As you may be aware, Rockwood (like many organizations) is currently experiencing an extreme staffing shortage in many areas of the district, including our custodial department. Over the past year, we have consistently had 65-75 unfilled custodial positions across the district, which represents 30-40% of our total custodial staff. This custodial staffing shortage directly affects our ability to support community groups requesting use of district facilities for activities taking place indoors on weekends and large outdoor events, including games and competitions.
As a result of the continued custodial staffing shortage, we have had to make the following changes to our facility usage beginning July 1, 2023:
- We are no longer able to approve requests from community groups requesting use of district facilities for activities taking place indoors on Sundays;
- In addition, community group activities taking place on turf fields on Sundays will be limited to practice events only—no game, competition or other large events on turf fields that would normally require custodial support will be approved.
Requests for use of indoor facilities on Saturdays for events that would normally require custodial support will continue to be approved only if a custodian can be secured. While we will work to approve as many requests as possible, please note there is no guarantee that we will be able to secure a custodian for every request.
Activities taking place outside on elementary/middle school fields and turf fields on Saturday and Sundays that do not require custodial support will continue to be approved via the regular process.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. We wanted to provide you with as much advance notice as possible so you can make alternate plans for your activity. We look forward to resuming normal operations when the extreme custodial staffing shortage is resolved. Should you have any questions, please contact the Facility Usage office at facilityusage@rsdmo.org or 636-733-2167.
