Community Comes Out Strong in Favor of an Aquatic Center at Torrey Pines High School
The School Board Votes to Support the Continued Development of Building a Pool at Torrey Pines
The Funding of the Aquatic Center Remains Controversial
Rather than a full summary of the January 23rd Board meeting, I will provide a summary of the discussion and action taken by the Board regarding building an Aquatic Center at Torrey Pines High School.
Community comes out strong in favor of an aquatic center at Torrey Pines High School
When the agenda for the January 23, 2024 school board meeting was published containing the TPHS aquatic center update, the community mobilized and came out in force to support the proposed project. In less than three days, the Board received nearly 100 emails in favor of building a swimming pool, and only 1 against. In addition, a Change.org petition has almost 1,400 signatures in support of the pool.
https://www.change.org/p/build-pools-for-sduhsd-schools/u/32269134
Over 40 community members, including several aquatic athletes, took the time out of their busy schedules to attend our Board meeting to speak in favor of building the pool at TPHS. No one spoke against building the pool at TPHS. As I mentioned during the Board meeting, in over three years as a Board member I cannot recall a single instance of support for any positive agenda item that exceeded the support we saw in favor of building a pool.
The School Board Votes to Support the Continued Development of Building a Pool at Torrey Pines
After 30 minutes of public comments and about 50 minutes of Board discussion, the Board passed a resolution that, after a recitation of the historical record, concluded with action that “the Board states its intent to build an aquatics facility at Torrey Pines High School, and directs the Superintendent to collaborate with staff and the community to present details about how to fund and accomplish the project.”
On the positive side of the equation, the resolution clearly states the intent to build a pool at TPHS. Each Board Trustee agreed with the intention – that we want to build a pool. That is a win for aquatics sports, and it represents the first time this specific board has stated its intent to build a pool.
However, we heard phrases during the discussion such as “provided we can fund the project” and “work with the community to close a funding gap.” This “hedging” language causes considerable angst among aquatic supporters because they have seen it all before – general statements in support of building pools in concept, but when push comes to shove, no concrete action. After over a decade of debate, not a single pool exists at any of our District schools. As Trustee Anderson pointed out, according to Niche, we are the #2 public school district in the state. The top 20 districts consist of fifty schools. Of those fifty schools, 46 have pools. The four schools that don’t have a pool are TPHS, CCA, LCC and SDA.
It turns out this skepticism is warranted. I offered an alternative proposal to allocate the expected cost of building a pool and authorize the administration to move forward with contracting for its construction, but I could only obtain the support of fellow Trustee Phan Anderson. The other three Trustees want to delay the formal allocation of funds to build the pool until a supposed “funding gap” could be closed.
As I stated at the Board meeting, that implication is mistaken. We can build the pool at TPHS without raising money from the public. We have the funds to build the pool in our bank account now, and we have access to funds to operate and maintain the pool going forward. What we don’t have is the will to allocate the funds to start construction.
The Funding of the Aquatic Center Remains Controversial
I provided a brief overview of our capital sources and spending at the meeting, and I’ll try to summarize it as simply as I can here.
To set a baseline understanding, the District borrowed $364 million beginning in 2012 through a citizen-approved bond called “Proposition AA”, or “Prop AA”. These funds were used to build Canyon Crest Academy, Pacific Trails Middle School, and Earl Warren Middle School, among other things.
In 2021, my first year on the Board, we determined that due to interest rates being low, we could essentially refinance our bond and borrow an additional $85 million under the terms of the original Prop AA bond. We did that and put that money in the bank for future capital expenditures.
In addition, at the beginning of this school year we had $40 million in funds from the State of California in a separate account called “Fund 40”. That means that since 2021 we have had a total of $125 million to spend on new projects. Since then, we have spent money on a number of projects, such as a new weight room at La Costa Canyon High School, improving the sports fields and modernizing the locker rooms at Torrey Pines, and rebuilding the District Office in Encinitas (which, by the way, was just completed. We will be holding our next Board meeting at these new offices in February).
But we haven’t spent $125 million. Not even close. We haven’t even contracted to spend $125 million. We literally have tens of millions of dollars available for new projects, including the pool at Torrey Pines. We are not out of money, but we do need to revisit the site leadership wish list of proposed projects.
When we refinanced the Prop AA bond and obtained the additional $85 million, then Board President Maureen Muir and I realized that this was likely the only time we could ever build any pools, so we asked the Board to approve, which they did, an allocation to first build a swimming pool at Torrey Pines, and then build a pool in the north of the district, probably at La Costa Canyon. The estimated construction cost for each pool was $14 million.
That was in April 2022. We originally thought we would sign a construction contract in the summer of 2023. Then it was pushed back to fall of 2023. In the fall it was pushed back to January or February of 2024. Then, just last week, I was disappointed to learn that the date was pushed back again, to perhaps as late as June 2024.
The other bad news the Board learned last week is that the cost of building the pool at Torrey Pines is now estimated to be $21 million. This is what can happen when projects are delayed over the course of years.
In any case, we now have an updated estimate of the cost, and we can finally move forward.
However, the administration is claiming that we don’t have $21 million available to fund the pool, we only have $20.5 million available, and therefore we are short and can’t move forward unless we can find the money to cover the difference.
Except that this is not true. We have a lot of money available that is not yet committed under contract. For example, we were anticipating spending over $10 million to modernize the administration building at La Costa Canyon. Why is there no call to raise money from the public to help fund a new admin building upgrade? That is but one example. We have tens of millions of dollars in the bank that is not committed to construction contracts.
Our aquatic families have been waiting for a long time to build pools. Now is the time to firmly commit to doing so. I was unable to gain such a commitment at this Board meeting, except for an enthusiastic commitment from Trustee Anderson who was extremely clear and vocal in her support. I will try again in February. And again in March. I will keep trying as long as it takes. But we need to get at least one other Trustee to vote to authorize the funding of the Torrey Pines pool or it won’t get built. We need three votes from our Board to go forward. Until then, our aquatic athletes can only stand by and continue their long commutes to rented facilities and wait to see what our Board will do.