The Rundown: District 231 Board Moves Forward on Pool Renovation, Approves 2012 Budget

The District 231 Board of Education decided to renovate their pool this year at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. Metro Design, an engineering firm in Elgin, received $15,715 from the school board to develop a design that meets Illinois High School Association (IHSA) swimming competition standards.   

Currently, the depth of the water below the pool’s competition’s starting deck is only 3ft. 6in.; this doesn’t meet the IHSA requirements requiring the depth of the pool to be at least 4ft., said Evergreen Park Community High School facility manager, William McGuire.  Since the school’s pool doesn’t meet IHSA pool requirements it cannot host any swimming meets, he said.

Keith O’Higgins, President of Metro Design presented two designs to the school board weighing the pros and cons of each. O’Higgins recommended raising the water level to 4ft. 9in. with a new gutter system and a new pump. This gets rid of the raised edge of the pool that can be hazardous, he said.  The cost of this option would be approximately between $125,000 and $135,000. 

O’Higgins also explained another option to remove the pool bottom to drop the pool floor down and reseal it after its completion as well as replacing the old pump.  Although this would cost less than the other option, the school runs the risk of breaking the pool’s seal permanently, O’Higgins explained.

Breaking the seal permanently can cause the pool to leak doubling the price to fix it,” school board member Shaun Murphy added.  

Concerned School board member Cheryl Pinotti along with many other board members, hoped the increase in the depth of the pool wouldn’t have a negative effect on swim lessons.  

Athletes Must Meet Higher Standards this Year

Starting this school year, the school board approved a new rule requiring all high school athletes to have at least a 1.5 grade point average to compete. If in four weeks students don’t bring up their GPA to 1.5 they are off the team, said Evergreen Park Community High School Principal William Sanderson.   

Previously, if students had a GPA lower than 1.5 they could still play, but were required to attend at least two tutoring sessions conducted by their coaches. Currently, about 17 students are ineligible to compete due to their GPA, Sanderson said.

Coaches at the high school identified three students who fell below the 1.5 GPA, but were still passing all of their classes. The coaches hoped the board could make an exception to allow the students to compete. The Board of Education decided not to make any exceptions.

“If we don’t set a standard than we won’t motivate them to do better,” Pinotti remarked.

School Board Approves 2011-2012 Budget

District 231 Board of Education board unanimously approved the school’s budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. In August, using conservative estimates, according to Supt. M. Elizabeth Hart.

To date, the school’s direct budgetary revenues amount to $17,187,167. This year they will spend $16,668,801 leaving a surplus of $518,366 for next school year.  This number can change if the number of students increase, said Hart.