After we reported Board Member Beth Daugherty's report that the pool would shutdown, several students and members of the recently record-breaking girls swim team showed up to protest.
At the same meeting, the board changed course and said no final decision had been made.
Estimates to fully renovate the pool or convert it to other uses have ranged from $4 million to $8 million depending on the plan. District officials said it is already leaking in cracks at the bottom, but say that poses no safety hazard or immediate danger to the building.
Since then, we have reached out for more information on what would happen to the pool after the 2015-2016 school year.
Asked what the status of the pool is, District Spokeswoman Suzanne Turner recently stated only that "we will continue to use the pool, as long as it is still functional, while the conversation continues about the facility needs of Columbia High School and as the action planning continues to unfold."
Asked whether that meant it would be open next school year, she added, "if it is structurally sound."
The unclear situation seemed to get a little clearer on Monday when Daugherty offered an update from the Finance, Facilities and Technology Committee about capital projects in the future. She said at the committee's last meeting the pool was "a hot topic."
She said the district would seek to have a list of capital projects by next January to put before the Board of School Estimate for approval.
"Those projects would include the long-term use of the pool," she said. "Our goal is to make a decision about that in December."
That would seem to indicate that the pool will be in use until at least December. But until the district states specifically, it is still unclear.
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