Clinton City Schools announces construction, renovation projects
KELLY JOHNSON Director of Schools Clinton City Schools
Director of Schools Kelly Johnson spoke to the Clinton City Council about these projects at the June 24 meeting and gave further updates later to The Courier News.
New CES playground
She thanked the city for helping extend the parking lot “across the street from Marshall [Street] where Wiggles and Giggles was.”
The school partnered with the city of Clinton and paid for about $10,000 of materials.
Once workers finish extending that parking lot and parents can use the new spaces, the school system will turn the current lower parking lot at Clinton Elementary School into an all-accessible playground for students. She said the schools have budgeted about $200,000 for site prep, equipment and installation.
“We have approximately four to five students that are currently in wheelchairs,” she said regarding the need for the playground. She added that the school system lacks play areas suited to these children.
“This will help us address that and give them a nice playground,” she said.
She said the playground’s completion will depend on when the asphalt contractor arrives, and will likely be next summer.
CES Auditorium
She also spoke about the auditorium renovation at CES, adding that the school system kept some seat bottoms for anyone who would want one for memories.
“I know that a lot of us went to elementary school there, and those seats were near and dear to heart,” she said. “But it really was a safety issue for children to sit in the chairs. Many of them were broken, and the wood was starting to chip, and that’s not comfortable for anybody.”
She said the school is also painting, adding new sound panels and replacing the ceiling in the auditorium, giving it an “all new look.”
She said it will not be completed for a while, however, because of all the tasks involved. Repairing the ceiling will cost about $65,000.
The school demolished the chairs in house.
She estimated the ceiling, lights and painting will cost $50,000 to $60,000.
Floors
She said the school system had successfully replaced floors in six classrooms at South Clinton Elementary School. It cost $25,000, paid out of general-purpose funds.
“We’re just doing a few each year so that we can pay cash for them,” she said.
Summer learning
Johnson said the school system’s summer learning camps ended June 28.
About 170 students registered to attended, she said, for the four-week summer school.
Average attendance per day was 125. She said the school system was still registering pre-K through sixth grade students on Monday through Friday.