Plans for old pool unclear, currently used as storage

Posted Dec. 15, 2021

By Farhiya Mohamed

Staff Reporter

Students have been wondering what the old pool and its building are currently being used for. The district hasn’t decided its future, so it is currently being used as storage for items like face-masks, hand sanitizer, spare desks, chairs, and other furniture.

“Long term, eventually that building will probably be torn down and replaced by a new structure for student use, but right now it is unknown when or what that use would be,” said district facility coordinator Dan McCue.

Recommendations for the building, which was built many years ago in 1960, include turning part of it into a dance studio. Due to that idea being prohibitive, how long ago it was built, and the cracked pool at the bottom of the building, it was decided to have the building torn down. The school board is thinking of putting a construction bond measure on the ballot for the May 2022 election.

Last year they developed a Long Range Facility Plan. Their Bond development committee has met twice in the last two weeks and plan to continue to meet in Dec. The committee includes four high school students and they will initiate bond projects from out of the Long Range Facility Plan. One top priority of the Long Range Facility Plan is to rebuild the entire high school campus. The plan would take place over many years but the first phase could be incorporated into this next measure, whether the pool building will be a part of that first phase is unknown.

“David Douglas school district worked with DLR Group Architecture and Planning for the purposes of facilitating a long range facility planning process," states David Douglas Facilitates Planning webpage. "This effort was led by Karen Montovino, who is an assessor and planner certified by the Oregon Department of Education. This process began February of 2020 with interviews and surveys of staff throughout the district.”

In May-Oct of 2020, meetings were held to review existing facility conditions throughout the district, including things such as providing early learning throughout the district, capital improvements to expand life of existing facilities, a master plan for the high school with a phased plan for replacement, providing CTE curriculum at the high school, and long term replacement strategies for aging facilities—like the old pool.