Crystal Lake Missed Opportunity for an Indoor Swimming Pool
I have been told one or more parents offered District 155 a swimming pool at Prairie Ridge High School.
McHenry has an indoor pool at McHenry West High School. The McHenry Marlins, sponsored by the City's Recreation Department, practice and hold meets there, as do the high school water sports teams
But the offer was turned down by either the administration or the school board because the decision-making authority did not want one school have a swimming pool while the other three did not.
No big surprise that families living on the north side of Crystal Lake in the vicinity of Prairie Ridge are better off than families attending the other three high schools.
Last month the Chicago Tribune ran a front page article about how school districts coped with parental financing of school activities in districts with diverse demographics.
So, I’m not surprised that that one or a couple of parents were able to finance a pool.
The logic of all schools getting a swimming pool or none at all is interesting.
From an egalitarian point of view, I guess it can be defended, but look at the location of Prairie Ridge High School.
It is close enough to Cary-Grove High School that those with Cary addresses near East Crystal Lake Avenue in Lake Kilarney were assigned to Prairie Ridge when it opened.
And, it certainly isn’t a world apart from Crystal Lake Central and Crystal Lake South.
Now, District 155 have a combined swim team that practices at the YMCA.
It would be hard to argue that the team could not easily have beeen transported to Prairie Ridge for practice.
So, that leaves gym class.
Prairie Grove students would have been able to take gym in a pool, while those attending the other high schools wouldn’t have been able to do so.
Inequality of instruction, then.
