District 128 Pool Users Adapt to New Schedule

This week is the start of figuring out new schedules for many pool users at Community High School District 128 pools.

The district closed pools Oct. 1 at and Vernon Hills high schools after it failed to get an extension to meet a pool compliance mandate.

Some parents blame the district, while others say the state is also at fault for not communicating the changes well to the district.

Regardless of who is to blame, the pool closures are more than just an inconvenience for swimmers — it also is eating into busy schedules.

“I’m getting less time to myself with homework being piled on with less time in the day,” said Morgan Dickson, a junior who is one of the top swimmers at Libertyville High School. Dickson broke the school’s 200 free pool record Friday. “I’m also getting less sleep with all the activity and bouncing from Stevenson and Mundelein.”

Impact of Decreased Pool Time

Mundelein and Stevenson high schools have donated pool time so the . But pool use time has dropped.

“Swim time has decreased to half of what we used to have at the JV level, but we are still working to increase their swim time as much as possible,” said Briant Kelly, athletic director for .

For the varsity team, the swim time has decreased by two to three hours per week. Practice time for both teams, however, have increased because of travel time.

“She’s not going to have time to study,” said Sue Dickson, Morgan’s mom.  “For my daughter this is the crucial time in the season, it’s heavy workout and needs to be really consistent.”

is working with the athletes by adding exercises that do not involve pool time, but parents say for swimmers, pool time is very important.

“With swimmers, they need to be in the pool; that’s the only way they can compete,” Sue said. “You can’t compete if you are not in the pool.”

She is also concerned what less pool time could mean for her daughter’s chances for a scholarship in the future.

“Junior year is an important year with regards to recruiting,” Sue said. “The NCAA cannot talk to her until the summer of 2012, so what (the recruiters) really base a lot of stuff on is what the swimmers are doing in the junior year.”

Area Swimmers Going as Far as Kenosha for Pool Time

Another group of swimmers juggling a new schedule is the CATS Aquatic Team, a nonprofit that serves swimmers in the Libertyville and Vernon Hills area. The team uses both district pools and now has to bus its swimmers to Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., on weeknights, and to one of the pools at Zion-Benton, Mundelein or Centre Club on weekends.

The team’s swim time is also down about 50 percent to four to five hours per week from between 10 and 12 hours weekly.

Steven Marcus, president of the CATS Aquatic Team, says the pool closures are unfortunate because it affects so many swimmers for an issue that may not even exist in District 128 pools.

“We’ve been told by engineers that the risk of drainage suction issue problem does not exist in our pool. We don’t think there have been any drainage suction fatalities at a high school pool that we’ve been able to identify,” Marcus said. “In enforcing compliance, one would hope that our state would take into account the risk associated with replacing the drain systems versus the displacement of thousands of swimmers in our state.”

From 1999 to 2010, 12 people died because they were trapped by water circulation systems in a pool, according to a Consumer Product Safety Commission report.

“As events have played out, we are disheartened by the unwillingness of the Illinois Department of Public Health and the governor to grant an extension of the Oct 1, 2011, compliance date,” Marcus said. “The position of the IDPH, that ample notice was given, seems to lack credibility as so many school districts are on the list of noncompliant pools. As with District 128, those school districts all seem to otherwise be schools that regularly and effectively meet compliance standards imposed by the state.”

The district's are among about 500 pools across the state that do not have updated drains covers to prevent swimmers from powerful suctions coming from the drains.

A Springfield YMCA pool reopened Tuesday afternoon after the Y was able to work out an agreement with the state regarding drain-cover compliance, according to The State Journal-Register.

On District 128's website, the district says it will provide an update on Oct. 5 with regard to pool closures.

"We have not received any word of an extension, but continue to work with our local counsel regarding this urgent issue," wrote Mary Todoric, director of communications for District 128, in an email on Wednesday.

While the local pool closures have been hard for the team, Marcus says he hopes the children can learn something from it.

“When you get into difficult situations people either finger point or collaborate, and it has been an amazing journey for our club,” Marcus said referring to how the coaches, parents and swimmers have all worked together to deal with the pool closures.

In addition, Marcus says the district has been amazing and transparent with the team about changes and has indicated it would help pay for transportation costs to Carthage College.

Residents Wonder: How Will District Pay for Transportation?

Libertyville residents, however, wonder how District 128 will fund the cost of transporting CATS Aquatic Team to alternative pools.

“The CATS Aquatic program is a rental they are not affiliated with our district, yet, they have obtained a lot of pools to swim at for their organization and they’ve also got bus transportation being covered by our tax dollars,” said Julie Hopkins, Libertyville resident whose daughter is on ’s junior varsity swim team. “Why in the world are we paying tax dollars for a private club that pays rent to those pools?”

Todoric, the director of communications for District 128, says the district is still working with the swimming community on the best way to cover costs associated with busing swimmers to alternative pools.