Several state lawmakers Tuesday urged schools to make their facilities more open to the public for physical recreation, in light of a law that reduces public school systems' legal liability regarding "unorganized recreation" on their property.
Three Kanawha County politicians - Delegate Chris Stansbury, a Republican, and Delegate Nancy Guthrie and Sen. Corey Palumbo, both Democrats - touted the "Shared Use" legislation at an event outside Kanawha's Marmet Elementary. Though the legislation, SB 238, passed in 2015, backers still are trying to spread the word about it.
Also, Stansbury and Christine Compton, government relations director for the American Heart Association, said they failed in this year's Legislative session to pass a bill that would've redirected a minimum of $300,000 annually of existing state Department of Education funds to go toward repairs and improvements to existing school facilities that could benefit the community, like gyms and playgrounds.
Schools could apply to the fund for grants to fix or improve their facilities. Children played on Marmet Elementary's swing sets behind the school during the event, but two of the dozen seats on the swing sets had busted chains, and the basketball court next to them had no net on one of its two hoops.
Jennifer Wells, the statewide Shared Use Coordinator who works for the West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition, an anti-poverty nonprofit, said that after the 2015 bill alleviated liability concerns, the 2016 bill was intended to alleviate school systems' concerns about the maintenance costs due to community members using their facilities.
The 2016 bill would've also established a system to track schools' implementation of Shared Use programs and would've helped publicize to communities which schools were opening their doors for things like basketball games amongst friends.
Stansbury said going forward that he wants to work with the education department "in the confines of their budget" but also still try to provide facilities improvement incentives. When asked whether he'd support a bill that would allocate new funding toward Shared Use, he said he'd have to speak with the legislative finance chairmen about that.
"I imagine that we'd meet with some resistance there," he said.
SB 238 added, atop the existing liability protection for "organized use" in state law, language saying "county boards are not liable for any loss or injury arising from the use of school property made available for unorganized recreation. County boards are liable for their acts or omissions which constitute gross negligence or willful and wanton conduct which is the proximate cause of injury or property damage."
Stansbury, who was the lead sponsor of the House version of SB 238, said busted concrete on a basketball court that causes injury to a community member using it could be a situation where a school system may still face litigation.
"As a kid, I remember using our athletic facilities in the schools, high school, middle school, elementary and it was never an issue, but I had started hearing some of the tales of people not being allowed to use athletic facilities after hours because of fear of liability," Stansbury said. He said Compton approached him about the Shared Use idea, and he said it made sense because the state, with its poor physical health statistics, needs "every opportunity for people to get out and to exercise."
He said in more rural areas, people have limited access to recreation facilities if they're not allowed to use the ones associated with their schools.
Wells said the law means school systems can no longer be sued for injuries that arise due to unorganized recreation, so long as the school facilities are in good condition. She said her campaign to spread Shared Use is up and running, and Shared Use is present in all Jackson County and Doddridge County public schools, plus the program is strongly supported in Cabell County.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.