From Wednesday to Friday last week, I took tours of Hope’s public school campuses during morning open houses.  When I and several other community members arrived, principals and students on each campus met us to take us on a tour of their schools that emphasized the places, equipment and machines that would be replaced or improved if Hope School District voters approve a millage in the March 3rd election. 

Today I will describe the situation at Clinton Primary School, a nearly 40-year-old structure that is the newest campus in Hope. In the coming days, I will describe what I saw at Beryl Henry, Yerger and Hope High School.

At Clinton Primary School Wednesday, I was met in the media room by Principal Ashlea Stewart who spoke to several of us about the need for a safer, more secure entrance to the school. At present, a person those inside would rather not admit into the school need only negotiate one barrier to intrude into the school’s building and just one more door to enter the school’s hallway.  (Stewart said about five people have made such attempts in her past 11 years at Clinton and three had to be officially banned from campus.) The plan by district staff is to build onto the outside of the current office entrance a vestibule that would have a three-door arrangement with bullet-resistant glass enclosures.  

“What the new vestibule would do would make it a three-door system so they enter the first one, but then there's two more doors that we have to allow them to come in. … It also provides a meeting room, so those third-party vendors that are here can meet in that vestibule area without coming into the building, because we definitely don't want guests going room to room looking, coming for their fourth grader and ending up in a first-grader classroom,” Stewart said.

The vestibule would also help address the issue of flooding, which makes entering the school for faculty, staff, parents and students a swampy experience during rainy days that not only surrounds the entrance but comes into the school as well.  “At the front, our grade comes down into the building, so at our staff entry doors I've got staff wearing rubber boots and then getting in the classroom and changing because they are walking through standing water to get in,” Stewart said.  Work could be complete on the new vestibule—should the millage pass--by the end of this year.

Another concerning area that could be improved by the passage of the millage pertains to HVAC.  Right now, the problem is resulting in uncomfortable temperatures and rates of humidity as well as condensation leaks near vents in the ceilings of classrooms.  You also can’t help but see an aesthetic problem when you look up.

“It is not mold. It is mildew,” Stewart said. “Because of the units, we have water dripping at times. Today, it's really comfortable, but in August and September, kids are sweating, and in the coldest months, they're in big puffer jackets in classrooms. There are days we have to relocate them to a different room.”

When you consider the way seating arrangements in classrooms can depend more on avoiding dirty water drops on schoolwork, on Microsoft Chromebooks and onto student heads, it’s hard not to conclude something must be done and soon.  Then when you actually see the effects of these leaks on dirty and stained ceiling tiles you realize the message sent to students and staff who see it every day about how much the community cares.  The fact that the school has raised literacy by 13 percent this past year under such conditions is stunning. 

“We're really excited about where this campus is going, the attention to detail, the work,” Hope Public Schools Superintendent Jonathan Crossley said of this increase.  “Our kids deserve to have the facilities and the environment to match that.”

Jonathan Crossley and Stewart led the touring group, which included several school board members, to the roof of Clinton Primary.  There we could all see the state of the dozens of HVAC units, most of which showed obvious corrosion, peeling decals and discoloration on the roofing surface around them.

“A lot of these units, are literally at the end of life. So if you can get 20 years out of a unit, you're doing great. Well, many of these are 25 years plus. So the building is 40 years old or so. … We've replaced four in the last two months. It's not a matter of if we have to replace these units. It's a matter of when and if they go out,” Crossley said.  

“Every time one goes out, it's at least 20 grand. And the more we time we wait, the higher those prices get.”

Robin Townshend, past assistant principal and current chairperson of Friends of Hope Public Schools described conditions in Clinton Primary created by its failing HVAC system. “We've had some issues throughout.  But in the last five years, it has really gotten bad.  Teachers are not able to leave things on their walls. They come in and it's all down and it’s Chromebooks having water moisture sitting on top of them.”

From the school’s roof, we all could see lingering water from Winter Storm Fern on the field around the playground.  This drainage issue hampers the school staff’s ability to provide the kids with essential time for play and exercise.  When it’s too muddy and the footing’s dangerous, the students can’t get the same quality of outside time and cannot work out the pent-up energy elementary-age children have when in classrooms for several hours.

To begin to solve all this will take a raise of the Hope School District millage tax from 34.7 mills up to 39.7 mills, which is the state average.  Voters in the HPS school district will see on their March 3rd ballots a measure that would approve or disapprove this proposal.  By way of comparison, Hope’s millage of 34.7 falls well below those of Fouke (49), Jacksonville (48), Magnet Cove (48), Genoa Central (48), Spring Hill (42) and Prescott (41). 

Tonight—Monday night--at Hempstead Hall, the public is invited to a conversational session on the subject of the proposed millage increase which is being called the Warm, Safe and Dry millage.  It will begin at 6:00 p.m.

To learn more you can watch Dr. Crossely's interview on our SWARK.Today episode of Investigating the Issues or visit hpsdistrict.org.