Increase Pool Hours & Swim Lessons

• Offer more swim lessons. Every child should reach safe competency by the time they leave elementary school. Open the pool to outside providers if necessary.
• Offer more family swim hours so kids can practice beyond lessons, with warmer water during open swim.
• Change the 1040 rule, which caps “as needed” employees at 960 hours a year, so more staff can keep the pool open.
• Drop the 200-hour experience requirement for hiring lifeguards.
• Revisit the number of lifeguards required to open the pool.

We have a beautiful $10M pool that is open a fraction of the time it could be. It depreciates in value without providing critical services like swimming lessons and family swim, and the city misses revenue while still paying to maintain it.

• Shortage of swimming lessons, overall and especially at hours that work for working families. The water is optimized for lap swimming, not kids and lessons.
• Shortage of family rec swim hours. The pool is open about 43 hours a week (most public pools average 80–90) and closed Sundays and Mondays.
• Shortage of lifeguards. Training is scarce, and SF requires 200 hours of experience on top of American Red Cross certification, which no other Bay Area pool requires.