The river is the core of San Marcos’ identity, so it makes sense that swimming is a critical skill for local youth to learn. With that in mind, the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District proposed during the past bond election that San Marcos property taxes pay for an instructional swimming facility, and the community agreed.
In the 2023 San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District bond election, Prop D, along with Prop A, B and C, was passed in a public vote. Prop D was $17,478,750 funded by property taxes for a natatorium in order to provide water safety instruction and certifications and a practice facility for the SMCISD swim team.
The SMCISD Board of Trustees heard a presentation by Daniel Perez, managing principal from Stantec-San Antonio, on the status of the proposed plans for the project at the regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 16.
Perez said the natatorium will be located on the north side of San Marcos High School, and the plans incorporate room for an expansion if ever needed. The design shows the pool in the middle with 108-foot tall bleachers on one side and 100foot tall pool deck on the other. The level with the pool deck also has the offices, pool rooms, student entrance and student locker rooms with showers. He said that the natatorium will seat approximately 240 to 250 spectators.
“Overall the building is about 25,500 square feet. Obviously you have your pool area. We discussed numerous pool configurations,” Perez said, adding that there are eight lanes in one direction and 15 in the other for practice purposes. “This is considered a stretch pool. You’re able to swim 25 yards. You're also able to swim 25 meters.”
Perez said that it had been brought to Stantec’s attention that there have been several additions to the high school throughout the years, all using different materials. The proposed plan will attempt to match the front of the school. The public will enter through the top floor, and students will enter through the bottom floor.
“This building will also be at the front of the school,” Perez said. “We have brick that will be very similar to what you have and then metal panels that will be similar to what you have.”
Perez said the wall colors and bleachers will dawn the Rattlers colors, purple and white.
SMCISD Board President Anne Halsey raised concerns about the proposed seven-foot depth on one end of the pool.
“It’s been a long time since I got my Red Cross Lifeguard Certification, but back in the day we had to do depth tests,” Halsey said. “I’m wondering if we have looked into what the Red Cross instruction requirements in terms of making sure we’re able to train students in Red Cross training lessons.”
Perez said he wasn’t sure that he had the full answer to that question.
“We do have a pool consultant that works with us,” Perez said. “The discussions we had were, ‘What are the uses going to be?’ A couple of people indicated that they wanted to be able to teach small kids to swim, so we need a shallow end. ‘We want to be able to do water polo.’ So we’ll need a seven-foot depth. ‘We want to be able to have swimming competitions.’ We asked about diving. If you want to have diving, you need depths of about 13 feet. They said that was not a need at this time.”
The San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Communications and Technology searched for the answer to Halsey’s question and found that the Red Cross only mandates a five foot depth, which meant the seven foot depth would suffice for training.
SMCISD At-Large Trustee Mari Salmi wanted to know if the building would be capable of hosting the amount of people that generally go to the meets of the Rattlers swim team competitors.
Perez said the building size was comparable to other local districts and would have enough seating to host district meets as well.
Halsey said that last year's bond discussions touched on giving public access to the entire community.
