A Little League team practices at Sky View Middle School in 2016. 

As Deschutes County grows, Bend-La Pine Schools and Redmond School District are renting more school space to community organizations for everything from athletics to dance recitals to church services.

These organizations that rent space may not have their own facilities, or just might not have enough room.

“There’s more youth sports programs, more dance companies. We’re definitely seeing an upward trend as people move into Bend,” said Anne Birky, facilities support supervisor for Bend-La Pine Schools’ maintenance department. “The community use is very robust.”

The district uses an online system for users to request a space. Requests go to the school for approval before going through the maintenance department.

“We don’t discriminate,” said Birky. “A political candidate may come and do a forum in one of our auditoriums. Like I said, we have a church, we have all kinds of youth and community groups.”

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The district has a formal agreement with Bend Park & Recreation District, which uses 14 school sites for the after-school program Kids Inc. Bend-La Pine Schools also works with Camp Fire Central Oregon, which is stationed at two schools for after-school care. Its use of Three Rivers School in Sunriver is new this year.

“For over three decades, we have run our nine-week SummerKids camp program at their schools, and having these inviting, safe spaces has made all the difference in terms of ensuring consistent access to quality programs that help kids thrive,” said Camp Fire executive director Kecia Kubota in a statement.

The park district organizes a lot of youth sports using district fields and athletic spaces. In the fall, it runs flag football, and volleyball in the winter.

The district’s guidelines for use of its facilities include no drugs, alcohol or firearms on the premises, insurance from all parties and the request that the space is left in the same or better condition as when the organization arrived.

The district also works with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, as well as the American Red Cross if the region needs evacuation points due to a fire, as happened in La Pine earlier this year, when La Pine High School was used as a shelter.

Fees and fields

Different organizations pay different fees depending on who is using the space. Bend-La Pine Schools provides discounted rates to youth organizations, for instance. If a youth organization not affiliated with the district wanted to rent an auditorium for an event, it’s $40 per hour. If a for profit company wanted to do the same thing, that would be $80 per hour.

“In the spring we run out of fields because we have Little League that uses our fields for baseball but then there’s spring soccer and, you know, lacrosse,” said Birky. “It is hard to give everybody everything they want. I really try to equally distribute space on our fields and so it’s really a puzzle putting everything together.”

Birky estimated the district rents space to 150 organizations in a given year, between Bend, La Pine and Sunriver.

“I’ve developed these relationships in the community, and I really value that,” Birky said. “We have great community members doing a lot of really good things, not just for youth but for the community as well. Every year Balloons Over Bend comes back and uses Jewell (Elementary), and they’ve been doing that for years and years.”

The park district has a detailed agreement with the district that has been in place for more than 30 years, said spokesperson Julie Brown. In addition to athletics and Kids Inc., the schools also use the pools at park district facilities since the school district doesn’t have any of its own. The Kids Inc. program may use a different space in each school, whether it’s the gym or the commons, depending on how many kids who attend.

Growing demand

Demand for use of space is growing in Bend, Brown said. Scheduling can become complicated, especially for pool use, but she said the park district is generally able to accommodate everyone, though it may not be at the time requested.

The Redmond School District similarly rents district space for church services, police trainings, community concerts, youth groups and more.

One of the district’s current focuses is on maintaining the buildings it currently has, in part because they are used constantly by students and organizations.

“They’re used for after-school programs, for athletics, for community meetings, and we have people working through them all the time, and they just wear out,” said Superintendent Charan Cline. “They’re a community investment and they’re a community asset.”