Upper Darby will need millions to keep its high school pool running — but school leaders are committed to keeping it open

Upper Darby will keep its high school pool open, the district’s superintendent said Thursday, after district leaders faced community pushback for considering whether to close it.

“Getting rid of the pool is not going to happen,” said Superintendent Dan McGarry. The question now is: “How can we pay for it?”

At a school board committee meeting Tuesday, administrators said the pool would need significant repairs or a full renovation to stay open. The repairs would fix major structural issues, including replacing a nearly 30-year-old HVAC system, and would likely cost the district at least $2 million, said the district’s chief financial officer, Craig Rogers.

A full renovation would cost more than $12 million, officials said, based on an evaluation by an engineering company and architect.

Faced with the cost of the pool, district leaders suggested the space could instead be used for student mental health and support services — a significant need, administrators said. They noted rising numbers of homeless students in the 12,000-student district, growing from 338 to 546 over the last three years.

The number of students participating on the Upper Darby swim team has declined, from 31 students in 2021-22 to 22 this year, administrators said. (Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School and the Lansdowne YMCA also use the district’s pool, at a cost of $100 an hour; Upper Darby takes in about $9,000 in rental income annually, officials said.)

While the district currently pays between $55,000 and $65,000 a year to run the pool, it could instead bus students to local universities and rent pool time there, said Marvin Lee, Upper Darby’s director of operations. The cost of that option would be about $27,000 a year.

That prospect drew immediate objections from supporters of the swim program. Katie Marucci, coach of the Upper Darby boys’ swim team — who started an online petition to save the pool that garnered more than 3,000 signatures — recalled swimming for the district as a student when the pool was closed for renovations in 2002. Students were bused to Ridley High School in Folsom for practice at 3 a.m., then sent to classes, she said.

“You tell me if you want to wake up that early as a student athlete,” Marucci told the board Tuesday. She also questioned how the district would ensure transportation given bus driver shortages, and expressed doubt that renovating the pool would cost $12 million, a figure she called “excessively high.”

Kyle Johnson, a 2016 Upper Darby graduate and former swimmer, credited the swim team with building his confidence and character, and accused the district of prioritizing basketball courts and athletic fields rather than the pool.

While the swim team may be small, “is it fair to measure the value of an opportunity by how many people use it, or its impact on those who do?” Johnson said.

The Upper Darby School District has long struggled financially in a state funding system that traditionally has relied heavily on property taxes to fund education. The district ranks in the bottom 100 of the state’s 500 districts for funding, school board member Don Fields noted.

Despite those challenges, board members said they didn’t want to sacrifice the pool. “We don’t want to be taking things away from this community that has already suffered a lot,” said board member Damien Warsavage.

McGarry said that given the anticipated costs of keeping the pool running, the district had to present options to the school board. But, he said Thursday, he was “happy to make improvements” rather than shutting the pool down.

The district will now have to figure out short- and long-term costs, and how long it will take to do the necessary repair work, McGarry said. “Paying for it is the issue,” he said.