End of an Era: Municipal Pool Says Farewell to School After 30 Years

Becky Jackman-Beeler and DeeDee Patterson went to San Diego State together in the mid-1980s, even taking some of the same classes. They’ve stayed in touch—one as La Mesa’s pool supervisor and the other as a PE teacher at Myron B. Green Elementary School in San Carlos near Lake Murray.

For the past 30 years (except for one year elsewhere), Green students have spent six weeks at the La Mesa Municipal Pool—learning safety skills, how to float. By one teacher’s estimate, at least 12,000 children have been taught to swim at the pool on Memorial Drive.

That ended Friday, perhaps forever.

“The funding is not there for us,” said Rick Edwards, a 20-year physical education teacher at Green, a K-5 magnet school with an athletics emphasis. “It’s a huge loss to the kids and the families.”

For 20 of those years, Jackman-Beeler has welcomed the pupils—along with her recreation staff and lifeguards.  On Thursday, she said farewell for the last time, giving Edwards a hug after the final afternoon session of 40 kindergartners and second-graders.

Green’s iconic program had been subsidized by its PTA recently, but it no longer has the $10,000 to rent the pool four days a week for six weeks in the spring (with students visiting the pool in three-week sessions). The PTA money instead will go toward helping keep a PE teacher, Jackman-Beeler said.

“It’s an incredible program,” Edwards said. “Some of the most fond memories that past students have when they come back and see us is the swim program.”

Bruce Ferguson, Green’s second-year principal, says the swimming program is being suspended this year “in order to prioritize our greater needs, like a part-time art teacher, supplies, classroom materials and other enriching activities our PTA provides.”

He said the PTA paid the pool rental (and lifeguard) costs of about $10,000 a year, and the school paid $11,000 for transportation out of its magnet funds.

“Green has provided swimming as far back as can be remembered,” Ferguson said.  “It is my understanding from a retired teacher that prior to going to the La Mesa pool they went to someone’s home to swim.  … We are looking into alternatives to support our program.  Nothing has come up just yet.”

Ferguson says he and his staff understand how drastic this budget crisis is and the effect it is having on education. 

“While we are disappointed in the suspension of our swim program, we feel that increasing class size and the loss of a music teacher puts things into perspective,” he said Friday via email.

“We are hopeful that the economy will turn around and the funding source for education will change so that we may provide swim again in our future.  Also, the swim program is only one component of our athletic magnet—although a very popular one.”

On Thursday, the second-to-last day, Jackman-Beeler saw the pupils for the last time. (She wouldn’t be at the pool Friday for their final sessions—a “free day.”)

Children practiced their kicks from the side of the pool.  Seven La Mesa recreation staffers helped oversee little groups of different skill levels.  Kids jumped off the diving board and made cannonball splashes.

“My understanding is that one year they went somewhere else; they weren’t happy,” said Jackman-Beeler, for 21 years the city’s recreation supervisor for aquatics and sports.  “They’ve been very happy here. We’re accommodating. They like our instructors. We work well together.”

But no La Mesa school is waiting in the wings to take up the slack, she said. Parkway Middle School has a swim program at the nearby John A. Davis YMCA.

Green teachers are left to sing the blues.

Said Edwards: “For a lot of these kids—this is their only time they get a chance to swim.”