Labor Day (Sept. 6) marks this summer’s official end—the day on which refined ladies put away their white jeans and men finally return those unfortunate bright-pink Bermuda shorts to the back of the closet and become men again.
Neighborhood pools across town will retire until next spring, their cheery clubhouses locked but for the occasional winter formal pre-party.
Not so, however, at Casa Solana’s pool. This year, in a clever answer to dwindling education budgets, the 12-student, nonprofit Tara School is moving in.
Linda Waidler, the school’s only full-time teacher, says her now-grownup daughters laughed when she told them of the school’s plan to move to the clubhouse.
“They said, ‘Mom, you made us be there every day in the summer—and now you’re back as a poolie!’” Waidler tells SFR.
It’s a simple solution to a common problem. The Tara School, Waidler says, was having trouble paying for its Agua Fria Street location. Meanwhile, the Casa Solana Neighborhood Association, according to Board Member Charles Weber, wasn’t making much use of its pool and clubhouse during non-summer months. So why not share?
“The Tara School was a perfect fit for the other nine months of the year,” Weber says.
Both he and Waidler say the overlap between summer and school-year is a bit tricky, but they’re optimistic about Tara’s two-year lease with the Neighborhood Association.
“It’s not easy for teachers to share spaces,” Waidler confesses. This arrangement, she says, is “a good role model.”
