Indoor facility being offered to the community.
By: Rachel Silverman
John Witherspoon Middle School’s sparkling new pool opened its doors or, rather, its lanes to public use last week, as the $3.25 million indoor aquatic facility recently embarked on a community outreach campaign to attract more swimmers and splashers to its cool, inviting waters.
For the eight-lane, Olympic-size pool, which made its initial debut in November after an eight-year planning period, this means working to find its own niche in the Princeton community.
"We’re in the stage where we’re really reaching out to the community to get all different ages in," pool manager Sue Welsh said. "Right now, we’re in the planning stage in terms of programming."
The certified aquatics instructor continued, "You have Princeton Recreation and the Hamilton Recreation and YW. We want to be sure we don’t impose on their programs and what they offer. We want to be a good neighbor."
In pursuit of this goal, the John Witherspoon pool has narrowed in on a set of three main program areas district, student and outside pool use.
"A selling point for getting the pool built was community involvement," Ms. Welsh explained.
To that end, the pool is offering a host of district-run programs, all of which aim to reel in the community at large.
"There’s three nights a week of community and family swimming," Ms. Welsh said, referring to the 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. open swim block on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
"There’s a pre-competitive stroke-and-turn clinic, which is an introduction to competitive swimming," Ms. Welsh said. "There’s a summer activity camp we’ve published, which is a half-day program for three weeks in the summer. It’s a rotation between the pool, gym and arts and crafts," she added.
"There’s also a Dip ticket program," Ms. Welsh explained. "You buy the Dip ticket for the number of swims you want to use.
"Right now, it’s just, ‘Let’s see what’s successful and then expand on this once we know what works,’" she said.
In addition to these districtwide programs, the pool also is now available for outside rental to interested groups.
"On Saturday, we’re having the Jersey Area Masters team host an all-day clinic here for master coaches and swimmers," she noted, referring to the first of what the six-person pool staff hopes will become regular swim clinics.
Outside users aside, the pool also aims to serve the John Witherspoon students themselves and to become a hub for student swimming activity.
"Another one of the selling points for the pool was that every JW student would learn to swim before he or she left," Ms. Welsh said.
"Swimming is not offered as an elective at John Witherspoon," she noted. "But for the fall, yes, we’ll start classes next year."
According to Ms. Welsh, the middle school plans to test all students on swimming ability and place them into groups accordingly.
"We are thinking of a beginners’ track, and then a more advanced class where students can choose between electives like fitness swimming, snorkel and a games unit," she said.
Although such programs are still in the initial stages of design, the new facility has been getting its fair share of attention over the past few weeks.
"The word is just starting to filter out to the community," Ms. Welsh said. "But there’s an excitement there. Definitely a curiosity."

