Burrell swim co-op with Kiski causes some waves

While Burrell School District is eyeing a swimming cooperative agreement with Kiski Area for the next two years, it’s unclear what the future may hold for Burrell’s pool.

And that’s causing some waves between the Bucs’ swimming community and school officials.

Burrell swimmers, parents and swim team alumni took their concerns to the school board this week, questioning the cooperative agreement and the future of the team and pool. They also shared personal accounts of how being involved in the team had a positive influence on their lives.

“The bottom line is, the perception of many people in this room is that swimming has been deprioritized in this community and this district,” said Kate Spiering, a mother of two swimmers on the team. “We need clarity on the future of the pool, and we want to make sure that the board has the factual information about the interest of some of the community members and the kids in the school to sustain this program.”

Burrell has approved its end of the co-op agreement and is waiting for Kiski to do so, Superintendent Shannon Wagner said. The co-op would be for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.

Under the agreement, Burrell would pay a per-student cost, which has yet to be determined.

There are only eight swimmers on Burrell’s high school team this year. That number has decreased over the years, and administrators believe the co-op with Kiski would help to bolster the program.

Kiski was chosen because the teams together would keep Kiski in Class 3A and move up Burrell from 2A, Wagner said. Generally, classes in Pennsylvania interscholastic sports are based on a school’s enrollment. If Burrell did a co-op with Valley, for example, both teams would be forced to move up from 2A to 3A.

There also are issues with the pool itself and where the boiler is located. Wagner said the district will wait until the swim season is over so they can lower the pool levels and have contractors and architects investigate the pool, which was built in 1963.

“I don’t have the information on what the pool needs … the sustainability of the pool, or any of those things as we’re sitting here tonight,” Wagner said. “We are working on gathering that information, so we will have that eventually. Then the board will make a decision.”

Wagner said she plans to present some findings to the school board at a meeting in the spring. The board will consider a cost-benefit analysis before making a decision on the pool.

Spiering reiterated that the pool and the swim team are valuable resources to the Burrell community.

“I’m really looking for a way to work with this board and keep this team going so it can benefit the future kids of this district as well as the current kids. It is the only sport, truly, that is all-inclusive,” she said.

The school board heard comments similar to Spiering’s for about an hour and a half. The exchanges, at times, were heated. Some school board members became frustrated because they couldn’t answer questions about the pool since they won’t have that information until after the swim season is over.

“It just sounds like you guys think we’re beating up on you. We have absolutely no clue what’s going to happen, what it’s going to cost, what it’s going to take to do anything with the pool. You’re asking questions we can’t answer,” board member Rick Kaczor said.

The board also rejected some claims that swimming is low on the totem pole as far as interscholastic athletics at Burrell are concerned.

Under board policy, Wagner said, the district only provides equipment for interscholastic athletics. Anything else is supplemented by a booster club.

Others raised questions about how the co-op with Kiski would work.

Board member LeeAnn Guido said every decision the board has made is to prevent Burrell from losing its swim team. She said she was under the impression that having the co-op with Kiski would provide more opportunities for Burrell swimmers.

“Know that every intention has been to support you, and it will continue to be to support the students in the Burrell School District because we value you. We do value swim, and we do see the positive impact,” Guido said.

Guido and board President Pam Key acknowledged Burrell swimmers are important and said the board is charged with making fiscally responsible decisions.

“We just need all the information we can possibly get to make sure that we can make a decision as fiscally responsible as we can,” Key said. “I don’t want you to feel that because you’re a swim team that you’re not important or because there’s only eight of you that you’re not important. That is not true.”