As renovations continue at Springfield’s biggest high school, work that went into one of its most popular facilities wrapped up with a splash.
After about eight months of work, the six-lane pool at Central High School is once again hosting diving and swim meets.
As the school of about 2,000 students continues to see work done on its gymnasium and auditorium, the city recently finished extensive renovations on its pool system – one of the city’s 12 pools and home to Central High’s swim teams.
Updating out-of-date equipment, the city’s Aquatics Department says, Central is now outfitted with start-of-the-art training supplies, including new “Colorado Time Systems” and a massive digital display to show lap results – all connected to new corresponding touchpads and a computer system for scoring.
Diving in for a demonstration, swim team members like seniors Aubriana Garcia and Adeliz Leon say they appreciate the investment – especially when compared to the old way of doing things.
“It feels great … having the board show our times as soon as we finish - it’s really important,” Garcia told WAMC. “Not having to wait until we get out of the pool to figure out what our time was - we could just look up and see it. It’s really nice.
“It’s just really nice for people to be showing importance to the swim team and for us to get new stuff,” Leon added.
Funds for the work came, in part, from Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER funds.
While some districts ended up using such funds for hiring and maintaining personnel, Mayor Domenic Sarno says Springfield Public Schools was able to avoid relying on ESSER for payroll purposes – opting instead for infrastructure improvements.
“The ESSER funds… we very smartly utilized those funds,” the mayor said at the pool’s unveiling Wednesday. “Unlike other school districts that utilized the funds for personnel and other things, which they [now] face cutbacks and layoffs - we utilized it for one-time costs. We utilized it for our students.”
A number of city schools have benefitted recently from about $60 million in ESSER cash that went to the district. The money is helping fund projects that range from new playgrounds at about 18 schools to a new band shell for SciTech and more.
The funds were also part of more than $100,000 that went into Central’s pool complex, which included an overhaul of its filter room, with a new automatic chlorinator and pool heater, on top of new pool pumps and motors.
“A lot of work went into this room, from a collaboration of folks,” said Jonathan Carignan, city’s director of buildings for Springfield Public Schools. “We have a brand-new, state-of-the-art scoreboard, much like you'd see at the Olympics and other collegiate events. We have a myriad of new equipment in the room set up to help the kids really work on their swimming and compete with other schools in the area."
The room is also sporting a new paint job, with the school’s black and gold colors featured on the bleachers – refinished with non-slip epoxy.
Carignan adds the work has wrapped up as other projects in the same school continue – including major upgrades to Central’s auditorium down the hall, with new theatrical lighting, flooring and seating. New bleachers are also being installed in the gymnasium - about $4 million of work.
The city previously indicated $2.8 million in ESSER funds was going toward the upgrades, as well as a boiler replacement project at Central.
Springfield Aquatics Director Joe Federico tells WAMC with the new pool improvements, it’s not just Central students who stand to benefit, but the community as a whole. It’s also the start of a campaign of sorts to improve swimming infrastructure across the city.
“In the summertime, it's used by camps and other people [who] have permits inside the building, throughout the year,” Federico said. “The swim team, the teachers use it. We hold lessons here. We hold lifeguard courses here. The police come and do … their water training here - it is definitely one of our widely-used pools, which is why I wanted to start with this location. My hope and my plan is to kind of do a location or two each year, if we can, and just try to start to improve everything.”
Central High swim team member Gabriella Carrasquillo tells WAMC the investments go a long way, especially given how important time spent with her fellow swimmers can be.
“I would say the swim team, to me, is like a family,” the junior said. “Everyone here is here for each other - the coaches are there for us … whether it's academics, swim or even just personal issues in our life - they're always here for us. And like [Adeliz] said, it's very competitive, and we're all competitive people, so it's beneficial for all of us.”
