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Teacher outlines plan to restart district swim lessons with Metro Parks; board asks about costs and logistics
Summary
A Bedford Elementary teacher updated the board on restarting swim lessons with Metro Parks, highlighting free spring sessions, student lifeguard certifications and estimated summer session costs of roughly $6,000 each; trustees pressed for details on registration, payroll and sustainability.
Karen Creel, a Bedford Elementary kindergarten teacher, told the board the district is working with Metro Parks to restart a community swim‑lessons program that ran from 2009 to 2020 but stopped amid a national lifeguard shortage. Creel said the district and Metro Parks recently certified several student athletes as lifeguards and water‑safety instructors and have run small open swims as a pilot.
"The Metro Park's goal is for it to be cost of zero," Creel said, describing a partnership in which Metro Parks would cover instructor certification and purchase gear while the district helps recruit participants and provide on‑site instructors. Creel said the initial spring offering will be a short, six‑lesson session beginning in April with small class sizes; she estimated a single summer session would cost roughly $6,000, two sessions about $12,000 and three sessions about $18,000 if the district pursues a larger summer program.
Trustees asked how the registration and prioritization would work and whether lessons would be free to community members or prioritized for District 7 students. Creel said Metro Parks will run online registration and the district would publicize sessions to D7 families while the parks aim to make lessons free. Board members also raised concerns about no‑shows for free classes and about payroll and purchasing logistics if district staff are paid; Creel said Metro Parks intends to purchase equipment and reimburse the district for agreed staff costs, and that the district may eventually adopt online registration and assume additional administrative tasks.
Creel proposed exploring a high‑school lifeguarding elective so students could be certified on campus, creating a sustainable local instructor pool and student employment pipeline. Board members encouraged the idea but requested additional details on cost allocation, payroll setup and a plan to minimize no‑shows before expanding beyond the pilot.
The board did not take a formal vote on program funding at the meeting; Creel said the next steps are to finalize Metro Parks' approval and the online registration timeline so the spring session can be posted.
