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September 2024
Welcome back to school to our students and congratulations to the parents and caregivers on making it through the summer!
CUPF has worked diligently to get permits reserved and entered for the school year for community use events through the Fall and Winter. August 15, 2024, saw a welcomed amount of permitting which indicates another busy school season. There were very few reported problems with the ActiveMONTGOMERY site during the recent open permitting season date which was also welcomed. Each year we continue to refine and improve the performance of the site while working closely with the Vendor to provide more enhancements that will meet more of the needs of our community.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has instituted some new and more time-consuming schedules for their athletics programs which has caused CUPF to alter the times available for community use. There have been increases made to MCPS sport team practice times and new sports like pickleball have been added to the practice schedule. As we all know MCPS school related activities have a priority for use of school facilities, so CUPF has been trying to balance the school use with community use to afford each side access and opportunities for meaningful use of those facilities.
Because of limited field space and seasonal changes, such as shorter days that impact outside activities, there is a tighter squeeze on community use at all locations. CUPF staff have worked hard to make permit holders aware of MCPS locations that have less use and more availability. This includes using middle schools instead of high schools. Middle schools have fewer school organized sports activities than high schools which makes more facilities available for community use when middle schools are considered as an option.
CUPF invites our community to utilize as many spaces as possible to facilitate access to locations for community use events. When the permit holder has more flexibility in their event planning there are more options to consider as available space for those events.
Thank you,
CUPF Director, Ramona Bell-Pearson