WESTMONT – The Community Unit School District 201 School Board unanimously agreed to two contracts for use of the swimming pool at Westmont High School.
The district approved contracts with Benet Academy and the Academy Bullet Swim Club at its Aug. 25 meeting.
Benet Academy will pay $125 per hour from September to February, which will come out to $37,000 for the season. Academy Bullet Swim Club will pay the same hourly rate for September to March but will pay $24,000 for the season.
Kimberly Anderson, the district business manager, said the combined contracts will bring in an additional $65,000 in revenue.
“We obviously need more revenue for updating our pool facility,” Anderson said.
The district is looking for additional revenue because it originally planned to pay for swimming pool upgrades through proposed referenda. Residents voted down the referenda three times.
Anderson said the two contracts did not include overlaps in practice times, which is why the district can enter into a contract with both swim clubs.
Board President Marie Charlton said the proposed swim times do not conflict with times when students will be in the school, so there are no safety concerns with the new contracts.
The district used to rent the facilities to the Westmont Swim Club. Anderson said the club built its own swim facility and no longer needed the high school pool.
The Westmont Swim Club submitted a contract for the board to consider that would allow it to sublease the pool to another group that would host swim lessons at the high school, Anderson said.
Charlton said she had concerns about subleasing the pool out to another group. Anderson said the hours proposed by the Westmont Swim Club would have conflicted with the other two proposals.
The Academy Bullet Swim Club would like to host swim lessons in the future, Anderson said, but it wanted to get a contract in place before progressing with its plans.
Charlton said a long-term plan is being studied about the future of the swimming pool and how to renovate it.