Published: October 23, 2009 08:57 am      

2000: Clinton School District makes school improvements

Editor’s note: This article is part of our series that takes a look back at our area within the last few decades. This article was printed in 2000 in the Clinton Herald.



CLINTON — The beginning of the 1999-2000 school year in the Clinton School District brought with it the joy of two newly renovated schools.

Bluff and Whittier elementary schools this year opened their doors after undergoing extensive renovations paid for by a $9 million referendum approved by voters in October 1997.

Bluff, formerly known as Gateway Early Learning Center, is home to kindergarten through fifth-grade students from Longfellow and a portion of Henry Sabin elementary school’s students.

Whittier expanded to become the home of its former students as well as the remainder of Henry Sabin’s students. As part of the plan, Sabin and Longfellow were closed to students this spring as was Kirkwood Elementary School, which catered to early-learning students. Students from that building, at Fifth Avenue North and Fourth Street, were split between Bluff and Whittier.

The grand openings of the two new schools were marked formally Nov. 14, when dedication ceremonies were conducted at both sites. Celebrating education and how it will be delivered to students were the themes of both ceremonies that afternoon.

Superintendent Randall Clegg, Clinton Mayor LaMetta Wynn, Bond Campaign Chairman Dee Willoughby and Clinton School Board President Jennifer Graf, as well as building principals, teachers, students and Parent-Teacher Association representatives, spoke of the positive impact the new schools would have on students, staff and the community as a whole.

Also at that time, residents were able to tour the buildings and view their similar up-to-date features, which include a front office, complete with nurses’ and principals’ offices and conference rooms, and a large commons area.

At Bluff, there are new classrooms for kindergarten, first- and second-grade students with renovated classrooms for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, who will be in a separate wing from the younger students. At Whittier, kindergartners and first-graders are in a new wing while second- through fifth-graders are in the separate, renovated wing.

New state-of-the-art kitchens are in place at both schools and while Bluff’s gym has been refurbished, Whittier has a new gym. Its old gym has been turned into a large media center. Bluff also has a new large media center, which has conference rooms nearby.

There are reading suites at both buildings, with those classrooms designed to provide coordinated reading classes to students. At both schools, there are separate rooms for music and art classes.

Along with the work completed by construction and maintenance crews, there also was a volunteer effort that helped to finish the projects. Parent-Teacher Association members from both schools helped place new playground equipment at both buildings and Clinton’s Trees Forever was behind a volunteer effort to put in landscaping.

While district officials’ plans ultimately played out, they did experience some headaches along the way as they faced construction delays and wrestled with budget concerns.

One of the most major obstacles came in the form of change orders to correct unexpected engineering problems found during construction, such as the need for subsoil improvements at both building sites. Other major costs included the installation of a storm sewer and French drain replacement at Whittier and additional paving at both sites.

While facing increasing costs, the board made change orders of its own to keep costs down. Members also began looking at the possibility of using $100,000 in Physical Plant and Equipment Levy funds as back-up funding should additional change orders have upped the costs even higher.

But the financial picture brightened in September, when Director of Business Services Mark Klett announced that bond revenues were coming in at $10.6 million while the project’s costs were expected to be close to a combined $10.2 million.

He said the leftover balance of $400,000 would be used to pay for an elevator at Jefferson Accelerated School and the demolition of Longfellow, which will cost the district $149,920. That demolition began this month.

With the entire project nearing a conclusion, district officials now are looking into the future. They soon will evaluate the two remaining phases of the proposed plan that ultimately led to Bluff and Whittier’s renovations, which were known as Phase I improvements.

While Phase II’s original plans focused on the district’s middle schools and Phase III addressed the north-end elementary schools, those plans soon will be re-evaluated by a 60-member facilities task force appointed this month by the Clinton School Board. The task force is to present an updated facilities plan to the board early next year.