Major makeover planned for DHS’ locker rooms
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The locker rooms at Darlington High School are about to get a four-month-long, $1.4 million makeover.
The Darlington County school board approved the renovations April 22 and awarded the contract to the “overall low bid(der),” FBI Construction of Florence.
The work involves far more than just fitting in shiny new lockers. In the solicitation for bids put out by the school district, the work was described as a “complete renovation of the existing one-story, 14,300-square-foot locker-room areas, to include demolition and renovation of athletic locker and classroom areas per plans and specifications.”
A detailed breakdown of the work to be done was not immediately available because the school district was shut down for spring break. But the work, in general terms, was to involve a virtually total makeover of the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms and nearby areas, with new plumbing, lighting, heating and cooling. Communal showers are to become stalls for more privacy.
The overall look of the locker rooms should not be radically different when the work is done.
At the school board’s meeting, officials indicated that the renovations were to be finished by the time the fall semester begins. The work was set to begin immediately to meet that schedule.
In other business at its April 22 session, the board was told that, based on a preliminary state budget moving through the Legislature, starting pay for S.C. teachers would be set at $35,000 a year, which is already the starting salary for Darlington County teachers, officials said.
The early version of the state budget also would allow teachers a 4 percent pay raise, the board was told. But that figure might change significantly before the Legislature finishes the budget bill and sends it to Gov. Henry McMaster for consideration.