By EJ Conzola II

Voters in the Whitehall Central School District on Tuesday rejected a proposal by the district’s Board of Education to convert the swimming pool in the junior/senior high school into instructional space.

District residents voted 156 to 103 to not move forward with the board’s proposal to replace the space now occupied by the pool with new classroom and office space. The $9 million project had been approved by the school board unanimously in March after reviewing several options for the pool, which has been unused since it was damaged by an August 2020 flood.

Some district residents had voiced their opposition to the plan at several public information sessions the district held to explain the rationale for the recommendation. Most of the opposition centered on the loss of the pool, which opponents of the plan said would eliminate a needed space in the community, not only for students but for residents as a whole.

“I think it’s great,” Marilyn Borden, one of those who spoke out at the sessions, said of the result. “Now we have a chance to get the pool back.”

District officials had argued that the pool had been rarely used before it was damaged and that students had indicated they would be unlikely to use the facility if it were to reopen. Officials noted that the district had made arrangements with Hudson Falls to use that district’s pool and would provide transportation for Whitehall students who wished to use it.

District officials have also said creating the additional instructional space is crucial because of changes in education requirements made by the state in recent years.

The district also said the proposed project could have been accomplished without any cost to district taxpayers. Other options that had been explored included refurbishing the pool, which officials said would have cost roughly $13.6 million — with $3 million of that total paid by district taxpayers.

The cost of the replacement plan would have been completely covered by state aid and funds now in the district capital fund, district officials said.

Superintendent Patrick Dee said the school board will now have to decide how to move forward.

Borden said she hopes school officials will include community members in the decision-making process.

“I think the board needs to listen to what the community thinks,” she said.