Cuts to Roosevelt Pool Programs Aim to Reduce Deficit

Competition is making it hard for the pool at to stay out of the red financially.

This fiscal year is expected to end with the pool having an $82,500 deficit. As a result, the district is reducing some programs and has made a few changes to the way the pool operates to try and curb costs.

Superintendent Joseph Giancola said a recent increase in area recreational and exercise pool options has cut into the high school's membership — the main source of revenue for the pool.

"The pool always runs in the red, every year, and then it takes a general fund transfer to make up for the fact that the revenues doen’t match the costs of running the pool," Giancola said.

To try and lower costs, the district has reduced the number of levels at which it hires students to staff and run the pool. In the past, students were hired at six different levels of experience, or positions, as employees. Now, they are hired at three levels: minimum wage lifeguards with no prior experience; a life guard instructor; and a supervisor in charge of managing membership sales and lifeguard training and staffing.

"Cutting from six to three has been saving us," Giancola said. "Also, another thing we did was cut the supervisor hours."

Previously, part of the supervisor's job was to staff the ticket and membership sales window.

"But during the year, the pool pass sales are so low from that window that we’ve redirected our community buyers to go to the athletic office … where we have somebody staffing that office for our students from 7:30 in the morning until early in the evening," Giancola said.

Next on the list is programs offered at the pool. Some less-popular programs, such as adult exercise classes early in the morning, may be reduced or eliminated if membership is low. Popular programs at the pool, such as children's open swim, will remain.

"Exercise programs … where there may be only four or  five adults in the pool, we have to re-examine that," Giancola said. "We’re always reducing some of the programs that have very low participation."

Still, like any business operation, the most expensive cost is labor. Seven student employees are paid to manage and staff the pool this summer, but that number will go back up to 12 when school starts. And labor costs have steadily risen since the pool was built in the early 1970s.

In 2009, the pool ran a deficit of $77,500. In 2008, the deficit was $69,000, according to the treasurer's office.

Even though the deficit has grown, Giancola said there won't come a point where the pool is closed entirely.

"We are dedicated to keeping it open because the promise made for the bond issue when the pool and auditorium were opened up, the promise was that all Kent kids would learn to swim," Giancola said. "There are fixed costs to running the pool. There is only so much you can do to cut back on those types of costs.

"When the pool was originally built, there was not a lot of competition for swimming pools," he said. "Since then, Kent State has the , there are all sorts of water parks. You may not ever be able to find a complete break-even point because of the competition and the pool losing some of the subscription with people going in different directions for water recreation."