Learning to swim might be considered among the most important life skills for kids growing up on an island. But it’s been nearly two years since youth swimming lessons have been offered at Nantucket’s community pool, and they likely won’t be offered again until this spring at the earliest.
The pandemic forced the closure of the community pool, which is located at Nantucket High School and operated by the Nantucket Community School, back in March 2020. Up until then, the community pool had been the primary venue for youth swimming lessons on Nantucket for years, offering families the most accessible and affordable program on the island. Yet even after the state’s COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the spring of 2021 and the pool reopened for adult lap swimming and the school swim teams, the “Learn To Swim Lessons” have remained cancelled.
The issues preventing their return are both staffing, and the concerns regarding close contact that is inherent between instructors and young children learning to swim during lessons at the pool, according to Ry Murphy, the new aquatics director at the community pool who took over from Jim Pignato last fall.
“It’s definitely a concern, having a two-year gap with kids who now aren’t as comfortable as they should be in the ocean,” Murphy said. “It’s a huge priority. That’s the whole reason why we’re here.”
Murphy, who grew up on the island and trained in the pool he now oversees, said he understands the importance of bringing the program back as soon as possible and giving kids the skills and comfort level to swim safely around the island.
But most of his instructors are high school students themselves, and he has to weigh their safety when considering putting them in the pool with groups of children who will be clinging to them, spitting out water, and generally unable to maintain any kind of physical distance to reduce the potential for virus transmission.
In late 2021, Murphy said he brought back a six-week pilot program for youth lessons with a handful of kids in the upper levels of the program who had been on the waiting list to see whether it could work.
“There were close calls with close contacts, so it wasn’t perfect, which is why we suspended it again,” he said. “There were a couple of incidents that made me uncomfortable. It’s more about putting them (the instructors) in that position. I know that if I said ‘get in the pool and hug that kid’ they would do it. They’re excited. But I don’t want to put them in a position.”
Murphy said he will be monitoring the island’s COVID-19 situation in the coming weeks and months, as well as the school’s mask mandate, which was just extended by the state through Feb. 28. The Community School is currently looking to hire a program coordinator to oversee the program, which would help facilitate its return Murphy said. Anyone interested in getting on the waitlist for the Learn To Swim program or in applying for the coordinator position can reach him at murphyr@npsk.org.
