Swimming Pools on Chopping Block in Harford County Public Schools

BEL AIR, MD — Advocates for swimming are rallying to preserve their sport once again after the proposed budget for Harford County Public Schools revealed a move toward decommissioning pools in schools.

"A lagging national economy and unfunded mandates from the state of Maryland have resulted in lean budgets for 2017," Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Canavan said in a summary of her budget proposal for FY 2018.

The budget does not include money to maintain the school system's pools. Cost-cutting measures mentioned in the proposal include the following:

• $131,550 cut by eliminating electricity expenses associated with pools
• $9,666 cut by eliminating water conditioning for pools
• $7,000 cut by eliminating water expenses for pools
• $4,723 cut in pool-related contract services

"...it's going to end high school swimming," Edgewood swim coach Tiffany Diepold told The Aegis.

Advocates for the swimming program have started a GoFundMe page seeking to raise $100,000 to maintain the pools at Edgewood Middle, North Harford Middle and Magnolia Middle schools. As of Tuesday morning, it had $210 in donations, and organizers were still awaiting an answer as to whether the school board would be able to accept the money to keep the pools open.

Since 2009, the superintendent said operations and maintenance costs have been cut by 40 percent. From fire alarms to bleachers to swimming pools, maintenance has been unfunded and may result in regulatory fines, Canavan said in a list of itemized critical needs absent from her FY 2018 budget proposal.

Last year a group called "Save Harford County Swimming" emerged after the school system proposed cutting the program. Nearly 5,000 people signed a Change.org petition to save the swimming program in schools.

The school board will vote on the budget at its meeting on Monday, Jan. 23.

Before then, the Harford County Board of Education offers four opportunities for public input at the A.A. Roberty Building, 102 S. Hickory Ave., Bel Air:

• 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4
• 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 9
• 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11
• 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19

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