This is the first time in my long life that I’ll vote against a school referendum. I love swimming, and have spent years, often in this column, whining about the need for a warm-water pool for seniors and people with disabilities. I also love OPRF High School and District 97 schools. And babies. And puppies.
At the recent League of Women Voters Forum, both sides, for and against the referendum, did a beautiful job, as did the League, which it pretty much always does. I came away feeling sorry that the high school board of education put so much time into this project and yet missed the boat.
If the pools at the high school are unsafe, close them now and drop the swimming requirement until you can figure something out.
For this amount of money in new taxes, $25 million out of a total $44.5 million, we could make a helluva dent in the school’s main goal — to reduce the achievement gap. Why not hire tutors to move in with each at-risk kid?
In one way it would be nice to put the pool where the garage is — the garage is one of the ugliest structures in the village and a blot on the school’s lovely campus — but it hardly makes sense to tear down the garage and rebuild it.
I picture a lovely complex on the tennis court side of the campus — maybe using lots of glass — beautiful at night. However, the Vote Yes folks said they were told by the board (funny how an advisory committee morphs into a Vote Yes committee) not to bring in any plan that took away green space or open space, so no pool complex on one or two of the tennis courts. Since when is a tennis court green space or open space? I can’t go there and have a picnic or fly a kite. (Open space is defined by the EPA as a piece of land that is undeveloped, has no buildings or other built structures, and is accessible to the public. Green space is partly or completely covered with grass, trees, shrubs, or other vegetation).
Tennis is also wonderful, but I cannot believe the board did not want to give up a few tennis courts to accommodate a curriculum requirement — learning to swim — when only about 100 kids out of a 3,300 enrollment play competitive tennis and could do so easily at a local park. I mean what does the golf team do?
The proposed pool has an extra 15-feet diving pool, which isn’t needed if the emphasis is on swimming and not competition.
And then there’s the park district. They’re working on a plan for an indoor rec center that includes everything but drag-racing, with not one, not two, but three pools — recreation, lanes and warm water. They have no location yet, but they’re looking for something central. They haven’t said whether they’ll ask for a tax increase.
It all sounds wonderful, but why are both pool discussions going on at the same time? Are the park district and the high school even talking to each other? Jeez, if the YMCA decides it needs a new pool, and it should, that will be five new indoor pools!
May I suggest a bathing suit shop in one of the new high-rises?
