Voters approve $37 million for building projects
By Bert Lehman
Residents in the Clintonville School District passed a $37 million referendum on Nov. 3 with 58% voting in favor of the referendum.
The referendum received 2,803 votes in favor of it, while 2,031 residents voted against the referendum.
“I am certainly thrilled and so pleased that the community stepped up and is supporting our community’s most precious resource of children into the future,” Superintendent David Dyb told the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette after the results were released. “This is a great thing for our community and its certainly going to benefit all students and we’re certainly excited.”
Dyb said the COVID-19 pandemic created some uncertainty.
“Just from the standpoint that, how do you run a referendum in a pandemic? You’re not able to get out and do a lot of the in-person things that we wanted to do,” Dyb said. “But on the same token, I think we really focused on getting accurate information out to people and giving them plentiful opportunities to ask questions of us, which many of them did. I felt the board, administration, and staff did everything we possibly could do within our control to be as transparent and get accurate information out to people to help them make their best decision.”
It’s been 20 years since the last school referendum passed in the district. That was the referendum to build the current high school.
“I think what really paid off for the school district in this process was the fact that the board was open to an open and transparent process and we really did our due diligence and took our time,” Dyb said.
He added, “We’ve been going at this for almost two years to make sure that we got it right. We listened to the community and focused on needs over wants in bringing a good plan. I think a lot of the leg work was done prior to COVID. People were aware we were moving in that direction.
Plans for the future
The school district will now be able to move forward with a plan to build an addition to the current high school that will eventually house the district’s middle school students.
The current middle school will then be remodeled to accommodate the district’s elementary students. The referendum will also allow the district to expand on some of its educational departments and programs.
“It’s critically important because it really sets us up for the next generation,” Dyb said. “The district has not passed a referendum in 20 years and so it was really overdue in making that big investment in our schools and our community.”
Dyb said the district will immediately begin working with Hoffman Design and Construction, who will be the construction managers for the project, on the architecture and design phase, and work out details on timelines.
“We’ll start first with a lot of site development and working on the additions at the high school and the renovations there,” Dyb said. “Once that’s ready to go, then we’ll move over to the middle school and we’ll start on the renovations on the middle school that will become the new elementary.”
If everything goes as planned, Dyb expects the addition at the high school to be completed by fall of 2022 so middle school students can start the 2022 school year in the new addition. Renovations will then start at the current middle school and completed by the fall of 2023 so the district’s elementary students can start the 2023 school year at the renovated middle school.
“We still have all of next year yet in the existing buildings, and two years yet probably at downtown in the elementary before they move up to the current middle school,” Dyb said.
Despite the wait, Dyb said he is thankful and looking forward to the future.
“Thank you to the community for their patience, and for the questions, and for their support,” he said. “It has been tremendous and I’m excited for this community moving forward.”