About 50 residents attended Clinton Central’s Community Night Thursday night to hear about school finances and the upcoming building renovations for both the high school and elementary school.
TO VIEW MEETING ON VIDEO from HOOSIERLAND TV, CLICK HERE
“We want to get the message out there,” said Clinton Central Superintendent Jeremy Fewell. “Obviously, we wanted more people. This is a Community Night and we will do more. Big thing was to get the building project out there and give a quick educational session to the community on post-school financing. The operating referendum doesn’t come until May. So, we’ve got a lot time to get out there.”
Fewell added that a big part of his job is showing the community how the dollars are being spent.
Fewell is definitely trying to get the word more about the projects. The Community Night was his third presentation on the matter following back-to-back meetings with the Michigantown Town Council and the Kirklin Town Council Monday night.
From the outset, Fewell has stressed that this is going to be a tax neutral project that will not increase taxes for the public. The project that will maintain the debt service tax rate from 2021 at 38 cents for every dollar. Clinton Central is replacing the old debt with new debt to maintain the debt service rate at 38 cents.
“Schools will never be debt free,” said Fewell, adding that debt helps schools maintain and improve their buildings.
The project cost is currently set at just under $18.4 million.
The project scope includes replacing the HVAC system at both the high school and elementary school, expand the bus barn, improve site lighting on 14 poles, add ADA openers on doors at the high school and elementary school, MPR upgrades, relocate the high school office to the current library to create a safe/secured entrance, relocate the district office to the northwest side of the high school, turn existing high school office into an open concept students commons/media center, convert the food lab into a boardroom and additional kitchen storage, add on ADA restroom for the CCES cafeteria and replace the high school wheelchair lift.
The project is also going to have an new athletic entrance along with work on the weight room, locker room, concession stand, public restrooms, display cases, the corridor that connects gyms one and two from the athletic entrance and allows for future expansion for a third gym or fieldhouse, if needed. There will also be expansion to the wrestling room and an elementary front entrance canopy.
One of the problems with projects such as this is convincing the public how much things cost that they will not see.
“HVAC is important for our health and safety for our students and our staff,” said Fewell. “That’s about a quarter of our budget right there.”
Another reason the changes are wanted is for the future.
“Clinton Central is the hub of our community,” said Fewell. “We have a 62-year-old high school and there’s not a lot of 62-year-old schools that haven’t been touched in some way. This is going to be the first renovation seen in its entire time.”