San Benito High School could reopen its deepest swimming pool for swim team and water polo athletes as early as next week, said Superintendent John Perales.
“We’re looking to have kids in that pool, if all goes well, probably by the end of next week,” the superintendent said. “That’s really good news for our student-athletes.”
The campus’ pools were drained after the district received a “cease and desist notice” from the city and county water board for discharging chlorinated water into the storm drain, a practice that is no longer legal.
There were also issues with the plaster surfaces of the pools. But the deeper of the pools will soon be filled with water after it was re-plumbed so that a big septic truck can remove water for disposal every other week instead of releasing water into the storm drain, Perales explained.
The original plan for school-year aquatic athletes had been to bus them to Gavilan College, where they would use that pool to practice, the superintendent said. It is too late to run summer recreation programs at the pools, especially since the shallowest pool, which is best suited for teaching youth to swim, is still closed, Perales explained.
The superintendent plans to meet with physical education teachers to assess whether their classes will use the deeper pool when it re-opens, since the classes also rely heavily on the shallow pool to teach swimming, he said.
Perales thanked one of the school parents, a land-use specialist, for being “instrumental” in getting one of the pools operating for the school year.
The superintendent called the pool—which is the only public swimming option in the San Benito County—a “huge community need.” Perales hopes to work with the mayor of Hollister, the county, YMCA and the San Benito Aquatics program to set up a joint venture project for a community facility, he said.
The district’s board of trustees will review the pool situation at their next regularly scheduled board meeting Aug. 3. At that meeting, the district’s architect and a vendor will present ideas for possible designs “because this is just a patch job,” Perales said.
