Clubs will pay about $45 more per hour to use district
pools.
Groups wanting to use the Morgan Hill School District’s two pools will likely have to pay more for the privilege.
Tuesday, district trustees are expected to raise the hourly fees charged to groups that use the pools at Live Oak and Sobrato high schools. The fee for non-profits will jump from $24 to $46.50 an hour; for-profit companies will pay $93 an hour, up from $48.
“If a group has already submitted their facilities use form, we are not going to go back now and increase the rate,” Deputy Superintendent Bonnie Tognazzini said. “This increase will affect anything new that comes in this year.”
The district considered raising rates for reserving the pools due to the high costs of maintaining and operating them. The combined operation and maintenance costs make the pools the district’s most expensive facilities.
Not only are the costs high, but the district has lost one of its major pool users.
Typically, Morgan Hill Swim Club and El Toro Aquatics used the Live Oak pool before and after school and on weekends. Now, El Toro Aquatics uses Live Oak for one hour in morning and Sobrato for two hours in the afternoon, and the Morgan Hill Swim Club is using the Aquatic Center, not district pools.
Trustee Mike Hickey asked if there were hours available for new users, or if the district is looking for more swimmers or swim clubs. Tognazzini told him there are certain issues which make it difficult to accommodate other users.
“The difficulty with swim clubs is that their need goes all year,” she said. “We shut down the pool from November to January, which is a great savings to us.”
The increase would bring in about $855 per year. To maintain the Live Oak pool costs the district $56,624.58 per year, which includes the largest cost, $19,056 for chlorine. Other costs include other chemicals, a pool custodian, a senior maintenance tech, pool service, pool covers, and automatic pool sweep.
The $56,624.58 does not include costs for electricity and gas.
Tognazzini said costs for the Sobrato pool have not been compiled for a full year, as the pool opened just before the end of school last year.
“We don’t have costs yet on Sobrato, as it hasn’t been in operation long enough,” she said. “Also, we now do some energy saving procedures that we didn’t have before. We’re using pool covers, for one thing.”
Before proposing the new rates, Tognazzini said, the district did some research.
“Colette (McLaughlin, director of facilities) and Anessa (Pasillas, supervisor of maintenance) presented the proposal to me after doing research with other districts, compiling utility bills,” she added.
Pool fees in other districts
• Gilroy – $12-$17/hour non-profit joint use, $24-$33/hour non-profit use, $48-$66/hour profit, and a $100 deposit is required for all groups
• Palo Alto – $456.50/day non-profit joint use, $550/day non-profit, $660/day profit
• San Jose – $46/hour non-profit, $127.63/hour profit
• Santa Clara – only used by City of Sunnyvale for the summer for $9,000
