Central Grade Construction, State Aid Budget on TCAPS Agenda

Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) trustees will vote tonight (Monday) to approve $42.1 million in contacts and contigencies for the reconstruction of Central Grade School, which is set to begin next week. Superintendent Dr. John VanWagoner spoke with The Ticker about the project as well as Michigan’s new school aid budget, which also appears on tonight’s agenda. Trustees will meet at the TCAPS Montessori School at 6pm; due to construction on Franke Road, attendees are encouraged to park at the West Middle School athletic fields and use the walkway to access the school.

Central Grade School
TCAPS trustees will vote tonight to approve $42.1 million in contracts and contigencies for the reconstruction of Central Grade School on Seventh Street.

The three-year rebuild of the district’s oldest and largest elementary school calls for a portion of the west wing to be demolished, a new two-story addition, a consolidated front entrance, and extensive interior renovations including a new cafeteria, reconfigured classrooms, gym renovations, and third-floor conference rooms.

Comprehensive upgrades to Central Grade’s electrical, mechanical, plumbing, fire protection, and life safety systems are planned. The playground and parking areas will be upgraded, with the school’s sweeping front lawn preserved. The school will also be fully air conditioned for the first time, including inside Lars Hockstad Auditorium – which will mostly stay the same except for minor code updates.

“It is exciting to begin this extensive renovation/reconstruction project,” TCAPS Director of Capital Projects & Planning Paul Thwing wrote in a memo. “The existing 140,000 square foot (sf) building will see approximately 32,000 sf of demolition and 22,000 sf of new construction, bringing the new total building footprint close to 130,000 sf.”

The construction contracts, plus a 15 percent contingency due to the building’s age, came in a “touch under the estimated budget,” says Superintendent Dr. John VanWagoner. With architecture, engineering, and construction management costs added, the total projected budget is now $51 million – $4 million under an initial $55 million estimate. Nearly two dozen companies will be awarded work for different aspects of the project, ranging from masonry to roofing to flooring to landscaping. The project is being funded from capital bond funds.

One contract that will likely not be awarded tonight is for the HVAC system. TCAPS sought bid options that included an alternate HVAC system that would significantly reduce the building’s use of natural gas. However, that system is over a half million dollars more expensive than a conventional HVAC. VanWagoner says that a community group was interested in possibly fundraising to cover the difference to help Central Grade include the greener system. Grants and rebates could also potentially help defray costs. “We’re exploring to see if the difference can be covered, and it’s going to take a month or two to get through that process,” VanWagoner says.

The process of moving out the contents of Central Grade is already underway. Moxie Estate Sales is hosting a pre-renovation liquidation sale July 18-19 from 9am to 2pm at the school that will offer desks, doors, chalkboards, signs, cabinets, shelves, bleacher seats, artwork, and more for sale. Proceeds will benefit the TCAPS Student Support Network. Construction is expected to kick off at the site next week, with Thirlby Field used as a staging area. Central Grade students will relocate to Glenn Loomis during the rebuild, with the school planned to be substantially complete by June 2029 and to reopen for the 2029-30 school year.

State School Aid Budget
TCAPS trustees had been prepared to vote on a resolution tonight urging legislators to approve a school aid budget, which took Lansing until October last year to do. That long delay “forced districts to make critical staffing and programming decisions based on speculation rather than certainty,” the resolution states. However, legislators were able to pass the $19.8 billion school aid budget for fiscal year 2027 in the early morning hours of July 3 – a spending plan that has both pros and cons for TCAPS, VanWagoner says.

The budget includes a 2.5 percent increase in base per-pupil funding – an additional $250 per student, for a total $10,300 per pupil. A new weighted formula allocates more funding for at-risk students, including those who are economically disadvantaged, English language learners, or in rural school districts. Those are both beneficial inclusions for TCAPS, VanWagoner says.

However, VanWagoner had hoped to see more help addressing legacy costs – which are a “killer” for TCAPS, he says – as well as an increase in transportation assistance. “We spend $6 million a year and get about $1 million, so we’re getting one-sixth of our costs covered,” he explains. “We’re thankful we made a dent, but especially with diesel prices going up, not getting an increase was unfortunate for our northern Michigan schools.”

Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted other wins for education in the budget including $502 million in student literacy and achievement support, $96.1 million to make free pre-K for all available to an estimated 68,000 children through the Great Start Readiness program, and $200 million to continue free school meals for all 1.4 million public school students. Funding was also restored for the 10 Cents a Meal program, which received a $4 million allocation.

Though legislators passed the budget three months earlier than last year, VanWagoner – and many other school district leaders across Michigan – would like to see it finalized even sooner. TCAPS can’t make key decisions, such as staffing hires, without knowing what the final budget will be. VanWagoner cites as an example a new special ed position the district had hoped to start this fall but that he now doubts they’ll be able to fill in time.

“If you can hire people in May or June, your likelihood of getting a good candidate is higher,” he says. “But that gets slimmer as the months go on, especially when candidates are trying to find a place to live that’s affordable up here. That’s a pretty tall task in July and August. Even (passing a budget) a few weeks before July would help. Every week matters.”