Hello, This petition is for the residents of Wyomissing. It is in regards to the recent happenings that are in relation to the Wyomissing School District Public Weight Room / Workout Facility and its residents having access to these facilities. Recently it was publicized that there have been discussions that the Wyomissing School Board is planning to implement new regulations/fees with regards to the access of the public workout facilities at the school. The district is considering charging a fee (proposed to begin in July - $150 per family, $100 per individual / students and senior citizens would be free) for the right to use these facilities - facilities that have been paid for by residents' taxpayer money. Currently there are no fees charged to residents. The fees charged to the residents would be in place to help upgrade equipment (currently: all equipment in the weight room has been updated in the last 5 years), and to pay a staff member to supervise the facility. Superintendent David Robbins was quoted, "In this economy, there is no free pass." There are a couple of problems with this proposal. As stated already, the residents in the community are already paying for the weight room facility with their tax dollars. It is a public facility in a public school. Privatizing the weight room by charging fees would be wrong and unfair to the people of the district. Would people see their taxes decrease as a result of a fee being implemented I think it’s safe to say that it wouldn't. If the equipment needs to be updated for the sake of the students (because that’s who this facility is for right), then taxes should be increased. Also, the weight room is currently never overcrowded. The majority of people who frequent the facility go there because of convenience. It is close to there home. And unlike the local workout facilities (Body Zone, Gold's, LA Fitness), residents can feel comfortable in their surroundings. Some people feel uncomfortable going to a membership gym because the people/surroundings are intimidating. If fees are implemented, the amount of people who use the facility will be drastically decreased and the district will be paying someone to supervise no one. Also, with regards to the comfortable atmosphere that local small facilities like ours has, would the implementation of memberships mandate stricter entry requirements. Would ID cards be required Currently, residents are required to sign in with their name and address. Is there a reason why this is no longer working Are people outside the district sneaking in The general consensus is that everybody pretty much knows/recognizes everybody in the weight room because it is such a small community. Well that’s almost the case. Lately, residents have been hassled once they have already started working out with regards to their sign in information. Bugging people to sign in at the weight room is not supervision. Supervisors should be required to have some knowledge of the community (teachers/coaches come to mind), and the equipment within the weight room. Supervisors should also be able to interact with the residents in a polite manor - if somebody working at Gold's were rude to one of their members, they would no longer work there. The same standard should be held at our local facility because as taxpayers, the residents are paying the supervisors salary. With regards to the economic crisis that we are all currently feeling, it is noteworthy that the superintendent quoted that as a reason for the fees. The Education and Healthcare industries are among some of the few employment fields that are currently thriving - making the quote inapplicable to this situation. In closing, it would be a mistake to charge people to use a facility that they are already paying for. The district is trying to double up the taxpayers’ contribution to the weight room. The amount of people using the facility would drastically drop off, making the facility a waste after school hours. Please don't let this happen. The motive of this proposal is questionable, and I encourage you to sign this petition to keep the weight room running it as it has been running, successfully, for a long time.

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