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At its meeting on Tuesday, July 9, the Menlo Park City Council approved, as a consent agenda item, updates to the city’s recreational scholarship policy to clarify eligibility criteria and make the document easier for residents to understand. Since April 2021, Menlo Park has provided need-based recreation scholarships to low-income residents to help reduce barriers to participation in recreational activities in the city.
Updates included clarifying that only residents of Menlo Park are eligible for the scholarships, adding criteria to determine the level of discounts that residents are eligible for and listing all facilities that provide recreation scholarship-applicable programs.
These facilities include the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center, the Arrillaga Family Gymnasium, the Arrillaga Family Gymnastics Center, the Belle Haven Community Campus and the Menlo Park Library.
Among other updates, aquatics programs and summer camps, which were previously excluded from scholarship eligibility, have been removed from the exclusions list in order to facilitate the possibility of expanding city recreation scholarships to cover these programs at a later time. Exclusions still apply to facility, field, court and park rentals, as well as senior center programs and child care or afterschool programs.
Eligibility for recreation scholarships are determined through enrollment in another income-based subsidy program such as Menlo Park Municipal Water’s reduced rate program, Cal Water’s Customer Assistance Program, PG&E’s CARE program or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Menlo Park residents may qualify for discounts of 50% off of resident registration fees for most recreational programs. If a program is particularly expensive, with registration fees that are significantly higher than the average program fee, residents may qualify for scholarships of up to 75% off.
According to Menlo Park’s recreation catalog, resident registration fees for city-run recreational programs include $370 for a season of youth aerial silks classes, $354 for a season of youth tennis instruction and $465 for a season of youth piano instruction. Gymnastics classes range from $112 to $160 for the summer season at full resident price.
According to a city staff report, there were only 24 total recreation scholarships provided in fiscal year 2023-24, all of which were for the gymnastics program. With an average of $80 reduction in fees per scholarship, this only cost the city $1,915 in fees for this previous fiscal year.
Menlo Park staff increased promotion of the scholarship program in anticipation of the opening of the new Belle Haven Community Campus, hoping that more eligible residents would enroll in the program. According to a staff report, city staff estimate that participation in the program could potentially increase to a high of 100 participants.
The staff report states that this program is not anticipated to have a significant effect on the city’s operating budget. At max enrollment, the program is likely to result in the city collecting about $30,000 less per year in registration fees for city-run recreational programs. The most recently adopted budget anticipates collection of $1.67 million in total revenue from recreation registration fees across all city facilities.
