Saratoga News
News
Swimmers believe school's decision to close the pool at noon is all wet
By Shannon Burkey
After receiving numerous complaints from residents upset over the closing of the noon adult swim program at Saratoga High School, the Saratoga City Council has asked its school ad hoc committee to look into the issue.
The noontime swim program has been in effect since the pool was completed in 2000; between 30 and 35 swimmers participate.
But after evaluating the program, principal Jeff Anderson decided to end it March 1 because he felt there was a potential liability issue surrounding adults not associated with the school coming onto the school campus during the day.
Many of the swimmers said they were unaware there were any problems with them swimming in the pool and tried to get in touch with Anderson to work out some sort of compromise. Many of them also said they were willing to be fingerprinted or adhere to stricter security measures to ensure the safety of the students.
Lisa Fischer-Colbrie, a master swimmer who has used the pool since its inception, said her attempts to contact Anderson were repeatedly stonewalled. After getting nowhere with the school, she and several of the other swimmers asked the council at its March 7 meeting to help them reach an alternative.
"The abrupt plan to close the noon swim is a stark contradiction to the school's and city council's stated desire to provide swimming to the community," Fischer-Colbrie said to the council. "If you slash the noon program, you are making deep inroads into cutting community access to this pool."
Although the Los Gatos-Saratoga High School District owns the pool, the city of Saratoga helped fund a part of it, which is why swimmers now want the city to help them regain use of it.
"When we built the pool as a district, the city loaned us $150,000. And a loan is just what it was," district superintendent Cary Matsuoka said to the council. "The way we are paying you back is as a credit toward use of our facilities for the Saratoga Recreation Department."
The contract signed by the school and the city in 2000 allows the city to use many of the district's recreation facilities, but it excludes the pool.
Currently, the noon swim program is being run by De Anza Cupertino Aquatics, and swimmers are allowed to utilize the pool for a drop-in fee of $5 between noon and 1:30 p.m. DACA runs the program because the city does not have enough staff to run it themselves, according to Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith.
Regardless of who is running the program, residents say it is a pool that the entire community should have access to. During the opening day ceremony for the pool, then-principal Kevin Skelly said the pool "belongs to all of Saratoga." Saratogans want to see the district live up to that statement.
"The city of Saratoga and the private citizens contributed a significant amount of money to get the pool built. In exchange there was a verbal agreement to use the pool as part of the community recreation programs," said swimmer Rick Waltonsmith.
Ann Waltonsmith was on the council that voted to loan the money to the district. She said one of the reasons the council voted that way was because there are very few options for adults looking to swim in the area.
The closest pool for swimmers who don't want to join a club is Sunnyvale's Fremont High School.
"We saw this as an opportunity to partner with the school to help our students have this Olympic-size pool, as well as to help our community of citizens. It was a gentleman's agreement," Ann Waltonsmith said. "We feel very strongly that it's important for our citizens to have access to the pool."
With such an outpouring from the community, the school board has decided to put the issue on its March 20 agenda. The city council also plans to agendize the issue at a future meeting.
"I feel at least there's some hope that they haven't killed this issue," Fischer-Colbrie said. "It will ultimately depend on how big a liability they think we are around the kids."
