School Board to Review New Aquatic Center at 12th High School

The Prince William County School Board will view a presentation on the aquatic center proposed for the 12^th high school at their June 5 meeting.

Presentation on the aquatic facility

According to School Board Chairman At-large Milt Johns, the board members will not vote on the school or the aquatic center at this meeting. The vote will come in the fall, at which time they will vote to approve the school set to open in September of 2016 either with or without the aquatic center.

Meanwhile, the June 5 agenda has Dave Cline, Superintendent of Finance and Support Services, describing the proposed pool to the board, as well as explaining the facts and figures associated with it.

Two pools within the 12th high school

Some citizens might be surprised to learn that the aquatic center plans include two separate pools: a 116' x 75' competition pool and a 47' x 75' recreational pool, but Johns said he thinks of it more as one facility.

“In my mind, I was not necessarily counting the division in concrete. I think of the Freedom Center, which has a competition pool, lap pool and recreational pool,” Johns said.

Arlington County Public Schools Public Relations Specialist Frank Bellavia said his district's aquatic centers in three of their high schools also feature more than one pool. Bellavia confirmed that they invite private groups and community members to use the pools as one way to offset maintenance costs and also to serve as a community resource.

Offsetting the cost of maintaining the pools 

Johns expects Prince William County Schools will establish a similar system, allowing several groups to use the facility at one time. He believes the competitive pool will serve many of the county's swim teams, helping to serve mainly female athletes as part of the Title IX Federal Regulations. In addition, the recreational pool is ideal for  special education and disabled students, and the aquatic facility could host water aerobics and swim lessons for children as well.

Johns also believes there would be no significant saving in building just the competition pool.

“I don’t know if there are cost-savings if we say we only want the competition pool. I’m guessing there really isn’t a huge difference. Putting in the infrastructure is probably the biggest cost,” Johns said.

No additional pools planned for PWCS

However, he said that he has not proposed any additional aquatic facilities at any other schools or proposed schools in the county, nor, would he, he told Bristow Beat in a phone interview.

“I don’t support building more pools. If we build a pool, we only need one. I think a centrally-located pool will work for the county,” Johns said.

The Chairman said he does not know where the rumor about building additional pools began, but he does not believe it came from Prince William County Schools.

“It’s started on the blogs as far as I know. I haven’t heard anyone on the administration, school board or staff utter a single word about pools at other schools,” Johns said.

Director of Communication Services Philip Kavits confirmed there are no plans for any additional pools and said it would be inaccurate to extrapolate that there are plans for other schools based upon the proposed costs for the 13^th and 14^th high schools, which are estimated to cost more than the 12^th high school.

“It’s not as simple as subtracting the pool costs from the published CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) figure for 12th high school to project the cost of a 13th high school. Considering the 3-year difference between opening dates (2016 to 2019), an inflation factor must be included,” Kavits said.

Kavits said economic trends have caused the cost of materials and labor to rise over recent years. In addition, a site for the 13^th high school has not yet been identified, “and we have to consider that road construction costs could be something we have to pay for.”

County-wide need for more pools and aquatic facilities

Johns said in addition to considering the cost of a new pool, he has researched the need for a new pool, taking into consideration other new aquatic facilities that are scheduled to open in and around Prince William County.

Rick Benner, USA National Swim Coach and Quantico Devil Dolphins Head Coach and General Manager, said while he applauds the inclusion of a pool in the 12th high school, he feels confident that his business can fill a need for additional swim facilities in the community.

"Relative to the need for access to more youth recreational and athletic opportunities in our community, I couldn't agree more (that the pool is needed,)" Benner said.

In fact, Benner thought the one facility was insufficient to fill all the needs the school system aspires to fulfill.

"As an aquatics professional of some 25-plus years, I can share that the challenge facing the district will be the question of how the resource will be allocated amongst some 12 high schools, a half dozen USAS club teams and a dozen summer league swim teams balanced against the demand for public access."

Controversy over the aquatic facility or "No Pools in Our Schools" 

However, despite the apparent need for more swim facilities in the county, the pool at the 12th high school has faced considerable opposition. A large faction of parents and teachers question whether it is an effective use of school and county funds, given high class sizes in the district. Would the money be better spent elsewhere, they asked, such as on more teachers or even classroom materials?

Kim Simons of the PWCS Reform Blog said she is against the pool, saying, "I believe the pools will take funds that would otherwise be used in classrooms and school operations because we have to operate the pool and pay the debt service associated with it, and the fees received from the public for pool usage won't be sufficient to cover the costs to operate the pool.  If usage fees won't be adequate to cover operating and debt-service costs, then the pool will take away money that would otherwise be used for classrooms and schools."

But Johns disputes the premise of the argument that the board is spending money on new facilities when it could be spending money on new teachers and decreasing the number of students per classroom.

“That’s sort of a color-of-money argument. The pool will be built as part of our debt services. We can’t use our debt-services money to hire teachers,” Johns said.

While he realizes there is also an operational cost to maintaining a pool, he believes it can be revenue-neutral, if not even revenue- positive, because the pool facility can generate income by hosting outside groups and private groups.

But no matter the benefits of the pool, it is likely to remain a divisive issue for the school division as it is being proposed during a difficult financial time for the school division and the county.