Duncanville ISD, swimmers reach temporary pool deal

by Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

For now, at least, the Duncanville Independent School District natatorium remains open to public use.

The closure of the natatorium, originally scheduled by the district for March 1, has been postponed to Sept. 1. Along with granting the new lease on life, Superintendent Alfred Ray said the district is implementing a new public use fee structure and operating hours.

“While we still believe that limiting Natatorium use primarily to students and community rentals is in our best interest,” Ray said, “we're continuing to evaluate our options.”

Ray met with Jan Brubaker, who had spearheaded a petition drive to kept the natatorium open, and three other supporters of public use of the swimming facility, Feb. 18.

Barbara Colborn, one of the four, is supportive of the district's move.

“This would demonstrate the community's desire to not burden the district and would demonstrate a solid and growing base of enthusiastic community support,” she said.

New hours at the pool are Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and Monday-Thursday 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.

New fees for lap and open swimming are $4 a day for adults up to age 54 and $3 a day above that for residents of the district, and $5 and $4, respectively, for non-residents. Six-month passes are $90 for an individual and $240 for a family of four for residents and $120 and $300, respectively, for non-residents. The natatorium has other passes, on a daily or monthly basis, for water aerobics, and also for combined swimming and water aerobics use. Complete pricing for all uses is on the district's website, www.duncanvilleisd.org.

Brubaker said that she was concerned about the amount of the increases, some of which, such as the family pass, had more than doubled.

Both sides have discussed a possible partnership with other public entities.

However, as Duncanville ISD includes city of Dallas as well as city of Duncanville territory inside school district boundaries, there is no guarantee the city of Duncanville will sign on the bottom line of a partnership.

And, Ray stressed this is an extension, not a permanent arrangement.

“We understand Duncanville ISD has for 22 years provided a service that is a function of municipal parks and recreation departments,” he said. “However, our core business is educating children, and our No. 1 priority is to provide quality education for students. We are accountable to our taxpayers to be good stewards of the dollars we receive. That will remain our focus throughout this continued evaluation period.”