The Menominee County school district — which includes Meyer Township, Spalding Township and parts of Gourley and Harris Townships — was among just three school districts in the state to be awarded this particular grant, designed to address the issue of school infrastructure problems.

This past spring, the Michigan Department of Education announced that three of 51 applicants would receive a total of $75 million “to modernize school buildings, reduce square footage, and better meet the needs of their students and staffs,” as State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice was quoted in an April news release. “Children will experience better learning environments and districts will be able to spend their funds more efficiently.”

North Central was awarded $15.4 million. The other two school districts slated to receive consolidation grants are Flint Community Schools in Genesee County and Union City Community Schools in Branch and Calhoun counties.

The district as of Friday has 301 students enrolled from pre-K through 12th grade spread between two buildings: an elementary school in Hermansville that houses up to fifth grade, and a junior/senior high school that teaches sixth through 12th grades in Powers.

A preliminary site plan outlines a goal for the future combined facility on the site of the North Central Junior/Senior High School. Areas in white are exisiting secions that would remain; pink areas would be newly built.

Both buildings are aging and need upgrading. An assessment done in 2021 identified a slew of upgrades recommended for both buildings. But in November 2024, a sinking fund ballot issue narrowly failed with 741 yes to 806 no.

The plan now is rather than try to maintain two buildings, North Central aims to shift to one site by repairing and adding onto the existing junior/senior high school in Powers to house preK through 12th grade.

District taxpayers now pay about 1.7 mills, or $1.70 per $1,000 of taxable property value. If the 22-year bond passes in November, that rate would increase by about 2.2 mills to just less than 4 mills, with an average payment of about 3.56 mills over the two decades, Superintendent Travis Depuydt said.

“If the bond is successful in November, our team of architects and our construction manager would get to work finalizing plans. Right now we have preliminary plans,” Depuydt said.

The works would be sent out for bids in 2026, subcontractors would be hired and the goal would be for construction to begin in spring 2027.

While one of the grant stipulations is that some of an existing structure must be used, a large portion of the roughly 80-year-old high school would be completely rebuilt.

“We’re going to use our gymnasium, and we have a two-story section of our current building in Powers that we’re going to use, and our junior high wing. Everything else is going to be demo-ed and new build,” Depuydt said. “So we’ll have essentially full renovation, heavy renovation done to all of the existing structures, and then brand new structures throughout for the rest. That’ll include a new cafeteria, common area, classrooms, a brand-new elementary wing … new playground.”

The aim is to vacate the current elementary building in Hermansville by fall 2028 but still perform some maintenance to it until then. The school district hopes to potentially lease the building out so that it could be used as a township hall or other sort of community building.

“The district and the community are working so hard to make sure that it continues to play an important role in the community. Whether it’s an elementary school or not, we want to make sure that the building remains something that the district and the community can be proud of, and we think that the plan that we have moving forward is going to accomplish that goal,” Depuydt said.

Having one combined structure for the small school district is expected to be more efficient for future operations, opening up resources that are currently divided.

“With declining enrollment over the past 10 years, maintaining two buildings is not financially responsible,” Depuydt said. “So for us to be able to get into one building, it’s going to be able to allow us to create more opportunities for our students and our staff and, in terms of finances, it’s going to be a huge relief to us to be able to maintain one building, (as) opposed to two.”

The school district organized a few public information sessions to address community questions. One will be at 5:30 p.m. Central time today at the elementary school in Hermansville. Another will take place virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 8.

More information can be found at https://ncajets.org/ncabond25/.