BUCYRUS—What was shaping up to be a dry summer for local kids quickly and unexpectedly did a 180° turn thanks to a few individuals at Bucyrus City Schools.

A few weeks ago, BCS treasurer Ryan Cook and his assistant Judy Grochowalski were casually having a conversation at work over the pool situation in town when the ball was set in motion for the idea to come together.

“I read the information about the pool not being open, and I mentioned to him [Ryan] when we were at work that it’s just such a shame: I wish the city would have, or someone from the city administration, would have put it out there, even if just to see if businesses or individuals would donate just to get the pool open for the kids because I felt bad for them. And so, as we were chatting about different options, we kind of talked about how it would have been nice to be able to make donations because I would have been interested in that, and just kind of left it at that,” Judy said.

A week or so later, Judy said she heard Ryan in his office on the phone with the attorney, talking about an idea that he had to buy pool passes for BCS students for the summer.

“We saw in the district, when the kids had downtime during Covid, that it just was not good on a whole host of levels – damage and destruction to our properties there at the district, so the summertime pool is kind of a big deal. We were talking, and she was thinking and trying to find ways to make this happen, and it just kind of hit me, “Oh my gosh, why don’t we buy our kids some pool passes?” This is a simple thing—legally, the school can do it and it can partner with the city per the Ohio Revised Code. I checked with legal counsel, I checked with some folks at the state, and we really did our homework on it to get it through fast,” Ryan said.

Once cleared with legal counsel, Ryan took the idea to the superintendent Bob Britton and board president Randy Blankenship, who both loved the idea and agreed to move forward.

“I talked to Kevin Myers to get some preliminary numbers to kind of get a handle on what we are looking at. I was not necessarily worried about the cost because I had seen some preliminary figures. The pool is 70,000-80,000 to start up, and we have about one thousand kids from PreK-12 at $70-80 for a season pass. It was just one of those things where you see a need in the community. We are in a good place financially: within the last ten years, our fiscal position has never been stronger,” Ryan said.

Though only BCS students are the only ones receiving passes, the money from those to open the pool back up for the summer can impact everyone in the community by giving kids a place to go in the summer to get outside and not be staring at screens all day, and by creating jobs for olds kids who will be able to have employment opportunities with the pool.

“Everyone around the community is going to benefit from that—the pool is going to be open, and the cost of operation will be covered, but then hopefully the city can gain some additional revenue from the students who aren’t Bucyrus City School students that are going to go to the pool, or you know, hopefully, that gets them in a better position going forward, also,” Judy said.

The school district will have more details on the pool passes for students soon as all the details get worked out.

“It is a collaborative effort all the way between the city and the school. It gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what can happen when people try to stay positive and come together. Everything is so polarized today, and everyone wants to fight, moan, and groan, but you have to set that stuff aside, or else we are never going to move forward,” Ryan said. “I hope it gives the city a shot in the arm that their expenses this year are going to be somewhat minimal, so hopefully, people will come out and support that pool and they can build that balance in their pool fund for next year as well. It is going to build momentum, and I hope that momentum can be built upon.”

The money for this project will be paid out of the district’s general fund.

The tentative date for the pool to open is around Memorial Day weekend.