Dateline: June 25, 2009

School busy place during summer break

By Ashlyn Tubbs, Clarendon Enterprise  

Clarendon High School students will return from summer vacation to completely new looking buildings this upcoming school year. Renovations to the inside of both the High School and Band Hall have been in progress since June 1.

“Our school is going to be fresh, nice and clean; and I will be able to tell when kids mark on the walls. I’m excited.” Clarendon High School Principal Larry Jeffers said.

According to Jeffers, the repairs will include: replacing the tile in both of the science labs, all of the hallways, and some of the tile in the Band Hall, pulling the old carpet out in all of the classrooms and replacing it with new carpet, replacing tile with carpet in the Band Hall and teacher’s workroom, refinishing all the doors in the schools as well as putting kick-plates on them, redoing the wood on the front of the auditorium stage, and repainting the entire school.

Superintendent Monty Hysinger said that they also are going to do a roof repair on the high school and Band Hall since they have the oldest roofs in district. He believes the roofs could gain another five to six years if they receive a few minor repairs.

“Overall I think it’s going to be a very nice improvement,” Hysinger said. “It’s going to make our school look like a whole new building.”

The new paint and carpet will differ from the ones previous. Clarendon High Secretary Valorie Ashcraft describes the replacing colors as lighter and softer tones.

“We’re relaxing our environment,” Ashcraft remarked.

Hysinger says that the High School and Band Hall have not received any major restoration in approximately twenty years. In the last couple of years though, it has become noticeable that the school was in need of new flooring, since the carpet was getting thread bare, and it was time to refinish the wood work. The vinyl flooring was also getting harder to keep up in some areas.

“We’re just giving the school a new face lift,” Hysinger commented. “It’s one of our nicer buildings, so we want to maintain it.” 

Hysinger says that the overall cost of the carpet and flooring repairs is approximately $52,413. The total price of the woodwork, painting and refinishing reaches $47,800. The district fund balance will pay for the project.

“We try to save money back for these types of maintenance repairs,” Hysinger said. “We’re trying to maintain these buildings as good as we possibly can so people are proud of our facilities and know that we take care of them.”

As for the labor, Rick Lovelady Carpet in Amarillo will receive the benefit of the carpet, and Jim Shadle got the bid for the paint job and contracted it out.

“Jim Shadle’s crew and Rick Lovelady carpets are both working extra hard to do a nice job,” Hysinger said. “They are all working good together.”

The estimated time of completion for the renovations is July 17.