Boulder recently issued the following announcement.
Throughout the winter and spring, Boulder Parks and Recreation (BPR) has been focused on hiring enough seasonal staff for peak summer fun in recreation programming, swimming, and in our city’s parks.
Like many organizations, BPR has been and continues to face challenges hiring enough people to fill these positions.
The department’s goal is to fill all open positions and have consistent operating hours at recreation facilities, all services available at the Reservoir and Flatirons Golf Course, and park amenities fully maintained. Current staffing levels and recruitment indicate that BPR will likely not fill all those positions and service levels may be less than budgeted and planned.
To ensure clarity about what services are available, BPR has created three service level scenarios. Based on our staffing levels this summer, the department has three potential service levels: ideal, reduced, and constrained. Each level has both a staffing threshold and what services/operation/programming that could be offered. The ideal scenario is based upon the recovery planned for and funded when developing the department’s 2022 budget.
For example, in the reduced service level scenario, weeds would not be pulled as often; the city would focus on gymnastics programming, but not host gymnastics birthday parties; and operational hours would be reduced at all three recreation centers. Aquatics-specific service level reductions would include not opening Spruce Pool and not offering outdoor pool lessons. The constrained scenario would see even further reductions.
Scott Carpenter Pool, a highly utilized facility in the summer, is one of our highest priorities to operate fully. You can find BPR’s current and summer plans for all our pools on the Aquatics and Facility Status page or each facility’s page.
While BPR has funding to operate many services this year at near pre-pandemic levels, filling vacant positions is difficult during a nationwide labor market shortage. Here in Boulder, and across the country, parks and recreation departments are struggling to hire due to lapsed lifeguard certifications, a decline in youth interested in BPR roles, or youth choosing not to work over the summer vacation and instead make up for lost time through traveling or other pursuits.
“Across the department, our teammates are focusing on recruiting enough people to host as much fun as we can, as safely as we can,” said Parks and Recreation Director Ali Rhodes. “Specifically for aquatics, we have worked to accomplish our hiring goals through our ‘AquaForce’ teams that are leading efforts around recruitment, retention, and pool optimization.”
BPR has raised starting wages for lifeguards to $15.25/hour and have several benefitted, part-time and full-time lifeguard positions available with wages starting at $18.45/hour. In addition, the department recently held two in-person job fairs and a virtual job fair and has made lifeguard trainings free for those who agree to work for BPR.
“One thing that we will never cut corners on is the safety of our community,” said Rhodes. “From pool and Reservoir lifeguards to playground inspectors to summer camp counselors, our staff will always work hard to keep community members safe as they enjoy our facilities and programs.”
BPR will keep the community informed over the next several months as the department works to hire staff and, thus, make decisions about parks and recreation operations based on staffing levels.
Original source can be found here.
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