Valley Foundation, donor rescue sinking pool effort
By Rebecca Ray
After nearly drowning, Los Gatos High School's plan to replace its outdated swimming and diving facility with a first-class facility appears to be resurfacing.
The Los Gatos Community Pool Partnership parent group, which had to raise $1.58 million by Dec. 10, for the new facility, had only raised about half the money earlier that week. Members of the parent group and LGHS Principal Trudy McCulloch thought they might have to opt for a less expensive, smaller pool.
But the nonprofit organization, The Valley Foundation, which had previously donated $100,000 for the new facility, said it would donate another $400,000. Another donor said he would donate $100,000 if the school chooses the larger pool.
"We're very close, if not there, to actually building the pool," McCulloch said.
Architects from Aquatic Design and bfgc are designing school facilities covered by $79 million Measure B bond money, which does not include the pool. They are looking at the space the current swimming facility occupies and determining how large of a pool can be built.
McCulloch hopes that Aquatic Design will have initial drawings of the new facility, and that she and the parent group can verify the proposed funds in time for the Feb. 6 district board meeting.
The parent group would like to replace the current facility, which contains a wading pool, a diving pool and a swimming pool that is 25 yards long, seven or eight lanes wide, and less than 4 feet deep, with an L-shaped, Olympic-sized pool.
Unlike the current swimming pool, the new pool would have top-of-the-line filtering, gutter and chlorinating systems and would be big and deep enough for CCS Championship swim meets, for water polo practices and competitions, and for the boys' and girls' swim teams to practice in at the same time, the parent group said.
The pool that the parent group is proposing would have the long arm of the "L" consist of six 50-meter lane and the short arm would consist of eight 25-yard lanes. The new pool would have a graduated depth that ranges from around 7 feet near the top of the "L" to 13 feet, 8 inches at the bottom of the "L." The short branch of the "L" would also serve as the diving well and would have two 1-meter boards and two 3-meter boards--two more diving boards than the current diving well.
In addition, the new pool would be faster and would increase the swimming and recreational time available to Los Gatos residents, the parent group said.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
