School Board Member Asks for Referendum on School Pool

Woodbridge District Board Representative Steven Keen requested a referendum to ascertain the level of public support for a bond issued to fund the proposed aquatic center at the 12th high school in Prince William County at the June 19 School Board meeting. Keen said the Board should ask the citizens to vote on the pool issue because, in his opinion, the building of one pool facility could lead to the need and/or desire for additional pools in other schools throughout the county.

“I’ve spoken to several members of the Board about the need to make this a referendum on the question of the bonds to build a pool," said Keen.

He compared funding one aquatic center to a swimmer about to dive into the water, saying, "Anyone who knows anything about swimming knows the first thing you teach somebody is not to dive head first into any body of water if you don’t know how deep it is." He added, “The fact is, we don’t know how deep it is.”

Keen compared the unknown expense of construction and maintenance of the first pool in the School Division to "a hole in the water you are going to pour money into."

Although Chairman-at-Large Milt Johns had told Bristow Beat that to his knowledge no other pool facilities are planned at any other schools, Keen believes once one is built, other schools may request similar facilities.

Keen also called upon the Board of County Supervisors to fund the expense of the pool at the 12th high school via funds the county had previously promised the School Board in the five-year plan.

"When it comes to leadership on the question of the pool, I would hope that Chairman Stewart’s primary thought is that was he was going to go back to and find a way to restore the 1.5 million dollars." 

Keen said, “that would certainly help to pay for this pool project.”

However, based on comments supervisors have made to the press, it is unlikely they would agree to allocate any additional funds to the School Board to be used for the purpose of what many of them consider to be a non-essential school facility.

Gainesville District Representative Pete Candland had gone on record saying he would not approve of school funds being directed toward pool facilities which he felt fell under the jurisdiction of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

He went so far as to question if he was correct in advocating for additional school funding if those funds go toward recreational facilities like pools rather than decreasing class sizes.

However, should a referendum be put before the citizens, the decision would not lie with either board, but with the people.