With the defeat of the District 200 pool referendum, we encourage the high school board to revisit and follow the logical recommendation of its own expert-commissioned report. In March 2013 after a year-long review, Stantec, the world-renowned engineering and design firm, recommended that OPRF solve its pool problem by building one 8-lane, 25-yard standard high school competition pool in the East Pool site, expanding into the South Gym.
The Stantec Report, linked on the school’s website, is the definitive assessment on the pool issue. It looked at usage, possible pool sizes and prioritized locations on campus in making its recommendation. While the then-pool committee preferred a 40-meter stretch pool with 70% more water, Stantec stated that there was no place on campus to build it without impacting other sports teams or required parking. The last three years have borne out that fact. Stantec’s rational East Pool/South Gym solution preserves all green space and the structurally sound garage with at least 25 more years of service life.
On 11/21/13, the board eliminated Stantec’s logical recommendation from the pool discussion based on false information in a Finance Committee memo. It incorrectly stated that the East Pool/South Gym site could not house an 8-lane, 25-yard pool and that it was the most expensive of the four sites under consideration. Several weeks prior, on 9/26/13, one of the school’s architects stated, in fact, that it was the “more cost-effective” pool and site. After eliminating the reasonable pool solution, the board pivoted sharply and has spent the last three years trying to fit an oversized pool, a want not a need, on the too-small campus.
The Stantec pool solution will right-size our school’s aquatic facilities and expenditures. Stantec clearly stated that OPRF’s current 11 swim lanes are a luxury and “modern high school aquatics programs are supported by one 8-lane, 25-yard pool.” OPRF extravagantly overbuilt with two pools in 1928, on the eve of the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. No other peer school built two pools. As a consequence, for the last 88 years we have overspent in operating and repairing the two pools and their excessive 11 swim lanes. As recently as 2010, we spent millions repairing the pools. Every dollar overspent on aquatics is a dollar not spent on academics, the school’s core mission.
OPRF’s physical education and aquatic team needs will be met by the Stantec solution. The school has resisted updating its antiquated and unnecessary mandatory swim requirement. By instituting a water safety class for all freshmen, similar to Stevenson High School’s, and allowing students to test out of swimming, the need for pool water declines sharply. OPRF’s aquatic teams will share a pool just like their counterparts at other schools and just as our other sports teams share fields on our space-confined campus. The West Pool space will be repurposed for other uses.
It is time for the board to implement Stantec’s rational pool solution. With the pool problem resolved, the board can then spend all of its time on the school’s more important academic issues.
Bridgett Baron, Jack Davidson, Chris Donovan, Karen Doty, Bruce Kleinman, Kevin Peppard, Mike Poirier, Gina Sennello, Monica Sheehan, Leslie Sutphen
OPRF Pragmatic Pool Solutions