Petition urges Newport-Mesa to refill Estancia High’s pool after delay in new aquatic center plans

An online petition is calling on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to refill Estancia High School’s pool before the 2018 swim season after high construction bids delayed groundbreaking on a new aquatic center.

As of Tuesday, after a week on the social media platform Care2, the petition had gathered 414 signatures toward its goal of 1,000.

The petition was organized by a Costa Mesa resident identified only as Annie M. More information about her was unavailable Tuesday, and a representative of the Estancia PTA could not immediately be reached for comment.

Some are concerned that because the pool’s pumps have been removed, refilling it may prove complicated. The district has not said whether it plans to refill the pool.

The estimated $7-million aquatic center project, approved in 2016, was expected to begin in August with plans for an Olympic-size 50-meter pool, a coaches’ office, a team room, pool restrooms, a snack bar, site work and furnishings, a lunch area and other spaces. The Costa Mesa school is the only one among the district’s four comprehensive high schools that does not have an Olympic-size pool.

District officials had said the center was originally scheduled to be open for the fall 2018 sports season but higher-than-expected construction bids received in October pushed it back.

Estancia athletes are expected to use other schools’ pools until the project is completed in fall 2019, school board President Vicki Snell said Tuesday.

The petition says Estancia’s aquatic program has been on the rise, with its water polo teams and relay swim team achieving recent success.

“With all this progress, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District decided to start a new 50-meter pool project. Unfortunately, they drained the existing 25-meter pool before bids were completed on the 50-meter pool,” the petition reads. “The bids were, as the NMUSD says, ‘too far over budget for the same amount of pool.’

“Without any hard dates or commitment, we [as] a community are attempting to fill our existing 25-meter pool as soon as possible or for the 2018 coed swim season.”

The online document did not give a date by which petitioners want the pool filled for practices.

Snell said Estancia will get a new pool but that trustees are mulling how to proceed with extra amenities included in the project. The addition of a team room and other elements increasing the cost to about $3 million over budget.

Snell said draining the existing pool in June, before the district received bids for the planned aquatic center, “was the wrong decision because it didn’t work out right.”

“We wanted to get in a pool as quickly as possible so kids wouldn’t go to another school,” she said.

In a special meeting last week, the school board advised district staff to find additional funding for the aquatic center, despite its higher-than-anticipated cost. Staff is scheduled to return to the board in January, when trustees will determine whether to move forward with the project all at once or to phase in elements over several years.

“Now we’re figuring out if we can get more money from somewhere or what can we change to help or come under budget,” Snell said. “The pool needs to be as good as the rest.”

Officials also are trying to determine whether engineers would approve of refilling the existing pool in the meantime, she added.

Boosters have said the current pool has only enough space for one team to practice at a time. A larger pool would allow for bigger competitions, they said.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscella