MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — It took one week to fill the empty swimming pool at the Muskegon Heights Academy and another week to make sure the pool could hold all the water.
School staff determined that the pool's plumbing doesn't have any leaks. Wednesday, Feb. 20 the pools' pumps were successfully started.
Next the boiler which heats the pool will be tested. "And then comes the chemical testing," said Rane Garcia, Superintendent of Muskegon Heights Public School Academy (MHPSAS). "We're looking at maybe switching over to a salt-water pool, which is more economical long-term," she said.
The school's pool was closed in 2012 when the district's debt rose to $12 million. A state appointed emergency manager was assigned to the district to made big cuts and reduce the deficit.
The pool was closed in an effort to save money.
Garcia would like to have the pool open for students and community members when a new school year starts in the fall. That effort needs to happen without impacting the public school academy's budget.
"Our number on job is to educate kids and to give them the academics that they need and that's a costly venture," she said. "We can not take anything out of the classroom."
If all of the pools' system can come back on-line then academy will begin developing an operations plan with a budget that will need to be self-sustaining.
"We need partners who are willing to step forward and help us with the funding piece, people who are interested in the greater good of helping a community swim," she said.
The annual cost of operating the pool could be around $100,000.
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