Suggestion #27:[]
Insure future school sites for Summer Dreamers are ones with swimming pools.[]
PPS has school buildings with both air-conditioning and swimming pools that are not being used for Summer Dreamers. Westinghouse, Obama, Allderdice, Brashear, Carrick, Oliver, Perry, and U-Prep were off the list for the 2014 sites.
Let's stretch efficiency with student time by swimming in the same building as academic classes. Summer Dreamers at PCA and Obama in past years, with the swim pool is down the hall from classrooms, was fantastic. Carmalt and Faison are fine schools, but the kids who attend Summer Dreamers at those sites need to take four bus rides a day because there are no pools at those schools. Kids still enjoy Swim & Water Polo Camp, but we'd all love it if the schools had pools on the same campus.
The board and superintendent need to communicate to school staffs and principals that school buildings are public assets to be utilized by students throughout the summer. Buff floors on nights and weekends if necessary.
Insights from 2014 with Camp Faison swimming at Homewood Pool in the wake of neighborhood gun violence []
Students at Camp Faison in 2014 had a difficult summer as neighborhood violence impacted programs and schedules with Swim & Water Polo Camp and some other activities. In mid-July 2014 at the end of the school day, gun violence occurred a couple of blocks from the school. A citizen not connected with the school was killed, sadly. The school went to lock down, and thankfully, none of the students got hurt. The crime scene was directly along the walking/hiking pathway between the school, Faison, and the pool, Citiparks' Homewood Pool.
Changes ensued in East End in mid-summer 2014[]
PPS Police traveled with the students in off campus trips.
After the shooting, the staff of 15 and 75 students were prohibited from going back to that swim pool site. Homewood Pool is a nice, outdoor pool that has a modest use and can easily handle about 25 Summer Dreamers on typical days, but we were told we couldn't go back there. As a result, buses were needed to transport students to other pools. We continued to go to Westinghouse and shifted other groups of swimmers to Highland Park Pool and once to the Citiparks pool in Bloomfield.
In an ideal world, students take academic classes at Westinghouse and staying in the building and on campus. At Faison, trips are needed to get to the swim pool(s) and all outdoor activities were suspended.