Save Upper Darby High School Pool (UPDATE!)
Save Upper Darby High School Pool (UPDATE!)
The Issue
DECEMBER 18TH UPDATE!!
We met with the board last night. They went over the options and heard our voices. We can say with confidence that Option 3 for the pool "The Reimagining" will be taken off the table and the two options of Ongoing FIxes or Complete Renovations are still on the table. The Pool will be saved for another 50 years! It's because of your voices, emails, texts that were able to help us out and cannot thank you enough. There is still a lot of work to be done! The fight is not over.
______________________________________________________________
Good Afternoon Families,
On December 13, 2024, Tara and I were pulled into a meeting with the Upper Darby High School Principal, Dr. Parkinson and UDHS Athletic Director, Russell Benditt to discuss the future of the UDHS Pool. Kelly Simone suggested they speak with us before a formal meeting by the Facilities Department occurs on Tuesday with council.
Last Tuesday, December 10th, both Dr. Parkinson and Mr. Benditt were invited to a preliminary meeting with Marvin Lee and Craig Rogers (Upper Darby School District Facilities and Maintenance Team) to forewarn them that the school district will be releasing a proposal about the future of the UDHS pool this coming Monday, December 16th.
We were told that their proposal to the council will include three different options for the UDHS pool. Marvin Lee and Craig Rogers said that due to the decrease in the “numbers” of the high school swim program, the future of the UDHS pool’s three options is:
1. Continue to maintain the pool and “fix” things as a band-aid
2. To close the pool entirely
3. A proposed $12-million-dollar renovation that will close the pool for about a year.
If option number 2 were voted on (close the pool entirely), the natatorium would be turned into a mental health area. Supposedly the public members will have an opportunity to vote on these three proposed ideas. Dates, location, and availability to a vote has not been mentioned yet.
As we all know, this facility was closed to the public in 2020 after the COVID pandemic. At one time, there was the Upper Darby Department of Recreation who had their own office and staff that ran numerous programs for the UD community. One of those programs included various aquatic activities held at UDHS pool throughout the entire year. The pool operated on a membership basis and was available to ALL residents in Delaware County.
Affordable swim lessons were offered to adults and children of all ages, along with recreational swim times, lap swim, birthday parties (which included rented space in the adjacent community room), and Red Cross Lifeguard Certification courses. All of these programs were available to our entire community.
When Upper Darby School District decided to disband the Department of Recreation and cancel ALL available aquatic activities, it not only impacted the UDHS swim program, but also affected opportunities and pool availability for outside swim teams. We are already dealing with limited time and pool availability while the UDHS pool is in operation. If the pool were to officially close and be removed from the UDHS property, the impact to the Upper Darby High School Swim Team and other local swim teams would be extremely detrimental.
The UDHS Swim Team’s future is completely unknown at this time if the pool closes, which would eliminate a Central League team at the high school. It was briefly discussed about the possibility of busing high school students to an off-site location for swim practice. However, that would cost additional fees for the families, and there are already busing issues within the school district just to get all students to school each day.
Another important fact to point out is, UDHS is one of twelve schools within the Central League, and of those twelve schools, only a few have their own pool. UDHS is one of the rare schools that has a pool that sits directly on their high school property. Why would we now be considering removing the pool?
We have discussed running swim lessons at Upper Darby with our high school swimmers teaching young kids in our community to swim. The UDSD Facilities Department denied our request to move forward with lessons.
I am asking for all of us to ban together as a united front to save our happy home! Dr. Parkinson told us that we can make this information public knowledge as of today, December 14th. Tara has coached at UDHS pool for 25 years. I was a student at UDHS and was a swimmer on the swim team. I returned to my roots to coach at the high school because I love this community and being a part of it in so many ways. I have been coaching at UDHS since 2021.
We absolutely cannot let this school district take something else away from the community, our kids, and the future of multiple swim programs! We need to make a lot of chatter and noise to get them to keep our pool where it is and treat it like every other sport in the school district. We need to be LOUD, and we must make sure they hear us all! We need to get back to offering the community the opportunity to learn how to swim.
It is a necessary life skill! There is an absolute need to keep it open for our high school swim team as they are competitive throughout the Central League. It should not matter the size of the swim team, it is the impact that the kids make, and how the team helps shape and define the kids. There are other teams at UDHS that are small and cannot field a full team, but they have not shut down their programs. Please help me by reaching out to the appropriate parties to voice your concerns, tell them how unacceptable this situation is, and we will not stand by and watch it happen! Flood your social media accounts with your concerns.
Make the public and our entire community know what is happening and help them understand the negative impact this would have on our kids. Send emails, letters, make phone calls, and bombard the district with your concerns, distress, aggravation, and opposition of them closing the UDHS pool. Below are the district’s contacts regarding this matter. Please email ALL individuals listed. Thank you to everyone for your support, help, assistance, care, and concern. I truly appreciate you all!
Craig Rogers (CFO) – cjrogers@upperdarbysd.org
Marvin Lee (Director of Operations) – mlee@upperdarbysd.org
Dan McGarry (Superintendent) - dmcgarry@upperdarbysd.org
Kelley Simone (Secondary Edu) - ksimone@upperdarbysd.org
Dr. Craig Parkinson (UDHS Principal) - cparkinson@upperdarbysd.org
Thank you,
Coach Katie
3,795
The Issue
DECEMBER 18TH UPDATE!!
