball Association.
The board’s approval of recreation director Krissanne Caron’s programming schedule and presentation was supported by the recreation committee, which voted to approve the the program schedule the week prior but was confused at to why it was involved in the matter in the first place.
The matter stemmed from a select board directive to the committee that it work with the recreation department to develop a list of priorities to fill the time made available by giving youth basketball to the basketball association. There was a discussion during the select board’s October 18 meeting, at which it was announced that the basketball association would be taking over the program. Town Administrator Marlene V. McCollem expressed discomfort with this changing of hands and said the decision to no longer offer Swish basketball put her in a precarious position relative to staff time for union employees and departmental money that is factored into the current budget.
At the recreation committee’s meeting on November 8, several members expressed confusion over the board’s mandate. Committee member George M. Sala said it was not the board’s responsibility to come up with ways to fill the newly available time, something with which chairman Roger J. Maiolini concurred.
Ms. Caron addressed the concerns at the meeting, saying Ms. McCollem only wanted to see a showing of support from the committee on the department’s decisions.
Ms. Caron and assistant recreation director Kathryn Matthews went before the select board last Tuesday, November 15, to present the department’s new priorities and programming plans, a presentation that was given to and affirmed by the recreation committee the previous week. The board was presented with the schedules for November and December. Ms. Caron said schedules for January and February’s are still in draft form.
Scheduling programs is a constant on the recreation department’s to-do list, Ms. Caron told the board. Between scheduling, creating new programs, securing and training instructors and seasonal staff, and coordinating workspaces for programs and community events, the recreation department has many balls in the air at one time, she said.
“Our goal is to provide fun, safe, affordable programs for all ages and abilities,” she said. “This is a job that we take very seriously. Families are trusting us with their children, and there is no greater responsibility. While this job is so fun and rewarding, the weight of that responsibility cannot be taken lightly.”
Since July 1, Ms. Caron said, the department has seen 699 registrations through 165 different activity options, created 128 new household accounts and registered 151 first-time participants. She attributed the high numbers to adding new programs and getting the word out.
“This shows that we are continuing to reach new members of our community,” she said. “Of our current 20 programs, six of them are full and three of them have waiting lists.”
Some of the most-popular programs right now, she said, are adult kickball, evening pickleball and the Canvas Kids art program that takes place on Monday evenings. Ongoing programs include instructional basketball, school vacation week programs, basketball shootaround, a morning walking group, futsal and various STEM programs, including a robotic coding/building class called Agent 992.
Ms. Caron said the recreation department is also working diligently to plan upcoming special events, which include the Winter Wonderland Holiday event on December 7 and the Paws With Claus event on December 14. Upcoming winter activities include indoor volleyball, paint nights, family game nights and indoor cornhole.
“The recreation committee voted at its September 27 meeting to support my professional recommendation for a shift in programming priorities for the department,” Ms. Caron told the board after her presentation. “We feel that our current program schedule embraces our new focus of increasing adult, STEM and family programs, and we are excited to continue providing new opportunities for our community.”
Ms. Caron told the board that the schedule presented includes reserved time for the basketball association’s new program. The recreation department will run programs Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and Thursday afternoons, while the association will take Monday evenings, Thursday evenings and Saturdays. The association will have its own site coordinators who will be responsible for its activities, she said, and both organizations are on the same page regarding the division of time and facilities.
“You will also see the department and the committee moving forward with joint initiatives regarding new projects,” she said. “We welcome input from the community for new program ideas. We’re constantly adding to our schedule, so what you see now is not what you’re going to get in a month or two. Please feel free; we want people to stop by, email or call when they have program ideas. That’s really how we add a lot of the things to our list.”
Following Ms. Caron’s presentation, Mr. Maiolini, who was in attendance, offered some positive comments.
“I was fortunate to be on the committee when we interviewed Krissanne and we hired her,” he said. “Looking at this and looking at the meeting we had the other day, the town should be proud of what’s happened to the recreation department in this town. It’s night and day compared to where we were [years ago]; we had no programs. And now you’ve got this, so kudos to Katie and Krissanne.”
Mr. Maiolini added that the committee is also in great shape, and he feels “really good” about where both entities are at.
“It’s nice to hear that,” board chairman Peter J. Meier said, “because the department and the committee have evolved over the years. With time things grow, things change, and it’s nice to see the finished product as it is today.”
The board unanimously approved the recreation department’s goals and priorities and further directed the town administrator to work with Ms. Caron and the public employees union on daily workflow tasks and scheduling.
Michael Rausch contributed to this report.