After its majority approval, the 2022 Clearview bond referendum will begin implementation of projects, a few of which have already gone out to bid.
Among them is a voice-activated fire alarm system for the Clearview middle and high schools approved at the Nov. 22 board of education meeting. Two other projects – roof repairs on the middle school and new emergency generators – will be put out to bid at a Dec. 15 meeting.
“They will be the first (projects) to get started,” said Clearview Business Administrator Esther Pennell. “A lot of our systems are beyond their useful life. They’re old. The roof replacement should happen this summer (2023). The fire alarms will happen in both schools this summer as well.
“The emergency generators depend on when they arrive, which is 12 months after we’ve ordered, so it should arrive sometime next year,” she added. “But they probably won’t be installed until February or March of 2024.”
That work is being done in the summer so as not to distract students during the school year. Other work – like converting the football field grass to artificial turf – is now being discussed at meetings.
“We’ve just begun meetings for the turf field,” said Pennell. “The other thing we’ve been working hard on is the auditorium of the high school. It goes to the professionals to design it, and then we will put it out to bid.”
Other bond referendum projects include the addition of a STEM lab at the middle school, enhanced security across the district and HVAC upgrades, which Pennell said will constitute most of the work and will begin in the summer of 2024. Exact dates for the projects going out to bid have yet to be determined.
The Clearview Regional School District’s bond referendum was first introduced in 2020 but was delayed because of COVID. Regardless of that, Pennell referred to the details as “complex” and noted that residents in the district had a lot to study on their own.
According to Clearview, 6,527 people voted for the referendum, while 4,748 opposed it.
“We appreciate everyone coming to support (the bond referendum),” said Pennell. “We appreciate the time they took to study it. We’re excited to get the projects.”
The Dec. 15 board of education meeting is open to the public and will take place at the Clearview administration building at 6:30 p.m.
