More deliberation for College of San Mateo gym deal

The short-term arrangement is designed to allow administrators to continue working on a request for proposals from other qualified companies interested in running the facility offering a weight room, swimming pool and other fitness classes.

But the split decision signaled the absence of clear consensus among officials who for the better part of a year have grappled with how the gym — and by extension, district — should function.

“It seems to be more of an indicator of something a little more systemic, which is how the needs of the students and the prioritization of the students fits in balance against another need, which is to raise revenue,” Trustee Lisa Petrides said.

Petrides joined board Vice President Richard Holober and Trustee John Pimentel in voting to temporarily extend the Exos contract, while instructing administrators to concurrently examine alternative fashions of running the facility. Meanwhile President Thomas Nuris and Trustee Maurice Goodman voted against the proposal, but for entirely different reasons.

Those who voted in favor of the extension have expressed an interest in examining how the district could eventually end a dependence on private companies to run the gym and lean on district staff to take over the task.

Advocates for such a plan claim the district assuming operations would allow for students, teachers and members of the school community to use the facility more often while also leveraging it to provide greater educational and professional training opportunities.

And while generally supporting that direction, Chancellor Michael Claire said such an endeavor is impossible for his team to take on as administrators simultaneously plan to reopen campuses amid a pandemic.

“I think there are opportunities to be really creative and to build something special there. It’s not a matter of if, it is a matter of when. I’m just saying we are not going to have it figured out by April,” Claire said, regarding to a termination deadline for the Exos contract, prior to officials granting the extension.

Claire has continuously pushed for temporary contract extensions with Exos while officials concurrently examine opportunities to overhaul operations at the facility in a process that has carried on for the last year.

Recognizing the repetitive nature of the discussions which have yielded little progress other than a previous decision to reissue a request for operating proposals, Goodman shared his frustration with the process.

Nodding to hardball negotiating from Exos which claimed the district would need to pay upwards of $800,000 and other associated fees unless it extended the operating agreement, Goodman said he believed the district should immediately consider alternatives.

One opportunity would be allowing the Exos contract to expire and shutting the club down, or using district staff to run it in a limited capacity, until a more sustainable operating solution is identified, Goodman said.

“If we have to close the facility until we can run it properly, that’s what we do. And we make that tough decision and we have that tough conversation,” Goodman said.

Furthering his point, Goodman said the piecemeal approach with Exos effectively grants the company the one-year contract extension it sought last year, even though officials voted at the time against the proposal.

Nuris disagreed, and instead favored temporarily continuing the Exos contract until the fall — which would grant officials additional time to examine operational alternatives while working on the request for proposals.

“I don’t want us to cut off our nose to spite our face here, as far as that goes,” Nuris said to Goodman. “I don’t like the situation either. I don’t like it as much as you do and I understand your strong principles and your feelings about this. But I don’t think it is in the best interest of our district.”

He furthered his perspective by suggesting that shuttering the facility temporarily would lessen the district’s bargaining position with any future operator, because the costs associated with reopening a facility are greater than taking on a gym that is already up and running.

With hopes of finding a potential compromise between the two positions, a majority of the board agreed to extend the contract for three more months while examining other options.

“I defer to the administration to figure out how to keep the gym in whatever status they wanted for a temporary period and we focus on accelerating the RFP or how we want to manage this great facility,” Pimentel said.

Officials ultimately concurred, while acknowledging the frustrations of some school community members dismayed that the issue will be further dragged out and potentially draw attention away from more critical issues.

To that end, district Academic Senate President Jeremy Wallace said officials’ time would be better spent focusing on the needs of students and reopening campuses amid the pandemic rather than still debating over the gym’s future.

“The number of hours that have been dedicated to this issue is mind-boggling,” he said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com