Edison High School Principal Lindsay Sanders is bubbling with excitement after the Fresno Unified School Board unanimously approved plans to move forward with the design of a new $3.9 million pool.
"I was just thrilled. I was just excited. I know my families were excited and of course our kids too," Sanders said.
Over the last few years the Edison's current pool has been plagued with problems.
"Edison's pool was built in 1951, 62 years ago and we're having mechanical failures and the pool has been unusable this year for periods of time," Karin Temple with Fresno Unified Operational Services said.
Sanders says because of a pump problem, swimmers were kept out of the water for more than three weeks, and the school had to scramble to find other pools for teams to practice in.
"To be honest with you during the two years I've been here it's broken down more than it's been functioning," Sanders said.
The pool is also too shallow and too small to hold major swim meets, dive and water polo competitions. In addition the pool is too small for PE courses for both Edison High and Computech middle schools which share the facilities.
"The pool that we're envisioning, it will be 25 yards by 35 meters, it will be great for high school competition, it could also be used for community use during the summer," Temple said.
While officials hope to break ground on the new pool by early 2015 they are also gearing up to start construction of a new $11.9 million dollar building at McLane High School. The construction is set to replace nearly 20 portable classrooms on campus.
"It will be a three story classroom building, 15 classrooms, and 22,000 square feet. It will be adjacent to an existing classroom and it will really change the look and feel of the campus." Temple said.
The projects are funded by Measure Q and are benefitting thousands of students.
Roosevelt and Sunnyside will also get a fresh coat of paint under two separate $1 million plans. Improvements will also be made to Sunnyside's football stadium to make the field playable for competition soccer. And Fresno High's iconic Royce Hall will be upgraded to create better acoustics for performances.
