Clinton Elementary gets $125K in renovations
Jamie Jordan, assistant director of Clinton City Schools, said Clinton Elementary School is still waiting on more supplies to finish building a new playground at this site behind the school. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The seats are part of a renovation that also included repairs or replacement of the ceiling, sound panel and lights, totaling about $125,000, said Scott Rhea, Clinton City Schools fiscal director.
While work is still underway, school officials hope to have the auditorium ready for the students, parents and staff that perform on its stage and sit in its seats during the upcoming school year.
The auditorium is open for use by all Clinton City Schools, and hosts choral programs as well as all CES assemblies.
“We fully expect unless there is a glitch of some kind that we’ll be able to hold our back-to-school staff meeting in our brand-new auditorium,” Director of Schools Kelly Johnson said.
Jamie Jordan, assistant director of schools, said the old seats were splintering and unsafe.
Rhea said their mechanical parts had issues.
“I’m probably as frugal as they come,” said Rhea. “I think it’s probably time.”
The new seats will have vinyl-protected cushions, which Jordan called “very durable.”
“It’s a rite of passage; parents want to see their children on stage,” said Jordan.
Rhea added that he looks forward to seeing his daughter, who’s entering first grade this year, on the stage along with all other students “from the shyest to the most outgoing.”
The auditorium work is among many preparations CES and Clinton City Schools are making for “a successful school year,” Jordan said.
Only some of the equipment has arrived for a new playground at CES, however, making its completion date unclear.
Its full cost, Rhea said, is around the same amount as the auditorium.
Rhea and Jordan said the new playground will have ways for the school’s six children who use wheelchairs to play alongside other children.
Johnson said Board of Education member Joey Smith had donated four large trees for the area’s landscaping.
She said CES will dedicate the playground to the late Jim Sanderson, who served as assistant superintendent for the school system.
Summer Program
Johnson said at the June 23 Clinton City Council meeting that city schools’ students who were enrolled in the summer learning program finished it on June 20.
She said on average 127 pre-kindergarten to rising seventh-graders attended.
“That has been definitely a success and we thank all the teachers who have dedicated four weeks of their summer to provide this additional learning opportunity for students,” she said.
