Parents, kids wait for swim lessons: Bend Park and Recreation District classes have a waitlist

More instructors than they've ever had -- but demand is rising even faster

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Some Bend parents are having a hard time getting their kids into public swim lessons.

“It’s been very difficult trying to get them enrolled through Bend Park and Rec.," Jessica Woodford said Monday. "We had them on a waitlist for probably about 10 different sessions.”

Woodford said every time she had been on waitlists, there were at least 20 families ahead of hers.

“I definitely think the population increase in Bend has a lot to do with it," Woodford said.

Bend resident Zoe Neros is trying to get her 4-year-old daughter into swim lessons and said there are about eight or nine families ahead of hers.

“Four out of five times we were denied, we're waitlisted," Neros said.

For now, Neros has taken on the task of giving her daughter swim lessons every Monday.

If you look on the Bend Park and Recreation website, you'll find most swim classes are already full.

Ann Story, aquatics supervisor for the park district, said it's offering more swim lessons than in previous years, but it's still been challenging to keep up with the demand.

“We have between 20 and 30 people on our waitlist," Story said.

"I think that there's a big waitlist because a lot of parents want their kids to swim again," Story said. "It's a great lifelong skill for kids to learn, and Bend is growing. So I just think that with the population, honestly, more people are on the waitlist, more people are trying to get in. So it's just the rising population of Bend."

The swim classes offer six and eight sessions that are each about 40 to 45 minutes long. 

“Our ratios are really small -- we have a ratio of one to four, one to five, and one to six," Story said.

Story said the park district has 40 swim instructors, which is more than it's ever had, and it's still working to get more.

"I've been doing training classes every month to get more instructors in so that I can open more classes, so that I can meet the demand and get people off the waitlists," Story said.