City's Gift of $150,000 Helps SHS Swimming Pool Plan Stay Afloat

SHS principal will get the best facility possible

Plans include amenities

By Kara Chalmers

For the past two years, Saratoga High School Principal Kevin Skelly has led a fundraising effort for a new $1.7 million Olympic-sized pool for the school. It has not been easy. Construction bids came in 40 percent higher than expected. And even when the high school boosters club increased its donation and more individual donors came forward, Skelly had to decide what to sacrifice to get the facility's plans off the starting blocks.

But now it seems as if Skelly will get the best aquatic center possible, with all the amenities included in the original plans. The City Council on Jan. 19 enthusiastically approved contributing $150,000 towards the pool, per the recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Commission.

"This is a really good time for them to say 'yes,' " Skelly said after the meeting. "It allows us to build a facility without cutting corners that would reduce the aesthetics or functioning of the pool."

The city will use its general fund reserves, and the money will be considered a "sinking fund," or prepayment, for approximately 10 years' worth of future charges for the school's facilities, for programs run by the city's Recreation Department, like tennis, basketball and now swimming. It will be like an interest-free loan, Skelly said.

"With your contribution, we'll be able to build not just a good pool, but a great pool," Skelly said at the meeting, which many pool supporters attended.

Since the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District board voted in November, there was never a possibility that the pool wouldn't be built. The old pool has been demolished, and construction is set to begin within the week and end in August.

Skelly said he previously believed the school had the financial ability to fund all the plans for the aquatic center without help from the city. However, although he and others successfully raised some $1.5 million, they were still $150,000 short--until now.

Skelly said he would have preferred not to ask the city for money, but said he thinks the arrangement will end up being beneficial to the whole Saratoga community, and that he was pleased with the city's response.

Without the city's help, Skelly's other option would have been to build a pool without some amenities. According to Doug Jones, SHS swim coach and girls' water polo coach, these amenities, such as wrought-iron fencing, stripes on bottom and sides of the pool, lane lines, more depth, more deck space, and a computerized heating and filtering system, contribute to the success of the school's athletes. For example, the stripes at the bottom of the pool affect the race plans and training of swimmers, because it is important to train in the same scenario one competes in.

"It's the same reason you wouldn't train in a lake," Jones said. Also, with a depth less than 10 feet, the pool would never be able to host divers.

"These things will affect the range and size of a contest," Jones said. "Ideally, we want to have a facility than can host a huge swim meet and an international water polo tournament."

While the plan still lacks bleachers and a large scoreboard, Skelly said that more fundraising could be done for those.

"We feel it is a really nice facility everyone can be proud of," said Karen Garappolo, president of the SHS Athletic boosters. "The extra money will allow us to build it the way it was meant to be built."

This is the first time the city has contributed specifically to the new pool effort. Yet for the past four years, the city has prepaid to rent athletic facilities at the high school for a smaller sum averaging about $10,000 per year. According to Saratoga Recreation Director Joan Pisani, the city in 1999 rented a total of 447.5 hours for tennis, basketball, open gym, volleyball and field use at SHS.

The city's $150,000 contribution may also solidify the city's existing agreement with SHS for the use of its playfields in the future. In the next few years, the city will make improvements to Congress Springs Park's playfields. The facility is scheduled to be closed for the length of the Saratoga Little League's 2001 season and possibly for two months of the American Youth Soccer Organization's season, Pisani said. Skelly said that SHS would be ready to help during that time. AYSO used the high school's facilities on a limited basis this past year for the first time, and Little League will use the high school's fields this spring, Skelly said.

According to Pisani, now the city may be able to run some aquatics programs, something Saratoga has never had. Skelly said he anticipates a Masters' swim program at the new pool, recreational swimming, lifeguard training and water polo. The plan is for Jones to manage the aquatic center, so the city will not need to contribute any staff.

About 10 years ago, Saratoga began entering into cooperative agreements with local school districts--West Valley/Mission Community College, Redwood Middle School and Saratoga High School--so that Saratoga residents would have more places to play sports, and the schools could build and maintain better facilities.

In 1988, the City Council funded Saratoga High School's requested $16,000 for refurbishing the tennis courts, in exchange for the Recreation Department's use of the facilities. In 1996, the city gave $10,000 to the high school to make track improvements in exchange for 200 hours of usage per year, and in recent years the city has contributed another $14,000, Pisani said.

The high school could not use any of the $79 million in bond money from Measure B, passed by voters in 1997, for the new pool because the money is slated only for renovating or constructing instructional facilities.

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