When Center Grove officials hosted a community meeting earlier this year, parents brought up the need for more space for athletic and academic teams and clubs to practice and a larger pool.
The school district hopes to address the need for practice space with a proposed $10 million student activity center that would be connected to the high school and would include four basketball courts and a six-lane indoor track.
School officials also considered a new pool, Superintendent Richard Arkanoff said. They have asked architects who have been working on designing the new activity center to put together a site layout showing where a new pool could be built, he said.
An initial drawing showed a space the pool could fit in on the west side of the new center, Arkanoff said.
But that is just one option, and a new pool is not planned at this point, he said.
“There are just too many other factors to consider. It may not even be needed. We would have to look at all the factors,” Arkanoff said.
Arkanoff said no cost estimates have been put together, a new pool has not been designed, and he has no timeline for future construction.
“We have no ideas yet. It’s not even part of the discussion,” he said.
For now, the school district is focusing on the petition and remonstrance effort for the new student activity center, he said. The petitions from both sides are due Dec. 14.
Earlier this year, parents told school officials in a community forum that a new or larger pool is needed to make room for swim teams to practice and to have competitions. Other schools use a 50-meter pool, and Center Grove teams often practice past 9 p.m. because that is needed to get each team time in the 25-yard pool, families said.
The current high school pool also needs new equipment, including pumps, school officials have said.
