City Council Meeting Date: June 17, 2025
To: Mayor and City Council
From: David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Consider Agreement Between City of Northfield and Independent School District No. 659 Relating to City of Northfield/Community Services Recreation Program.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council Consider a Motion approving the attached Agreement Between City of Northfield and Independent School District No. 659 Relating to City of Northfield/Community Services Recreation Program.
Summary Report:
The Northfield City Council is being asked to consider approval of a three-year agreement with the Northfield School District for the Community Services Recreation Program. The current agreement expires on June 30, 2025.
Erin Bailey, Director of Community Education for Northfield Public Schools has submitted related information regarding the Community Recreation Program on the attachment. The School District is requesting a three-year agreement to provide continuity and enable them to adequately plan for community recreation programs. This is consistent with the last agreement.
• The City shall make payments to the School District one-half on December 31 and one-half on June 30, each payment to apply to the preceding six-month period.
• The City’s payment for the cost of the Program for the fiscal years 2026-2028 is based on the personnel costs (salary and benefits) related to the Program, including 100% of the time of the School District’s Recreation Coordinator, 82% of the time of a registration/facility scheduling secretary, 25% of the time of an administrative assistant, and 5% of the time of the Community Services Department Director.
The School District provides in-kind contributions to the program to cover the following:
• Costs related to web-based registration software and user fees, use fees and merchant fees generated by the 63.2% of registrations, which are related to recreation, and 63.2% of annual fees.
• Copying costs of the Department, which are related to recreation.
• Costs related to the recreation portion of the seasonal brochures mailed to all School District residents three times a year
• Free advertising space up to 0.50 pages in each Community Education Brochure for City of Northfield parks and recreation facilities or events (Ice Arena, Outdoor Pool, Doggy Dip, etc.)
• Professional Development
o Memberships to the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (MRPA) and Southern Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (SMRPA)
o Conferences, workshops and equity training.
• School District facilities used for recreation programs
Alternative Options:
Remove from agenda for separate discussion.
Financial Impacts:
The proposed agreement provides for compensation for the fiscal year as follows:
July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 = $151,121.00
July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 = $157,169.00
July 1, 2027 through June 30, 2028 = $163,456.00
Past Agreements:
July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 = $145,309.00
July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 = $149,309.00
July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 = $154,158.00
School District In-Kind Contribution = $59,014.00
July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020 = $132,979.00
July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021 = $136,968.00
July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 = $141,077.00
School District In-Kind Contribution = $49,657.00
The Northfield Hospital and Clinics had historically paid a significant portion of the cost for the recreation agreement as a “pass through” through the City. However, due to recent financial challenges they chose not to contribute for the last few years. They did express an interest to continue the contribution in the future dependent on financial outlook. City Administrator Martig will be exploring commitments for funding into the future from the hospital as has been the case in the past. However, should that not transpire we’d be obligated to cover the full expense of this contract in 2025-2026. There is the ability to terminate with 6-month advance notice per the contract clause.
Tentative Timelines:
See contract terms through 2028.