FOIA Case C-7656 — 139 Documents, 1,162 Pages

The $969K Question

DPR told the Board that closing Barcroft saves $969,542. We filed a FOIA for the underlying data. 1,300 pages later, they still can't show their work.

What DPR Presented (Slide 15)

On March 5, DPR presented one line item for the entire Barcroft closure. The Board was asked to approve a $969,542 reduction based on this single summary:

Expense Cut
$2.29M
22.75 FTEs eliminated
Revenue Lost
$1.32M
All program fees gone
=
Net “Savings”
$970K
DPR Slide 15

Simple enough. But when you try to build this number from the data DPR provided elsewhere in the same presentation — and across 1,300 pages of FOIA records — it doesn't add up.

What the FOIA Actually Shows

DPR presented separate cost recovery tables for the competitive program (Slide 20) and rec classes (Slide 23). These are the only detailed financial breakdowns in the entire presentation. Here's what happens when you add them together:

ComponentExpensesRevenueDeficitSource
Competitive Teams (FY25)$984,819$672,690$312,129Slide 20
Rec Classes (FY25)$931,010$527,672$403,338Slide 23
Subtotal (what we can verify)$1,915,829$1,200,362$715,467
DPR's Slide 15 Total$2,291,040$1,321,498$969,542Slide 15
THE GAP$375,211$121,136$254,075Unexplained
$375,211 in Mystery Expenses

DPR's total expenses are $375K higher than the competitive + rec programs combined. This amount is nowhere in their presentation, nowhere in the FOIA response, and was never itemized for the Board. It likely includes Barcroft facility staff (facility manager, front desk), custodial contracts, and building utilities — costs that DPR's own Slide 18 explicitly says are NOT included in the program fee calculations.

These are building costs, not program costs. And the building doesn't disappear when gymnastics ends.

$121,136 in Mystery Revenue

DPR's total revenue is $121K higher than competitive + rec fees combined. This likely includes Enjoy class fees from the Wellness Room and Boxing Studio, fitness center memberships, and possibly part of the GWU rental revenue. But DPR told parent leaders (FOIA C-7656-0112) that GWU revenue and Enjoy class revenue "are not included in the reduction" because they "can be relocated." If that's true, where does this $121K come from?

Why the Mystery Expenses Matter

The $375K in unexplained expenses is the most consequential number in this analysis, because most of it doesn't actually go away when you close the programs. Barcroft is a County-owned building. It still requires:

Facility CostAnnual AmountSource
Preventive Maintenance$44,612C-7656-0019
Corrective Maintenance$33,211C-7656-0019
Custodial Services$156,138C-7656-0019
Utilities (Electric + Gas)$56,847C-7656-0019
Total Facility Operating Cost$290,808
Mothball Cost (25% essential maintenance)$56,182C-7656-0019

Even if Barcroft sits empty, the County pays $56,182/year just to keep it from deteriorating. If they "repurpose" it for other programming, most of the $290K continues — with a different program name on the line item. The $969K savings figure assumes all these costs vanish. They don't.

What DES Confirmed in the FOIA

When asked directly whether the facilities department (DES) conducted a budget analysis for operating savings from the Barcroft closure, Adam Kulawy responded: "We did not do a budget analysis for operating savings for Barcroft." (FOIA C-7656-0140)

The department responsible for building operations never validated the savings claim.

Revenue DPR Excluded

While DPR bundled $121K in mystery revenue into their Slide 15 total, they simultaneously excluded other Barcroft revenue that was already flowing:

Excluded RevenueAnnual AmountSource
GWU Gymnastics Rental$75,000–$88,000C-7656-0071/0108
GWU Equipment Upgrades (amortized)~$16,000C-7656-0055
Navy Club Gymnastics (interested)~$20,000 est.C-7656-0052

DPR Director Jane Rudolph flagged this gap herself in a tracked SharePoint comment on the staff Q&A document: "You don't address the additional revenue from GW rental and other — should that be included?" Staff responded that it was "now addressed" — by explicitly excluding it. (FOIA C-7656-0112)

GWU's rental revenue exists only because Barcroft has gymnastics equipment. Close the gym, strip the equipment, and the revenue disappears permanently. It cannot be "relocated."

The Real Math

When you account for what the FOIA actually reveals, the picture changes:

$969,542
is what DPR says closing Barcroft saves

But subtract what DPR excluded, overstated, or can't eliminate:

AdjustmentImpact
Facility costs that persist after closure (mothball minimum)−$56,182
GWU rental revenue excluded from calculation−$82,000
Mystery facility expenses never validated by DES−$375,211 (up to)
Adjustments−$513,393
Adjusted net: what actually gets saved$456,149

And that's before any fee adjustments, staffing fixes, or partnership revenue. The real gap to close through operational improvements is roughly half of what DPR presented to the Board.

The Question for the Board

The Board was asked to approve a $969,542 budget reduction based on a single summary line item. When Board Member Coffey asked DPR to explain the underlying math, Director Rudolph redirected to historical data that didn't answer the question. We filed five FOIA requests and received 1,300 pages of records. Not one of those pages contains a detailed breakdown of how $2,291,040 in expenses becomes $969,542 in savings.

Before voting on April 19, we ask the Board to require DPR to produce:

Three Transparency Requests

1. A line-item breakdown of the $2,291,040 in Barcroft expenses — showing exactly which positions, facility costs, and overhead are included, and how they differ from the program-level data on Slides 20 and 23.

2. A validated savings analysis from DES confirming how much of the $969K actually disappears if the programs are eliminated vs. how much shifts to other budget lines when Barcroft is repurposed.

3. An explanation of why GWU rental revenue ($75K–$88K), a revenue stream that only exists because of gymnastics equipment, was excluded from the reduction calculation.

See the full data visualizations, charts, and all 16 slide analyses in the interactive version

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