REMEMBERING OLD POOL (KUSD)

I was talking with this guys who was at least 10 years my senior, and with age comes a wealth of experience. I was listening to this guy tell me some of his secrets and tricks he uses as welding fabricator, pipe fitter, etc. He was telling me, "when I try to coach young people in welding, they always tell me that's 

'OLD SCHOOL', I guess when they say that they are trying to distance themselves from my skill and experience." I responded to him with "Young people are foolish most of the time. I remember when I was young I thought I new stuff, but I didn't know thing." I continued to tell him, "I learned that OLD SCHOOL is sometimes better than NEW SCHOOL!" Hahahaha!

With this in mind, Let's GO OLD SCHOOL! OLD POOL! Below is a satellite picture taken by the U.S. Geological Survey (Google Earth) of the old Kayenta Unified School District Swimming Pool back in 1997. I marked the Intermediate School, and the High School Football/ Track Field for location references. This was what it looked like before it was torn down around 2000. The Old Swimming Pool was replaced with the newer Natatorium. 

So I took the above picture, and rotated it for you to get and idea of the old swimming pool layout. You can see we had grass, and this old pool was much larger than the current Natatorium. The School District use to have beautiful green trees, and grass. Oh it was a beautiful time, the GOLDEN AGE of the K.U.S.D. However, I believe they didn't know that clay soil makes a bad foundation. Clay retains water when it gets wet, the ground gets soggy, losing it's supportive properties. This is not good for a foundation. It was during the 1990s the school was dealing with sinking buildings, I guess it was because all the water from the grass was getting under the foundations and the buildings started to shift.

That's what happened to the old swimming pool. I don't really know why they tore down the building, I assume it was due to building was cracking at it's foundation, and the walls were cracking too. It was a good call to tear it down if the foundation was shifting, because this building was a span building, where the loads were placed on the exterior walls of the building. And with the cracks on parts of those walls, structural integrity was compromised. I just remember coming back to Kayenta to find it torn down. It was a sad moment.

So here is floor plan of the old swimming pool, I tried my best to draw it up as best as I could. The measurements are relatively close but not exact, but it gives you an idea of the layout. Below I zoomed in a little more so you could see floor plans of the inside.

Let me talk about this pool.

• The yellow lines indicate all the doors in this image.
• The pool had three Spring Boards, Two were 1 Meter High and One was 3 meters high.
• The diving area was about 11'10'' deep on the sides but in the center was 12 feet deep.
• Part of the deep pool was roped off as you can see the blue dotted line and orange dotted line. This marked off the swimming area and the diving area.
• The Length of main pool was about 25 meters, same as the current pool.
• The width of the main was 6 lap lanes just like the current pool.
• This building had windows on the north east and south west side of the building. People would stand at the windows watching people swim. 
• The windows by the Diving boards people would stand against them to warm up.
• The baby pool was about 2 feet deep, it was maintained at war 86 to 87 degrees.
• The main pools temperature was maintained at a cool 76 to 79 degrees, ideal for swimming and refreshing during those hot summers.
• The basketball goal was a big attraction.

Old Pool Hours:

• Sunday: 1:00 - 4:00PM (4:00 to 5:00 Staff would clean Facilities)
• Monday to Thursday: 3:30 - 5:30PM (5:30-6:30 Staff cleaning)
• Monday and Wednesdays: 6:30 -8:00 PM (Lap Swim / Family Swim)
• Tuesday and Thursdays: 6:00 - 7:00 AM (Lap Swim)
• Monday to Friday: 8:00AM - 3:00PM (K.U.S.D. Student Instruction)

Services Offered:

• Private Swim Lessons
• Aqua-Aerobics (Great low impact workout)
• Community Water Safety Classes
• CPR, FIRST AID
• Pool Rentals by the Hour.
• Party Hosting in the Lounge area by the wading pool.
• Opened to persons and elderly doing rehab (Great Public Service for the Elderly we honor)

Schools that would visit our Pool:

• Kayenta Boarding School
• Chinle School District
• Chinle Boarding School
• Pinon Boarding School
• Red Mesa School District
• Low Mountain School District
• Tuba City Schools
• Black Mesa Boarding School
• Rough Rock School
• Chilchinbeto School
• Shonto Boarding School

It was awesome to hear so many people say they loved out swimming pool. They liked how it was kept clean, and grateful to have this experience for their students. I was proud to work for the Kayenta Unified School District, and Swimming Pool. I enjoyed talking with the teachers from other school and hearing how impressed they were with the Kayenta School District. 

I don't know what else to add, but if you have questions about the old pool I can try to answer it. It was an awesome POOL! I MISS THE OLD POOL!