parks & recreation

Sumner School District Swimming Pool Q & A

Background:
A committee of school and community people developed a plan for facility development and maintenance during the next ten years. One of the recommendations in the plan was to continue to operate the pool until Bonney Lake High School opened. It was recommended that at that time, the school district might decide to continue to keep the pool open, or it might decide to close it, depending on costs and circumstances. Another option might be to turn the pool over to another agency to operate it. The pool is not currently scheduled to close any time soon. The Sumner School District Board of Directors will make a final decision on whether or not the pool will close.

Q: Why would anyone recommend turning over the pool to some other agency, or closing it?
A: The cost to the school district to operate and maintain the pool is significant. In times when money for schools is tight, the school district has to trim costs wherever it can. The district uses the pool for one PE class per quarter and four swim teams, the rest of the pool time is used by the community. The facilities committee felt that the community should own and operate the pool because they use the bulk of the time in the pool. Community ownership would allow the school district to direct the money that is being spent on pool operations and maintenance back into the classroom.

Q: I thought the pool fees paid for operating the pool. Why does it cost the school district any money?
A: Pool fees cover most of the direct costs for the time the community uses the pool. They are not high enough to cover all the costs, and the school district pays the difference. In past years, it cost over $200,000 of school money each year to keep the pool going. With new, expert management, the school district has been able to reduce those costs to under $100,000 per year. Some of this covers the costs for the PE and swim team programs. The rest goes to pay for insurance, utilities, and maintenance at the pool.

Q: How much money is estimated to maintain the pool?
A: The pool has not had a major remodel since 1985. It will cost nearly $5 million to fix up the building, the pumps, the boiler, and all the systems to keep the pool running. Several of the major components of the pool are past their normal life span, and are in danger of breaking down. The school district does not have money to make major repairs, so it is doing everything it can do keep things going through normal maintenance.

Q: We need a pool in this area. How can we make sure we keep this pool open?
A: The school district has begun discussions with other agencies to see how we can all work together to keep the pool going. There are a couple of possibilities. One possibility is to ask the voters for $5 million to remodel the pool and for extra money to operate the pool each year. Another possibility is to find an agency in our area that would take ownership of the pool and operate and maintain it. There are organizations like the YMCA which run other pools, and perhaps one of them would see the possibilities for a pool here. Such an organization might want to remodel the current pool, or it might want to build a new pool.

Q: So what is going to happen next?
A: The pool will continue to operate until unless one of the major components breaks down before then, and is too expensive to repair. The school district will try to develop a plan for continuing to have a pool in our area, owned and operated by someone else. The Board of Directors will continue to seek input, look at alternatives, set priorities, and make decisions that are responsive to the needs of the school community.

For more information about the Long Range Facilities Plan contact: Craig Spencer, Associate Superintendent at 253.891.6000 or Ann Cook, Communications Director, at 253.891.6070.