Arthur high school asking for $24.6 million in school upgrades

ARTHUR, Ill. (WCIA) — One Central Illinois high school is hoping to get some long overdue upgrades, but they’ll need help from taxpayers.

In November, voters will say yes or no to a property tax increase to benefit Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond high school.

Superintendent Shannon Cheek said in 2022, they asked for more than $30 million dollars for district-wide upgrades, but didn’t get the proposal approved. After planning and collecting community surveys, Arthur Lovington Atwood Hammond high school is ready to try again for a makeover.

“Education has passed up the building is kind of how we’re looking at it,” Cheek said.

Cheek said with some of the areas of the building being 100-years-old, the work needs to start now.

“We’re going to be adding HVAC, so air conditioning is going to be added throughout the building,” Cheek said. “There’ll be an upgrade in plumbing and then there’ll be some spaces, again, I mentioned that are going to get just some paint and some facelift kind of stuff and there’ll be some that’ll get a total renovation.”

He said they also want to expand two classrooms: the industrial technology and agricultural rooms. The board recently approved a proposal of more than $24 million to put toward the upgrades.

Now, voters will decide if they want to contribute to that price tag come November.

“The things people don’t understand that they can’t see from the outside is the plumbing is failing,” said industrial tech teacher Chris Kessler. “It’s just the building has kind of lived its purpose and just the heating, HVAC, plumbing — it just needs an upgrade.”

Kessler said saying yes to the property tax increase means a better learning environment for students. He said the building can reach 100 degrees at times and that led to cancelling in-person classes about 10 times last year.

“It’s really hard to try to do something when you’re sweating and dripping on your paper in your classroom,” Kessler said. “I mean, that’s just something that kids shouldn’t have to do anymore.”

The superintendent said they’re not sure exactly how much property taxes would go up yet.
They’ll get a better idea once they continue talks at next week’s board meeting on Wednesday.

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