Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Jill Baker announced this week that the district is pausing development plans around a new $23 million aquatic facility at Wilson High and will seek more community input after many people voiced concerns over the planned gender-neutral locker rooms.
Students, parents and coaches have been a steady presence at school board meetings for the last two months, raising concerns ranging from safety to logistics. Some female Wilson students said they weren’t comfortable using the same facility as boys to change or shower.
“In an effort to make sure our community is really engaged and informed about these large-scale projects, we’ve made a decision to pause the current development of plans and review our community input process,” Baker said at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting. “Much more to come in that regard—we will have an item around facilities at the March board workshop.”
District officials had said their decision to use gender-neutral locker rooms with individual stalls for students to change was based on focus groups conducted with students, but aquatic athletes and coaches complained that they weren’t consulted or asked for their opinion. In addition to concerns about the lack of designated gendered sides of the facility, they brought up issues around having enough space for the district’s large swim teams to change before and after meets.
While the current plans are for Wilson, the issue became a citywide one because the design approved and constructed at Wilson will be replicated at the district’s other comprehensive high schools.
Wilson principal Kimberly Holland alerted the Wilson community of a pause in development via email this week as well.
“Based on input we have received from the Wilson community, we recognize that there is an interest in expanding the engagement process to include additional opportunities for input and feedback,” Holland wrote. “Our Facilities department will be reviewing all of the public input related to this project that has been submitted, and will work with District staff to create additional opportunities for community engagement in the future.”
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