VILLARAIGOSA PREVENTS EVENT FROM BACK-FIRING ...or firing at all! + LAUSD, CITY AGREE TO OPEN POOLS DURING SUMMER

from the L.A.Now blog | Los Angeles times

12:40 PM, July 7, 2008 - The swimmers were on the starting blocks at Miguel Contreras Learning Center swimming pool, waiting for the crack of a pistol, but Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had other plans.

At a news conference this morning, the mayor announced a new agreement between the city and the Los Angeles Unified School District to open up 15 LAUSD pools to the public during the hot summer months.To commemorate the deal, Villaraigosa was supposed to shoot a starter pistol and send about a dozen high school kids into the gleaming, Olympic-sized pool.

But Villaraigosa, his political radar finely tuned, didn’t want anything to do with holding a gun, "even a fake one," especially with television news cameras and photographers recording his every move.

Instead, he picked up the microphone and counted to three.

-- Phil Willon

Villaraigosa prevents event from back-firing | L.A. Now | Los Angeles Times

 

LAUSD, CITY AGREE TO OPEN POOLS DURING SUMMER

The pool at Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights – one of the "Mayor's Partnership" schools – lies empty Tuesday, the day after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Unified School District officials listed it as one of 14 school pools that the city and school district had agreed to keep open to residents during the summer.  Photo by Gary McCarthy

From CITY NEWS SERVICE | LA Wave Newspapers

10.JUL.08 - LOS ANGELES — The Olympic-sized swimming pool at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, which was closed for community use last summer because of a lifeguard shortage, opened to the public Monday amid a pledge for more city-school community partnerships.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer and Monica Garcia, president of the school board, were on hand to open the pool and sign an agreement to open 14 more.

“By opening the Miguel Contreras pool to the entire community, we are creating a model for schools to follow,” Villaraigosa said. “This is the way we absolutely need to build schools in the future — with communities in mind so that our schools remain the center and heart of our communities.”

It will cost the city $15,000 to provide security personnel and lifeguards to the pool and another $15,000 for the summer swim program. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor will also contribute $15,000 to the swim program.

“In a time of strapped resources, LAUSD and the city of Los Angeles have combined forces to address a real need in park-poor areas of the city. We have formed a partnership that makes our schools and communities better,” Brewer said.

The agreement the mayor and school district officials signed calls for 14 pools on LAUSD campuses to be opened to the public over the next four years.

The existing swimming pools include the pool at Roosevelt High School and Yosemite Recreation Center [a Los Angeles City Department of Recreation & Parks facility] near Eagle Rock High School.

However, a visit to Roosevelt High School Tuesday found a pool that was drained and signs of construction around it.

 

City of LA/LAUSD “Aquatics Memorandum of Understanding” Press Release