Jackie Prindle Pool to open soon

The anticipated Jackie Prindle pool will be completed on Friday Dec. 14. California Commercial Pools has been overseeing the construction of the Jackie Prindle Pool and workers will begin filling it on Friday.

“Students will have to wait until after the holiday break to swim in the pool,” attendance clerk Mary DiMatteo said. “It takes two weeks for the chemicals to react with the water.”

The Jackie Prindle pool replaced the old pool which became a safety hazard to swimmers and staff over many years of use.

“The old pool was cracking and crumbling and rusting and completely falling apart” DiMatteo said.

Not only did the pool raise safety concerns, it also did not meet CIF standards for Water Polo.

“[The old pool] was not CIF compliant for water polo events. The first pool had a deep end of 11 feet and the other of 4 feet,” DiMatteo said. “So one goalie would be actually standing in the goal.”

The Jackie Prindle pool costs an estimated $2.1 million. The new pool is larger than its predecessor due to the length and width of 134 feet and 75 feet. With its new depth of seven and a half feet in the deep end and three and a half feet in the shallow end, it contains over 8,000 cubic feet of water. The new pool also features 11 swim lanes and provides more deck space for students do dry land exercises.

“[The new pool] will be CIF compliant and we will host Bay League finals for swim this year.” Dimatteo said.

This larger pool will allow more students to use the pool together.

“This will free up time for other groups [to practice together] and will let the student athletes to get home at a reasonable time to do homework,” DiMatteo said.

When students return from winter break, the school will host a ribbon cutting ceremony in honor of Jackie Prindle. The first team to be able to swim in the pool will be the girls water polo team.

“It is only fitting as Jackie Prindle was a water polo player at Peninsula.” DiMatteo said.