The pool at Memorial Boulevard School where generations of students have learned to swim is in its last laps.
The pool would need “significant renovations” to remain more than a few years, said Tom O’Brien, a member of the Board of Education.
“Long-term, the pool will be closed,” he said.
In fact, O’Brien said, in “a relatively short time” the pool is likely to be out of service for good.
Marci Jones, the principal of the middle school, said the pool is currently used as a teaching station for physical education classes.
Jones said that half the students in the class are in the nearby gymnasium while the other half are in the pool. They switch off, she said, so that everybody gets a turn in the water.
Swimming courses take place from November until spring break, the school’s website says, and all students “are required to take part.”
Educators plan to close the school as part of a switch to a kindergarten to eighth grade system that will open two new schools and shutter three old elementary buildings and the former high school on Memorial Boulevard.
Consultants working on a possible community theater in the historic auditorium, which would remain even if the school closes, said that the pool area might be perfect for a “green room” where actors and performers could prepare before going on stage.
The pool and gym are located under the auditorium, with the pool underneath the stage itself.
Assuming the school projects aren’t delayed long, there probably wouldn’t be more than a year or two when the school would remain open with a new theater operating. There might not be any overlap at all.
Bill Clegg, president of the Schoenhardt architectural firm in Simsbury, said that theater experts need to know the fate of the pool to figure out how best to redesign the historic school’s auditorium to add rehearsal, dressing, storage, set and other rooms needed to make it more functional.
City Councilor Craig Minor said he had “held out hope” that the pool might have a place even after the school closes.
But O’Brien said it can’t remain.
The building was finished in 1922 and served as the city’s only high school until 1959. It was converted to a junior high school in 1967. Since 1993, it has housed sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
25 comments:
I've had enough with Tom "the reconstructionist" O'Brien and his elitest, liberal, big-spending, liberal guilt. Get him off the BOE ASAP!
DUMP O'BRIEN IN 2011
or better yet:
IMPEACH O'BRIEN IN 2008!
Good luck! He receives the most votes of any BOE candidate and he has for years.
Choose another battle 8:34.
had a shot this year and didn't exercise it - stop talking and do something.
For the record the Memorial Boulevard pool is older than John McCain...
one of few things that actually is.
http://www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com/
my daughter attends memorial blvd school, and personally, i think it's a disgrace that my daughter has to spend so many formative hours there.
i would like to see the new K-8 schools built as quickly as possible, so my kids have the best possible learning environment.
i also don't mind have my taxes raised to pay for the schools.
-billy from bristol
Whatever happened to the proposed theatre improvements at Mem., Blvd School? Is this dead too?
More on the theater proposal soon.
Hey Billy, are you saying that the building effects the quality of the teaching? So we should spend 10's of millions just so she has a good view?
btw, I'll send over my inflated tax bill so you can feel twice as good about paying.
Thw Ward administration will go down in history as the least productive administration in years!
We should have built the pool at BCHS when we had the chance in the 70s .Short cited board of finance
We should have built the pool at BCHS when we had the chance in the 70s .Short cited board of finance
perhaps but saying there was one always proved to be a great joke to pull on freshmen.
4:40
Right on!
billy, hopefully your daughter has your wife's brains or she's adopted.
July 1, 2008 8:53 PM:
Sorry. I will not!
DUMP the Brat O'Brien!
More of O'Brat's new mega school campaign.
Might as well donate the building to O'Brien Funeral Home or perhaps name the new school the O'Brien
School.
July 1, 2008 8:53 PM:
Maybe he has a point about needing new schools. You can't count that well. He's only been elected twice.
"Thw Ward administration will go down in history as the least productive administration in years!"
Excellent news ~ with a looming recession, gas prices, and inflation ~ seems Mr. Ward has the right idea!
10:02
With Real Estate available, now is the time for the city to buy, ifthey need it and have a plan for it.
But, now is the time to cut costs and artie is not doing that.
You sound very confused 6:23 ~ first you want him to buy property, then you want him to cut costs, which is it?
10:02
The cheapest way may be the dearest in the end!
As a city resident with no children yet, I cannot understand why a K-8 system would be an improvement.
I attended school in another town that had K-5 in the elementary schools, a town-wide 6th grade (own school) as a transition year, one 7-8 middle school, and the high school. I just don't get putting 8th graders in the same school as kindergarteners. How is a K-8 going to prepare students adequately for high school?
Who is BTW?
DUMP BARBARA DOYLE TOO***********
8:26
Cutting current budgetary and operational costs are one thing, buying property for future development is another, and is accounted for differently.
Good mangers take advantage of oppotunities rather than crawing into a shell when things get tough.
Once MB is closed as a school, turned over to the city, the BOE and OBrien have nothing to say about what is done with it.
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