Of schools and pools

Art Benjamin remembers well the day that Hiram Johnson High School students lay their bodies down in front of the trucks that came to pave over their swimming pool.

It was 10 years ago that the workmen came to eliminate the pool, brought by a school district that didn’t have the money to keep up repairs. But outraged students and teachers filed out of classes, formed a human barricade and, at least temporarily, turned the trucks away.

“It was this incredible, orderly display of civil disobedience,” Benjamin proudly recalled.

Yet the victory was short-lived. The trucks returned the next weekend, and workmen filled in the pool when nobody was around.

Benjamin, who was a teacher at the time and later principal of Hiram Johnson, since that ill-fated weekend has been lobbying the Sacramento Unified School District to reopen the pool. He made little progress.

In the meantime, the school—which serves some of Sacramento’s poorest neighborhoods—has sent its students to other schools to practice for swim meets and other activities. It hasn’t done much for school pride.

Then along came newly elected City Councilman Dave Jones, asking if there was anything he could do for the school. Benjamin jumped at the chance to show Jones the blacktop rectangle where the pool used to be.

“I thought it sent the wrong message to students,” recalled Jones. “It sent a message that we didn’t care, that kids at wealthier schools could have things they couldn’t.” So Jones made restoration of the pool a top priority.

Last week, the pool was reborn, thanks to a unique partnership between the city and the school district.

Jones got the city to pony up about $380,000 to reopen the pool. Another $150,000 came from years of bingo games held by the Hiram Johnson Pool Boosters. The school gets its pool back, and the city gets a pool open to the public during the summer months.

The return of Hiram Johnson pool is part of a more extensive Community Schools Partnership initiative, authored by Jones, that will fund joint use projects to build or refurbish school property—be it pools, libraries or other facilities—and meet the needs of the larger community at the same time. The city has set aside nearly $2 million and is accepting proposals for future projects.

Jones said he hopes the Hiram Johnson pool will serve as an example of how limited public money can be used to meet both school and community needs, while drawing the two closer together.

“This is a classic community and school partnership,” said Jones.