Students Learn Water Safety While Getting Break From Heat

Students at Montague Charter Academy in Pacoima are learning water safety--and getting a break from the triple-digit heat--thanks to a program that offers children training in a portable pool set up on the school’s playground.

Operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District, the 24-by-16-foot, 7,200-gallon pool can accommodate up to 25 children and is staffed by lifeguards who provide swimming and water safety lessons.

About 300 children, half of Montague’s student body, are taking part in the two-week program, said Assistant Principal Bertha Howell.

“Having the pool gives the children a place to get some training many of them wouldn’t get anywhere else, and, for some, to lose their fear of the water,” Howell said.

There was no sign of that fear, however, on this day.

As each 30-minute session ended, amid groans from children who were done for the day, a new group of students, giggling and shrieking with excitement, lined up to take their places.

The pool is one of 10 portable pools that circulate among the city’s elementary schools each summer through a program run by the district’s Youth Services Section.

The “Learn to Swim Water Safety Program” started with a single pool in 1963 and quickly grew. The program is in such high demand that, with only 10 pools, each school can be visited only once every five years, said the pool manager at Montague, Art Serote.

Serote, a former lifeguard who teaches graphic arts and photography at Luther Burbank Middle School, began working with the program 24 years ago and has not missed a summer since.

“I enjoy working with the kids; that’s why I’ve stayed with it so long,” Serote said.