What's Planned For Hinsdale Central's Old Pool?

HINSDALE, IL — With Hinsdale Central High School's new pool under construction, officials have yet to decide what to do with the building housing the old pool.

Hinsdale High School District 86 officials are proposing an $870,000 project that would make the building available for certain purposes as of mid-October.

The plan was first presented to the school board last month, but then-board President Kevin Camden deferred the issue until a new board majority took office in May.

With the new board in place, members discussed the issue Thursday, but made no decisions.

With the proposed project, the district would in-fill the pool, decommission the mechanical equipment, create two accessible entrances from the west corridor and install "resilient" flooring.

Officials say the space could be used for lunch, student testing, physical education classes, sports teams and "collaboration" space. They say the building could be valuable as "flex space" for the school, given the unpredictability of the coronavirus.

The long-term proposal is to use the space for gymnastics or wrestling, with the current space for those sports converted to classrooms, according to the district's plan.

Board member Kathleen Hirsman said she wanted the space to benefit students.

"Our mission here is to serve students," she said. "If we can make our space more usable for students at a cost we can afford, that would be the first priority."

Board member Erik Held favored the district's proposal.

"We don't know what's going to happen in the fall with COVID," Held said. "In the short-term, I believe this is a decent expenditure of our funds."