Pool committee, district finally starting to mix

Andrew Wainer

City, community and high school district officials will meet Friday to

figure out how to raise the $1.5 million needed to build a new aquatic

complex at Huntington Beach High School.

The Huntington Beach Union High School District placated a parent

uprising last week when district and city officials pledged renewed

financial and logistical support for the rebuilding of the moribund

Huntington Beach High School pool, which has been unused since 1992.

Members of the “Take the Plunge” community fund-raising campaign fired

verbal volleys at last Wednesday’s board meeting, accusing the district

of neglecting its commitment to work with the city and community to

rebuild the pool.

“The district told us the pool would be completed by the summer of 2000,”

parent Sandra King told district officials. “Now that seems impossible.”

Rick Plummer, whose three daughters attend the school said officials

echoed King’s frustration.

“They [district officials] have not demonstrated the leadership or

commitment necessary to construct the pool,” Plummer said. “It has not

been a team effort.”

Community members have been urging the district to take action on the

pool since 1991, said Huntington Beach High School Foundation President

Sylvia Garrett. But it wasn’t until the Aquatics Boosters joined with the

foundation in 1997 that fund-raising for the project got off the ground.

The marriage of the two groups gave birth to the Take the Plunge

campaign, which raised $600,000 over the course of a year and a half.

Campaign members also forged a partnership with the district, which

pledged to help bring the $1.5-million aquatic project to fruition.

Garrett said the campaign gave her and Aquatic Booster president Tom Shaw

a crash course in fund-raising.

“We became very good at grant writing,” Garrett said. “We appealed to

Boeing, Bank of America and anyone else we could talk to for money,”

And they succeeded.

The collection of more than half a million dollars in such a short time

stunned city and district officials and led some campaign members to feel

they were carrying all the burden of the project while others were doing

nothing.

By the Oct. 12 board meeting, parents and residents were losing their

patience, and they let district officials know it.

“I understand their frustration,” Garrett said. “The district welcomed a

partnership with us, and now they are backing out.”

But just two days after campaign members’ anger peaked, the city and

district called a Joint Committee meeting to reexamine the project.

Councilmen Dave Garofalo and Ralph Bauer, Supt. Susan Roper and members

of the Take the Plunge campaign were on hand to update disgruntled

parents about status of the pool project.

The district quickly announced it would add $170,000 over 10 years to the

pool campaign through its Oak View Redevelopment Project. The report of

concrete aid from the district soothed the resentment.

“I think the district is finally starting to be proactive,” Garrett said.

“They are engaging in real dialogue and using real numbers.”

Garrett was also encouraged by the city officials’ support of the

campaign. Garofalo was particularly resolute about finishing the pool in

a timely manner.

“Take the Plunge has delivered its part in raising money for the

project,” Garofalo said. “We owe it to them to do our part.”

“These people practically killed themselves raising that money,” Bauer

added.

Garofalo also recommended creating a task force to identify funding

sources for the remaining $800,000 needed to finish the project.

State and federal grants, corporate and community funding and selling

naming rights were some of the possible sources identified by the joint

committee.

Tom Shaw, who as president of the Aquatic Boosters helped Garrett raise

the money for the pool, was also pleased with the committee’s results.

“I feel positive that the city is motivated to finish the facility. I

also think the school district is doing everything possible to finish the

project,” Shaw said.

Garrett, who only days earlier was fuming at the district’s inertia on

the pool project, also waxed optimistic.

“It looks like we are finally on the road to starting a partnership,” she

said. “The way it was supposed to be.”