When a group of Fayetteville-Manlius parents and residents started urging school district officials, once again, to build a pool, a different idea floated to the surface:
Why not have the town of Manlius study building a community-wide pool for residents and students to use? John Deer, the Manlius town supervisor, offered the idea at a November board meeting and said he’d put together a working group.
Over the next few months, that group could study the costs and location, figure out what grants are available to help pay for it and what it would cost taxpayers.
Then, he said, the town could put it on the ballot in November 2024 and let people vote on the idea.
Deer said that idea came after F-M parent Steve Ball, who launched the F-M Community Pool and Aquatics Facebook group, took the parents’ cause to the town board. His group has almost 550 members, and he said they’d welcome a pool in the district or in the town.
The idea is still preliminary, Deer said, and he’s still working on setting up a meeting with F-M and East Syracuse Minoa officials, who could also use the pool, he said.
Ball said F-M residents have asked the district to construct a pool in the past, but this time its a more coordinated effort.
The push comes as F-M has lost its most recent swimming spot. The school was using the pool at Cazenovia College, but it closed earlier this year. That’s led to more scrambling for F-M’'s swim teams. Into early November, the girls’ varsity swim team practiced at the outdoor heated pool at Cavalry Club. Their season is over now.
The boys practice at Le Moyne College and the YMCA in Fayetteville, which isn’t regulation size.
“It’s a lot of busing for coaches and kids and a lot of driving for families,” Ball said.
ES-M and F-M are two of the county’s largest school districts without pools.
Many other districts such as Liverpool, Syracuse, Baldwinsville, West Genesee, Jamesville-DeWitt have pools on their campuses. The North Syracuse school district, the county’s second-largest school district, will soon be installing their own.
Committing to a pool is expensive, but some other school taxpayers have shown they’re willing to pay for it.
North Syracuse soon will be constructing a $16. 9 million pool. The district secured $2 million in grant money, according to school documents. A referendum in 2021 passed 1174 to 261. The cost of the pool to taxpayers is about $18 yearly for a home assessed at $100,000.
Some of the parents pushing for the pool have kids who swim competitively. Parent Jennifer Healey-Valkenburg made T-shirts that say “Just Build It.”
Ball has third- and sixth-graders who are swimmers. F-M’s varsity teams have won sectionals in seven of the past 10 years, he said.
“They are an accomplished and decorated program, and should have a place to swim,” he said. “And a place to hang their banners and have their own scoreboard.”
F-M’s varsity swimming coach Tim Gallivan agrees. “A pool would be a tremendous community asset, and that’s even when you remove the swim team from the equation,” he said.
Plus, pool supporters say, the district could also use a pool to teach swimming and water safety to all students.
ESM, which would benefit from a pool if the town built one, declined requests to talk with syracuse.com | The Post-Standard about the topic at this time.
F-M Superintendent Craig Tice said in a statement to syracuse.com that the district’s facilities committee is studying the group’s request. They are looking into the cost, the tax impact to district residents and space issues, he said.
He also wrote that the district is willing to work with “surrounding villages and towns on such a project to spread the financial burden, but no discussions have yet taken place on this topic.”
Ball, the F-M parent, said swimming is a life skill and having a pool would be a community resource.
“We have tremendous parent support,” he said.
Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com