Cafeteria vendor chosen for Clinton Schools
Children in Clinton City Schools will be getting different food thanks to a new contract.
Director of Schools Kelly Johnson recently told the Clinton City Council that the schools had switched from Aramark to SSE, the same company that serves Oak Ridge city schools.
“We have just seen a significant improvement in the quality and the choices for students,” Johnson said, adding that participation in school meals was rising.
Johnson also spoke about special days to allow family and friends to visit the schools.
Kindergarten through second grades have already had theirs, while grades three through six will have theirs in November. Johnson said the visitors were impressed by the new cafeteria contractor.
“We have gotten lots of positive comments from our parents, family friends and grandparents that came to eat on that day,” she said.
Johnson said the school system hoped to be finished with the Clinton Elementary School auditorium “sometime in the upcoming months.”
She said the school system had picked out the paint color and had “lined up the ceiling and lights to happen.”
She said chairs are likely to be black “to keep it kind of neutral. We’ll be able to bring out some color in some other areas.”
The school system is also looking to give CES an all-accessible playground.
She also said the city had opened a request for proposal for paving on a nearby parking lot for teachers.
The parking lot would need to be ready first before the school system could order the new playground equipment. She said and she hoped to have the parking lot complete this fall.
Johnson said she wanted to open the playground “hopefully before the end of the school year; if not, definitely by the fall of next year.”
She promoted the “Meet the Blaze” event at 5 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 17. Everyone is invited.
The event will feature the Blaze basketball teams for both boys and girls. It will also feature the cheer and dance teams.
The winter guard, she said will start making appearances once it learns its routine.
“Coach Little is super excited about the talent that he has on the basketball court this year,” Johnson said regarding boys’ basketball Coach Jeff Little.
She also praised the Education Foundation for Clinton City and Anderson County Schools, a nonprofit organization that gives teachers grants for science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health and wellness programs. The group is doing an online fundraiser throughout October. More information on that group is on at theeducationfoundation.info/.
Johnson said enrollment was “really holding steady” with continued growth at North Clinton Elementary School.
“I guess it’s the houses that are being renovated and remodeled, but we are seeing lots of young families coming into North Clinton, so we now have two kindergarten, two first and two second grades at North (Clinton) with the anticipation that we will have to then have a second third grade next year,” she said. She said North Clinton is “not too far off” from matching the enrollment of South Clinton.
“At Clinton Elementary, we’re bursting at the seams,” she said. You would have never known we ever even added the addition.”
