-
Stay Connected
San Francisco Schools Open Their Fields To Local Kids and Athletes
San Francisco public schools have opened their sports fields to local kids and athletes! Thanks to an innovative “joint use” agreement City Fields facilitated between the SF Board of Education and the SF Recreation and Parks, several public school sports fields are now available for season-long, community-based athletic programs.
Participating schools include:
O’Connell High School
Mission High School
Burton High School
Galileo High School
Like every other public athletic field in San Francisco, the school fields can be reserved through Rec/Park and are only available on the weekends to avoid any interfering with student activities. To reserve a field, go to Rec/Park’s online athletic field reservation system.
The school district and individual schools share almost all the rental revenue with a very modest portion retained byRec/Park to cover administrative costs. During the Fall 2009 season alone, the program raised $19,842 and provided 475 hours of new play, enough to ensure some youth leagues a full season of games.
City Fields proposed this joint use agreement because San Francisco Unified School District relies on Rec/Park for athletic fields but has excess, unused capacity during critical hours and in high-needneighborhoods.
Rec/Park’s newly reorganized Permits Officeis the primary provider of athletic fields for San Francisco and uses a single,centralized system to allocate non-school fields for all users - public andprivate schools, RPD programs, youth and adult leagues, neighborhood groups,and more.
Given the excess capacity of school fieldsand the deficit of Rec/Park fields, in 2009, city and school officials supported a pilot “joint use” program to share facilities with the community as long as it didn’t interfere with student education. The program was a resounding success and the following spring, the Board of Education and the Rec/Park Commission both unanimously voted to extend the program.
