Greenwich High Needs a New Pool: Let's Be Honest About Its Scale and Price Tag
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On Thursday, June 11, the Greenwich Board of Education (BOE) had its first official read of the NaTCAD (Natatorium, Tennis Courts and Access Driveway) project proposed for Greenwich High School. Under the primary plan being considered, the district would tear down the aging 1968 pool and rebuild directly on its existing footprint, a move that will require relocating GHS aquatics activities for 1 to 2 years during construction.
The GHS pool is well past its prime. Between structural water seepage, non-compliant drain codes, and a ceiling layout so low that divers aren't safely allowed to use the 1-meter boards, a new pool is desperately needed.
Let's Be Honest About the Size of the Natatorium
While the BOE frames this option as a necessary rebuild within the pool's existing footprint, the data shown in the meeting's presentation tells a completely different story. We aren’t just swapping out an old pool for a modern version of the same thing.
The plan is to vastly expand the footprint to fit in modern competitive water polo space, elevated spectator seating, expanded locker rooms, and the high vertical ceilings required for safety-compliant diving. The presentation specs reveal that the proposed facility is actually jumping from the original 10,212-square-foot footprint to a massive 35,059-square-foot premier aquatics complex—over 3 times its original size.
Putting the $57 million Price tag into Perspective
The current conceptual cost for the new natatorium complex sits around $47 million, and it balloons to $57.4 million when you add the tennis courts and access driveway work.
To understand the scale of this capital investment, it helps to look at how this stacks up against other highly-debated town infrastructure overhauls:
Dorothy Hamill Rink Rebuild: At over $57 million, this single high school sports project costs significantly more than the entire $41.2 million rink rebuild project in Byram.
Central Middle School: It commands more than half the budget required to build the entire brand-new, 125,000-square-foot Central Middle School campus from scratch.
Fast Track
This project is moving exceptionally fast. A special meeting is scheduled for this Monday, June 22, to refine the educational specifications for the project ahead of the final fall push. You can view the agenda here.
Between the Lines: Supporting a premier facility for our athletes makes sense. But if Greenwich builds this, the administration must drop the "routine upgrade" spin and be fully transparent about its true scale, cost, and taxpayer impact before the vote.