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High School Athletes, Coaches, Master Swimmers Express Outrage at Abrupt Pool Closures
Meeting moved into Kofman Auditorium to accommodate the crowd
Athletes, coaches and parents expressed outrage and bewilderment at a community meeting on the abrupt closure of both the Alameda and Encinal high school pools.
At the Wednesday evening meeting at Alameda High's Kofman Auditorium, the district's chief business officer, Robert Shemwell, its head of maintenance and operations, Robbie Lyng, General Counsel Danielle Houck and Dale Lillard, who heads Alameda's Park and Recreation Department, were peppered with dozens of angry questions and comments.
"The filtration system has been out of compliance for more than 15 years," said one audience member. "So why the concern about compliance now?" Many questions like hers brought cheers of support from the crowd.
Houck said the decision to close the pools was made by district staff after a hastily called closed session of the school board last Thursday.
No vote was taken at the meeting, said Houck, but the topic was "significant exposure to litigation." The high school pools do not meet the standards of a California law that had a deadline for compliance of July 1.
The law requires pools to have drain covers that prevent the possibility of a child being sucked up against them and injured or killed.
"As soon as we understood it was a safety issue and we could have students drowning in these pools we closed them down," Houck said.
Many speakers from the audience called on members of the swimming community to work together and with the district and city to get the pools operational again.
But there was one dominant refrain.
"Why were they closed last minute?" asked an angry father of a swimmer and a water polo player. He also said he wished there had been more coordinated planning to keep the pools updated and in compliance with relevant codes.
"How come we didn't know anything was coming?" he asked.
Lillard reported a contractor worked over the summer to get the pools into compliance with the new drain law, but the County Department of Environmental Health did not approve the work.
"We still don't know why the drain work has not been certified," Lillard said.
District officials say that since the pools were closed last Friday, they have hired a consultant to look at what is needed to bring the pools into compliance with AB1020 and other current codes. Notably, the pools' filtration systems do not meet current standards.
"Everyone's upset because you close the pools and then get a consultant to look into the work after," said another parent. "Why was this work not done before?"
There was no timeline given for when the pools might be accessible to island aquatics programs, but district officials say they are expecting a full report from their consultant in 30 days.
"We have two weeks left of water polo," said one Alameda High senior, who has been shuttling to practices at Laney College while working on completing her college applications. "This has made things very hectic."
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Jon Spangler
10:13 am on Thursday, October 21, 2010
It certainly appears that AUSD officials have belatedly and harshly over-reacted to the technical shortcomings with the pools. Why close the pools in the heat of the water polo season ? This abrupt move - taken without any apparent public discussion at an open Board of Education meeting - seems uncharacteristic of the current BOE and seems to indicate that someone - or some ones - in AUSD management and on the BOE were not paying sufficient attention to these facilities.
Sarah Noble
10:18 am on Thursday, October 21, 2010
It was a huge bummer that the pools closed with only two weeks left of the water polo season. I would hate to expose our schools to any more litigation or anything that could take money away from the students.
Jack B.
10:21 am on Thursday, October 21, 2010
Thanks for the article, Eve, and thanks for being there. I think you really captured it.
Judy Judy
11:36 am on Thursday, October 21, 2010
Every kid has something they love and mine love swimming and water polo. Like Sarah said above, this is such a huge bummer. Thanks for the story Eve!
Lisa Fasano
12:32 pm on Thursday, October 21, 2010
This is a great opportunity for the Harbor Bay Club or Mariner's Square Athletic Club to step up and help the community by allowing the High School water sports teams to use their pools for the next two weeks. This would show great good will toward the community. I know I would be more inclined to become a member if I saw this level of generostiy from our local athletic clubs!
Jack B.
12:41 pm on Thursday, October 21, 2010
Hi Lisa,
Actually the Harbor Bay Club is being quite generous. Group II of the Islanders and my evening masters team are getting lane time there. We are very grateful. I don't know about Mariners Square. Our largest group (still without pooltime) are the Group I Islanders, which is the youngers. They are actually 2 groups that each fill up 6 lanes every night (that's 60 kids each night, 30 in each level.) They even have a waiting list to get on the team!
Lisa Fasano
2:05 pm on Thursday, October 21, 2010
Jack B., I am very happy to hear Harbor Bay Club is helping out during this pool interruption. OK, I will be true to my word and check out their membership plan.
Support Our Swimmers
8:12 am on Saturday, October 23, 2010
Many thanks to the Harbor Bay Club and the Piedmont Swim Club.
They are the heroes in this story. The Harbor Bay Club has just allowed some more kids to swim from the Group 1 Islanders. And the Piedmont Swim Club board was gracious in hosting a water polo match that was originally scheduled to be played in Alameda.
For more information about the Pool Closures and more background, check out this link
http://wp.me/p173S0-X
Bill Garvine
7:41 pm on Wednesday, October 27, 2010
It is great that the community stood up on this issue. All recreational facilities in Alameda contribute to our rich fabric of life here in Alameda, and are taxpayer-owned assets that deserve to be appropriately maintained. Congratulations to those who stood up on this, and thanks to the Mayor Johnson, Interim City Manager Gallant, and selected AUSD Trustees and staff who understand how important these facilities are to Alamedans of all ages...
Jon Spangler
9:13 pm on Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Jack B. has covered the details about the just-announced pool reopenings here:
http://aquaticsfan.com/alameda/blog/pool-update-emma-hood-will-re-open-next-week-encinal-follow-later-november
Marie Gilmore, Lena Tam, and Rob Bonta were apparently instrumental in getting Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker's office involved, which led to a rapid resolution to reopen the pools in November.
I still wonder why City of Alameda staff (and possibly AUSD staff) seemed to mishandle this whole saga, going back 1-3 years.....The same might be said about the Board of Education and City Council from what little I have heard second-hand, but this is hard to know for sure.