Lifeguard shortage at pool an emergency

The Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District recently completed some upgrades to its Darwin E. Smith Aquatic Center, but now it’s lacking the sufficient number of lifeguards needed to run it.

John Rudeen, aquatic center director, told the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School Board on Sept. 23 the center is experiencing its worst lifeguard shortage ever, with only a couple of lifeguards available when at least three times that number is needed to keep the center open for normal hours.

“I’m in an extreme lifeguard drought,” Rudeen said.

Currently, the district pays its starting lifeguards $10 an hour and offers as much as $12 for the more experienced lifeguards. The board voted to increase the pay by $2 per hour, but the vote is not binding, because the meeting agenda only listed the aquatic center issues for discussion and not action. The board will need to vote again when the matter lists voting as an option on a future agenda.

The pay increase was one option Rudeen offered to the board, although his recommendation was to bump the starting pay from $10 to $11.25, but he also suggested tagging on a college scholarship for lifeguards for the hard workers, with $1,500 available after one year of service and $5,000 for serving all three years of high school — students can not become lifeguards until their sophomore year.

“We lost a few to graduation. That we could see coming,” Rudeen said. “We lost a few just to other places. Kids quit, and there were some who came on that didn’t turn out to be what you hoped for with willingness to work, taking orders, things like that. It’s been a long time since we’ve bumped up the pay rate, and that seems to be the answer.”

The pay bump was more favorable than the scholarship.

“I feel like that amount of money is going to hurt us, rather than help us,” Rudeen said of the scholarship idea. “I’ve got to do something soon.”

When asked how many lifeguards would be needed to fill the void, Rudeen said it can be hard to put an exact number out there because many of the students who work as lifeguards also have other jobs, athletics and other school activities to deal with.

“Two years ago, I had 12, and I was barely getting by,” Rudeen said. “Right now, I have two guys.”

Megan Rothmeyer, principal at Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, noted that it currently pays more to work at a fast-food place than at the pool.

“They can make more at McDonald’s without having to go through lifeguard training versus working at the pool,” Rothmeyer said.

The $10 an hour pay start for lifeguards has been in place since 2012.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com