School pools open but swim classes delayed
August 29, 2008
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Louise Brown
EDUCATION REPORTER
It could be October before students start swim classes again at the 23 Toronto schools whose pools had been scheduled to close.
Trustees voted this week to use a special $4 million grant from Queen's Park to keep the pools open one more year while former mayor David Crombie leads a working group to seek long-range funding for pools owned by the Toronto District School Board.
But it likely will take several weeks before the board hires back the swim instructors laid off last spring, said board chair John Campbell.
"Schools are going to need some time at the beginning of the year to get to this – it's a busy time – and high schools with pools will have to redo their timetables because when they set them before the summer, they thought the pools would be closed," said Campbell yesterday.
"So people will have to be a little patient. It will probably be early October before swim classes are up and running, but then again, we have 472 schools that don't have pools."
Trustee Josh Matlow failed to win a vote to hire back the 32 swim instructors immediately, so swim classes won't begin next week.
"Realistically, there are going to be a number of children who arrive at school next week who think the schools' pools are open but they'll find the doors closed," warned Matlow.
He said people who heard about the $4 million grant this summer have been "popping champagne bottles" to celebrate that the pools have another year's reprieve.
Toronto Star