Parkway schools have never had a reputation for being the most beautiful schools: broken bathrooms and outdated classrooms could be to blame. However the founding of Project Parkway allows the district to propose renovations and allow for the best learning environments possible. Their newest proposal: to refurbish every high school pool. Pools are used by every school for various activities, for instance, swim and dive, water polo, and P.E. Currently, Central’s pool is 25-yards, too shallow for diving, not regulation sized to host a meet, and in desperate need of an upgrade.
The district has narrowed it down to 5 different options. The first, constructing four new diving wells for each school, a separate area of the pool designed specifically for diving; costing $40 million to build. Secondly, pool renovations for each school, this would consist of things like new filters, new equipment, etc. Estimated to cost $32.9 million. While it may not be the most popular plan, it may be the most realistic.
The most wanted proposal are four new meet regulation-sized pools, one for each school. By far the most expensive plan, however it is the one of two plans that has the ability to bring in money. Olympic sized pools have the ability to rake in money through meets, invitationals, and more; however many wonder if the $61.2 million dollars are worth it.
Freshman water polo player Zeidan Reza(9) believes in this plan.
“I think that the four new pools is by far the best option, our current pool is old and dirty. Renovations for all four are a good backup. But imagine how much money the district could earn back from hosting in four different schools,” Reza said.
Another financially benefiting plan is a shared, 50 yard, single site pool. A shared natatorium means the four schools would share for events and meets, but would remain in their current pool for practice. While ideal, it could be a cause for scheduling issues and arguments.
Alan Conway (9), a life long swimmer and water polo player, shares his thoughts about this proposal, “Yeah I think more people would like four new pools, but I think that a single shared one would be cheaper, and would be built a lot faster.”
Lastly, deemed the most useless proposal by swimmers, is a single site 25 yd swimming pool, unable to generate revenue. Sitting at $19 million to build, the cheapest pool could be used if a school’s pool were to malfunction; or too use the diving wells.
“By far this plan is kind of stupid, if people wanted diving wells; they might as well add them to each school, and if we got new pools or renovations, our pools would almost always be available.” Reza said.
Many students have already been affected by Project Parkway, the construction on the stadium’s concessions has caused long lines and delayed traffic to school. All of the in-school proposals could cause tremendous problems for current swimmers. The pool area would be off limits for at least several months. However it seems that some swimmers won’t mind this.
“Yeah we would have to go to other places to swim, but thinking about the new pools we could swim in sophomore or junior year, and the kids in middle school would have really good pools to swim in once they move up,” Conway said.
Nevertheless, despite the plan they choose to go through with, it’s clear Parkway is willing to better the district one step at a time. The Project Parkway initiative was definitely a step in the right direction.
“I really like all the changes they’re making to the school, I know I’m just a freshman but I’m glad to see a bunch of things just get improved and renovated. It gives the school a much more modern and aesthetic feel, and I hope that’ll better our reputation as a school,” Reza said.