Clovis Unified School District utilizes summertime to do 'heavy lifting' on facility maintenance

As students soak up the summer, staff is hard at work in the Clovis Unified School District.

With kids out of class, crews are working to keep schools in tip-top shape.

Cole Elementary School has plastic-wrapped windows and doors.

Without kids on campus, crews are using the summertime to give it a new coat of paint.

"This is when we get all of our heavy lifting done," Asst. Superintendent Facility Services Denver Stairs said.

This is just one of multiple "deferred maintenance projects" going on across the Clovis Unified School District.

Stairs says the site will also receive new roofing this summer.

He says district-wide, there's always a running list of items that need to be maintained to keep all facilities in working order.

"If you think about it in terms of your house, it's just normal maintenance that we need to do, and so we try to stay up on that," Stairs said.

When it doesn't happen, major issues can pop up, like last year at Clovis High when there was a power failure.

They were forced to close campus for a couple of days as the crews rushed to get things back up and running.

"Our goal is to absolutely avoid those situations and limit any interruptions that we can to the daily activity on campus," Stairs said.

This summer, Sierra Vista Elementary School removed and replaced 10% of its parking lot. It will also be sealed and striped.

Meanwhile, work is still underway on a major project - Hirayama Elementary School.

It welcomes the first class of students this fall.

"It's going to be a close finish. We've got a lot of working going on. We have crews out there working every weekend," Stairs said.

Stairs says maintenance like this people hardly see, but it keeps school sites functioning properly.

He hopes students and staff will feel the difference when the return.

"Our goal is that once you step off the curb and onto our campus, you can't tell how old the school is or anything like that." Stairs said.

In total, 14 sites have various projects happening this summer.

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