Highlands will drain its pool, ship swimmers to Burrell, Valley

The leaking swimming pool at Highlands High School will be drained this week while district leaders consider long-term fixes that could cost up to $160,000.

In the meantime, the swim team will get its laps in at Burrell and Valley school districts, which have offered to open their pools to the 21 members of the Highlands team, athletic director Drew Karpen said.

“I reached out to a couple of venues, and both Burrell and Valley leaders said they would do it rent-free,” Karpen said. “It would just be neighboring districts helping each other.”

The swim team season starts Nov. 19.

As proposed, the swim team would have practices from 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays at Burrell High School and would host its seven home meets at Valley High School.

Swim team members would need to find their own transportation to and from weekday practices.

“We can’t be guaranteed a bus to get them to practices because of end-of-the-day runs and the current driver shortage,” Karpen said.

The district will incur about an extra $1,400 in costs for buses to the seven home meets. Karpen expects to pay ABC Transit about $194 for each bus to Valley.

Starting in Decemeber, the swim team typically has early-morning practices three times a week before school, but those sessions would be dropped from the schedule, he said.

“We’re not going to get to Burrell and back before class starts,” Karpen said.

The pool’s closure would not impact student schedules, board members said.

Swimming programs have not drawn enough interest to run any classes this year.

School board members on Monday night agreed that closing the pool was a tough but smart decision.

A last-ditch assessment of the pool revealed it lost about 4 inches of water over a 24-hour period, said Chris Reiser, the district’s buildings and grounds supervisor.

“It may not sound like a lot, but that’s about 7,000 gallons of water,” he said.

The district has spent about $5,000 trying to pinpoint the leaks.

He outlined three routes for school board members to consider moving forward.

“We could put another diver in the water to” search for trouble spots, he said.

That would cost about $2,100.

“We could go with a PVC-welded liner which could run $50,000 to $65,000,” Reiser said.

The liner would have a 12-year warranty.

A third option would be to re-tile the bottom of the pool, which could cost up to $160,000.

Superintendent Monique Mawhinney surveyed the board and encouraged them to consider which option would be best for the district.

“If you’ve got a pool, you might as well keep it functioning,” board member Judy Wisner said.

Fellow board member Debbie Beale agreed, saying she doesn’t want the pool sitting unused.

“I think we should look into the liner,” Beale said. “If we get it working, we can have evening swim times again.”

Reiser is expected to collect more details, including the possible length of each project, and report back to the board.

The board meets next at 7 p.m. Monday.