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Clinton High School renovations come with a 46-million dollar price tag

The superintendent says most of the money for the renovations would come from a one-percent sales tax. The rest would need to come from a bond referendum.

CLINTON, Iowa-- Last week, a proposal was brought to the Clinton School Board to renovate Clinton High School. Looking at Clinton High School, you wouldn't know most of the building is over a hundred years old.

“If you actually walk through our building and the hallways right now it looks pretty good the district has done a nice job at maintaining the exterior places that you would see,” said superintendent Gary DeLacy. DeLacy is in full support of the upgrades.

“All of this was put in, in 1970,” said Charles Schantag. Schantag says new paint and decorations hides the fact the building needs some major TLC.

Underneath the main floor lies tons of old, rusting pipes.

“All of this stuff should have been replaced thirty years ago,” said Schantag.

A big piece of the $46 million dollar renovation costs would go to fixing the pipes.

Students and teachers won't necessarily see the change if renovations are approved but they will feel it, especially in the colder months.

“Our HVAC system is nowhere near as efficient as it could be, should be,” said Schantag.

Issues like single pane windows, asbestos in the flooring, and some rooms don't even have air conditioning, forced to use fans to keep cool.

A fire back in the late '60s created staircases that lead to a nonexistent third floor. School leaders say if they had the money, they could renovate the area above and put it to good use. Problems you wouldn't see if you didn't know where to look, but the school district hopes they can soon change all that.

“Bottom line is I'm trying to advocate what's best for the future of the City of Clinton and I think that the school system has a big piece of that,” said DeLacy.

The superintendent says most of the money for the renovations would come from a one-percent sales tax. The rest would need to come from a bond referendum.

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