Swimmers want school board to keep high school pool open

The Heritage Valley Aquatics program and other groups that use the Santa Paula High School pool have been told the pool will soon be closed because of renovation work at the Boys’ Gym on campus. The reason for the pool closure for the next 10 months is because the locker rooms at the swimming pool will be needed for various athletic programs at the school. The current locker rooms at the boys’ gym will not be usable while the gym is being renovated.Sheryl Maniss, a co-founder of Heritage Valley Aquatics was one of several people to address the board on the issue. She told the board the closing the pool will likely bring about the demise of her program. She added that the reasons given for the closure are not valid. One argument presented is that boys will be changing while there are girls in the pool. “There always has been, and for the last three years during football season, the opposing team has used both the male and female locker rooms to change and store any gear while we conducted practice,” she said. “There has never been any problems or complaints on either side. Our swimmers know to come with a suit on and they leave with a suit on and there has never been an issue.”She was also told that tools and construction equipment would be stored on the pool deck. “Just a few years ago, several hundred thousand dollars went into renovating the pool,” she noted. “I would hate to see the deck ruined or any damages occur because the equipment needed for the renovation needed to be stored someplace.”Breda George told trustees that she swims year-round and relies on the high school pool for her exercise. “Swimming is of vital importance to me,” she said. “I would be totally devastated if I could not swim for 10 months. I am a very dedicated swimmer. My life is arranged around swimming. I swim year round whether it’s hot or cold, light or dark, rain or shine.”