Maintenance for school pools

If we own your pool, the board will receive operational funding to maintain it. Funding is calculated on the actual square metres of the pool. You can use this funding for day-to-day maintenance.

If your school or community owns the pool, the board is responsible for making sure the pool is maintained. You don’t get operational funding for board or community owned pools.

Property maintenance grant funding 

To maintain your pool, you need to budget and pay for:

• pool chemicals
• water charges
• heating charges
• water testing charges
• the salary and training of the person responsible for maintaining pool hygiene and maintenance, such as the caretaker
• painting the pool and surrounds
• repairing fences
• repairing and servicing the filtration plant
• caring for ancillary buildings like changing rooms, storage sheds and roofing structures
• repairing pool covers.

Schools receive funding from the Ministry of Education for heat, light and water to cover operational costs. There’s no additional funding if these costs increase due to pool use outside school hours.

Heat, light and water funding – Ministry of Educationopen_in_new

Upgrades involve work that’s done over and above day-to-day maintenance, such as:

• resurfacing the pool
• upgrading fences and ancillary buildings
• upgrading or replacing equipment and facilities.

We class upgrades as capital works because they improve an asset we own. This means upgrades need to be paid for through board funding, or your 5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding. Significant pool upgrades are generally a priority 4 (or ‘non-essential’) project so they may not be prioritised for funding. If you need guidance on expenditure for your pool, talk to your property advisor.

You can’t use your property maintenance grant to pay for upgrades.

Read about planning for maintenance work in your 10 Year Property Plan (10YPP).

10 Year Property Plan steps for schools

If the school board or community owns the pool, you need to pay for repairs if the pool is damaged.

If we own the pool, contact your property advisor to talk about how to fund repairs.

If your school is planning to build a new school pool or replace an existing one, you need to use board funding such as grants or fundraising. A pool isn't a School Property Guide (SPG) essential so there’s no funding for building or replacing pools.

School boards become the owners of any new or replacement pools. Boards are responsible for all costs associated with the pool including:

• building the pool and all associated facilities
• maintaining the pool and facilities
• repairing or replacing pool parts or facilities.

If your school wants to remove an existing Crown-owned pool, talk to your property advisor at your regional office first. School boards should consult with the school community before removing a school pool.