A School of Fish : Portable Pool Adds Swimming Lessons to Summer Curriculum

One by one, like scuba divers bracing for a deep-sea mission, they stepped off a small, aluminum ladder and plunked into the blue water. All three feet of it.

The divers were second- and third-graders at Van Nuys Elementary School. The odd location--the school’s very own blacktop playground.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has run its unique and highly successful Portable Pool summer-school program for the past 40 years. This year, along with about 30 other schools across the district, Van Nuys Elementary and Sharp Elementary School in Pacoima were among the San Fernando Valley host sites.

When asked if she appreciated the chance to put down her speller and take a half-hour tutorial on the finer points of self-flotation, 7-year-old Tannya Byllatoro was concise and to the point: “Yippee! Yippee! Yippee!”

Then she took a deep breath, submerged and blew bubbles like a Jacuzzi.

Under the watchful gaze of four trained instructors, giggling, gurgling girls and boys practiced holding their breath under water, floating and dog-paddling.

The 30-minute classes run for 10 days. With the exception of a two-summer hiatus in 1992 and ‘93--when a shortened summer break sidetracked the program--since the early 1960s thousands of elementary-school kids have learned the basics of swimming in these portable pools.

This year, eight of the rectangular, three-feet-deep pools are rotating through 32 schools across the district.

When the two weeks are up, school staff take the pools apart, stack the pieces on a flatbed truck and drive to the next destination. It takes about half a day to assemble and disassemble the pools.

The district built a fleet of 12 pools that were used in the program, but several need repairs and are not in use, said Don Wertz, a senior recreation director with the district.

The 16-by-24-foot structures have aluminum frames, wood sides and thick vinyl liners. Each pool holds about 7,255 gallons of water.

“Safety is our first priority,” said Ed Gonzalez, a UCLA student in charge of the other two instructors. At night, the pool is covered with steel beams chained in place to prevent accidents, Gonzalez added.

“When I was a kid, there was no one around to teach me how to swim,” said Ralph Lopez, a student at Cal State Northridge who was working with the kids in the pool.

“I had to learn on my own. A lot of these kids have never even been in the water before. They don’t know how to swim, and their parents might not be able to teach them, either.”

Many parents also view the portable pools as a convenient alternative to public pools. “A lot of parents are reluctant to send their kids to one of the larger community pools to learn to swim,” said Merv McLeod, who has helped run the program over the past 10 years. “Here, it’s a much smaller pool, a smaller setting, and parents feel it’s safer.”

Third-grader Ivory Taylor was one who had some trouble adjusting to Waterworld.

Screwing up his face as if he had just tasted some bad asparagus, Ivory required firm but gentle prodding before he consented to go on what instructor Janet Carrillo called an “underwater airplane ride.” Every time she asked him to float face-down in the water, he snapped his head back and stood up.

“Hold your breath, Ivory!” she said. “HOLD IT!”

Finally, he spread out his arms and let her guide his prone form across the surface.

He came up spluttering, but his frown soon gave way to smiles, laughter and high-fives all around.