We met with the board last night. They went over the options and heard our voices. We can say with confidence that Option 3 for the pool "The Reimagining" will be taken off the table and the two options of Ongoing FIxes or Complete Renovations are still on the table. The Pool will be saved for another 50 years! It's because of your voices, emails, texts that were able to help us out and cannot thank you enough. There is still a lot of work to be done! The fight is not over.
______________________________________________________________
Good Afternoon Families,
On December 13, 2024, Tara and I were pulled into a meeting with the Upper Darby High School Principal, Dr. Parkinson and UDHS Athletic Director, Russell Benditt to discuss the future of the UDHS Pool. Kelly Simone suggested they speak with us before a formal meeting by the Facilities Department occurs on Tuesday with council.
Last Tuesday, December 10th, both Dr. Parkinson and Mr. Benditt were invited to a preliminary meeting with Marvin Lee and Craig Rogers (Upper Darby School District Facilities and Maintenance Team) to forewarn them that the school district will be releasing a proposal about the future of the UDHS pool this coming Monday, December 16th.
We were told that their proposal to the council will include three different options for the UDHS pool. Marvin Lee and Craig Rogers said that due to the decrease in the “numbers” of the high school swim program, the future of the UDHS pool’s three options is:
1. Continue to maintain the pool and “fix” things as a band-aid
2. To close the pool entirely
3. A proposed $12-million-dollar renovation that will close the pool for about a year.
If option number 2 were voted on (close the pool entirely), the natatorium would be turned into a mental health area. Supposedly the public members will have an opportunity to vote on these three proposed ideas. Dates, location, and availability to a vote has not been mentioned yet.
As we all know, this facility was closed to the public in 2020 after the COVID pandemic. At one time, there was the Upper Darby Department of Recreation who had their own office and staff that ran numerous programs for the UD community. One of those programs included various aquatic activities held at UDHS pool throughout the entire year. The pool operated on a membership basis and was available to ALL residents in Delaware County.
Affordable swim lessons were offered to adults and children of all ages, along with recreational swim times, lap swim, birthday parties (which included rented space in the adjacent community room), and Red Cross Lifeguard Certification courses. All of these programs were available to our entire community.
When Upper Darby School District decided to disband the Department of Recreation and cancel ALL available aquatic activities, it not only impacted the UDHS swim program, but also affected opportunities and pool availability for outside swim teams. We are already dealing with limited time and pool availability while the UDHS pool is in operation. If the pool were to officially close and be removed from the UDHS property, the impact to the Upper Darby High School Swim Team and other local swim teams would be extremely detrimental.
The UDHS Swim Team’s future is completely unknown at this time if the pool closes, which would eliminate a Central League team at the high school. It was briefly discussed about the possibility of busing high school students to an off-site location for swim practice. However, that would cost additional fees for the families, and there are already busing issues within the school district just to get all students to school each day.
Another important fact to point out is, UDHS is one of twelve schools within the Central League, and of those twelve schools, only a few have their own pool. UDHS is one of the rare schools that has a pool that sits directly on their high school property. Why would we now be considering removing the pool?
We have discussed running swim lessons at Upper Darby with our high school swimmers teaching young kids in our community to swim. The UDSD Facilities Department denied our request to move forward with lessons.
I am asking for all of us to ban together as a united front to save our happy home! Dr. Parkinson told us that we can make this information public knowledge as of today, December 14th. Tara has coached at UDHS pool for 25 years. I was a student at UDHS and was a swimmer on the swim team. I returned to my roots to coach at the high school because I love this community and being a part of it in so many ways. I have been coaching at UDHS since 2021.
We absolutely cannot let this school district take something else away from the community, our kids, and the future of multiple swim programs! We need to make a lot of chatter and noise to get them to keep our pool where it is and treat it like every other sport in the school district. We need to be LOUD, and we must make sure they hear us all! We need to get back to offering the community the opportunity to learn how to swim.
It is a necessary life skill! There is an absolute need to keep it open for our high school swim team as they are competitive throughout the Central League. It should not matter the size of the swim team, it is the impact that the kids make, and how the team helps shape and define the kids. There are other teams at UDHS that are small and cannot field a full team, but they have not shut down their programs. Please help me by reaching out to the appropriate parties to voice your concerns, tell them how unacceptable this situation is, and we will not stand by and watch it happen! Flood your social media accounts with your concerns.
Make the public and our entire community know what is happening and help them understand the negative impact this would have on our kids. Send emails, letters, make phone calls, and bombard the district with your concerns, distress, aggravation, and opposition of them closing the UDHS pool. Below are the district’s contacts regarding this matter. Please email ALL individuals listed. Thank you to everyone for your support, help, assistance, care, and concern. I truly appreciate you all!
Craig Rogers (CFO) – cjrogers@upperdarbysd.org
Marvin Lee (Director of Operations) – mlee@upperdarbysd.org
Dan McGarry (Superintendent) - dmcgarry@upperdarbysd.org
Kelley Simone (Secondary Edu) - ksimone@upperdarbysd.org
Dr. Craig Parkinson (UDHS Principal) - cparkinson@upperdarbysd.org
Thank you,
Coach Katie
3,795
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Petition created on December 14, 2024