Water sizzles as it warms to a tolerable temperature. Swimmers enter the pool one by one and begin their practice. Below them, students enter school, not knowing the location of their peers: the pool on Green Hope’s roof. Its main purpose is for the swim team and their practice, and its existence is relatively unknown among the student body of Green Hope High School. Yet, since the building’s construction in 1999, the pool on the roof has been a staple of the school, especially for a great view when planes fly overhead.
For the swim team, the pool on the roof is a great place to practice, in the open air and frigid temperatures. Even though swimming is a winter sport, the pool is kept at a warm temperature for students. However, Kyley Lloyd (‘26), a member of Green Hope’s swim team, recalls, “We’ve had a few times that the heater doesn’t work but we still have to practice.” Yet, even without the heat, the pool is still nice for high schoolers waking up early to practice, climbing three stories into the open air where wind gusts fervently blow. “It’s pretty refreshing in the morning,” Lloyd admitted, and it “gets you nice and woken up.”
“We use the staircase in the 3300 wing [of Green Hope High School] to get up onto the pool deck, upstairs on the roof, and be there for about an hour,” Nick Shalhoub (‘26), another member of Green Hope’s swim team, explained. Shalhoub is one of many students who use the pool on Green Hope’s roof.
However, aside from use by the swim team, the pool on the roof is also recognized as a privilege given to a select group of students. This privilege is such a part of the Green Hope community that Mr. Colin Richardson, Green Hope High School’s Teacher of the Year, includes it in his curriculum. Specifically with his sociology students, Mr. Richardson showcases it as an example of select privileges afforded to certain students. It is another example of the quality of infrastructure in public schools.
Yet, like anything great, there are risks that come about. Being on the roof, some students get too close to the edge. “There was one kid who almost went over the edge a couple of years ago,” Lloyd recalls. “When my brother was on the team, one of his good friends was swimming and he did a flip. The pool is really, really close to the edge of the roof, and he almost went over, but thankfully he didn’t.” Despite the risk, the school chooses to maintain it.
The pool’s necessity in Green Hope High School outweighs the risk, though. Its legacy is present in the hearts and minds of the swim team, especially. “It’s been a tradition that all of the previous swim teams in the years since the school was built would swim up there,” Shalhoub explained. To change the location of practices would remove the long-lasting legacy of the swim team, even with its risk.
With more than 20 years of the swim team using the pool, it gives them a home advantage in the swim competitions. In Lloyd’s own experience, she recalls, “We’ve won lots of meets on the roof.” The other swim teams are scared of the sudden heights, which Green Hope students are immune to.
Maintaining the pool on the roof takes a lot of work, though, and it could be a matter of time before a decision is made to eliminate its use on campus. Individuals need to head up from the staircase in the 3300 wing to the roof, where, in spite of the wind, the pool needs to be cleaned so the swim team is able to practice. Then, buckets of water are carried through the school.
A legacy of victories, a sudden safety risk and general fun represent Green Hope’s pool on the roof from the standpoint of the swimmers, who actively use the body of water. In spite of these accolades, the pool on the roof is unknown to many students throughout Green Hope and is a secret hidden behind the closed door in the 3300 staircase.
