Clarkston school district considers options for high school

Clarkston School Superintendent Pete Lewis talks about the condition of the high school.

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Story Published: Jun 14, 2009 at 10:25 AM PDT

Story Updated: Jun 14, 2009 at 10:25 AM PDT

By Stephanie Smith

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CLARKSTON – Clarkston School District officials says Clarkston High School has several issues that need addressing and that the sooner it happens, the better.

"We are trying to see if we can look at our high school and part of that high school is a 1955 building and parts of it are structurally failing and we’re obviously going to take a look at that," said Superintendent Pete Lewis.

The district is putting together a committee to look at buildings district-wide.

"We qualify for state match money, meaning that the state of Washington will contribute about $9 million to the project, should the voters decide to pass a bond," said Lewis. "But our committee has to go through all the different options and then come forward with a recommendation to the board of directors and then the board of directors would make a determination if they want to proceed forward with taking something to the voters."

The 1955 building has been remodeled a number of times and the committee will evaluate if they should give it a facelift or build a new one.

"In our bathrooms we are having a tough time finding replacement parts for some of the toilets because they are old fixtures, that's difficult, and we also have some roof failure along the science wing and other parts," said Lewis. "But we have upgraded our heating and air conditioning and our lighting. We would be able to reuse all of those things. So we just want to take a look at all of that and we are required by law to do that every five years in the district and this is just part of a normal cycle. But we want to make sure we have community input in terms of what that looks like and parent input and also staff input in terms of taking a look at all of these facilities."

Previous levies built CHS's auditorium and remodeled the library and counseling center.

"Everything west of the Adams Building is in good shape and we wouldn't be wanting to look at that. But everything to the east we certainly would want to take a look at," said Lewis. "What's the best way to use our resources and look at how we provide education to our kids for the next 20 years?"

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