A deal appears to be in place that will prevent the closure of most of Toronto's public school swimming pools.

Toronto District School Board trustee Josh Matlow said Monday the province has pledged $16 million for repair work to keep the pools open. And the money needed to operate the individual pools will be raised through permit sales.

"For many, many years the TDSB was taking money from other grants, such as grants for English as a second language to cover all these costs of the pools. Now I think we've found a far more rational and responsible way to keep our schools afloat while ensuring that both students and community residents have access to them," said Matlow.

TDSB chair John Campbell estimates each pool costs between $85,000 to $200,000 per year to operate. The permits will cover those costs.

"It's in the sort of $3 [million] to $4 million range — and the permit revenue has increased — and it has increased to the point where it will enable us to offset most of those operating costs," said Campbell.

Community groups and organizations like the YMCA will rent the pools during the evenings to help defray the costs.

The money raised by the permits won't keep all of the city's school pools open. Right now only 26 of the 39 pools slated to close will be covered by the extra money.

Livia Hunter, a mother who works with the group Let's Make Waves, has been fighting to keep the school pools open.

She's happy with the news, but is disappointed 13 pools are still slated for closure because the board can't find the money to repair and run them.

"I guess my feeling is that really that this shouldn't be falling on the community to do, that it really should be something that the school system [pays for] since they have the pools. And the city really should be the ones that are working out the operational costs of these pools."

But Matlow says there is still plenty of time to find resources to keep the other 13 open.

Those pools aren't due to close until the end of the year.

Toronto has 79 pools at schools, as well as a further 30 city-run indoor pools for its 2.5 million residents.

The deal, brokered by former Toronto mayor David Crombie, is expected to be discussed at this week's TDSB board meeting.