Community Group Strives to Save Central High School Gym

Some community members hope to save Traverse City Central High School’s gym from the wrecking ball, alleging there wasn’t enough public discussion about demolishing a “beloved and iconic” building.

Traverse City Area Public Schools administration counters that the decision to demolish the structure and replace it with a new gym, made by board members more than a year ago, happened after discussion at multiple open board meetings at which the public was welcome to comment.

A group called Preserve The Big Gym Coalition held a public meeting this week to draw attention to the matter and gather opposition to the demolition, which is scheduled to begin as early as June 2027. An online petition to that effect also has almost 600 signatures as of this writing.

Those in opposition to demolition claim the community was not sufficiently engaged before the decision was made. While they acknowledge that it was discussed at public school board meetings, they feel the board should have been more proactive about informing the public about what was on the table.

“To me, they have a responsibility to reach out to the community…as opposed to just being in their meetings and conducting business,” coalition member Andrew MacDonald tells The Ticker. “If you’re going to do this big thing, you’ve got to reach out to people, especially with this facility, which they know is beloved and special.”

TCAPS board Vice President Scott Hardy (who was not on the board at the time) says the board did everything within reason.

“I sympathize with that refrain, but that argument is used every time somebody disagrees with something the board does,” he tells The Ticker. “The board makes every effort in the world to be proactive and push information out. And we've done notifications on what we're doing with the CHS gym for two years now.”

The online petition also alleges a “bait-and-switch” by the district relative to the 2024 bond proposal that raised $180 million for this project (and others, including the extensive renovation of Central Grade School). Bond materials spoke about remodeling and renovating school buildings, it says, but not demolishing.

“At no point during the public bond campaign did this district tell the taxpayers that their money would be used to entirely flatten a 68-year-old structurally sound building with significant historical value,” wrote petition author Rebecca Schubert.

Hardy says that’s because the decision to demolish hadn’t been made at that time. Once the bond was approved and the district dove into what would be required to fully upgrade the high school and achieve certain goals there, he says, the board chose to tear down and rebuild instead of renovate. In addition to a new gym, the plan also involves redesigning the school offices and creating a safer entryway, among other improvements. 

“The bond issue made it perfectly clear we needed to make that campus safer, we needed to make it more accessible and we needed additional courts out there,” Hardy says. “And what the board decided was that given all of those requirements, it made fiscal sense to tear it down and see what we could do about honoring the past, but preparing for the future (by building a new structure).”

The Preserve The Big Gym Coalition believes it’s possible to maintain the big gym while accomplishing these goals, and do it at a cost that’s cheaper still than the current $26 million price tag for the project. They hope the district will pause and consider all options.

“My bottom line is: What does the community want?” coalition member, Central High graduate and Central High mom Kim Smith tells The Ticker. “They deserve to have their voice heard.”

Superintendent John VanWagoner reiterates Hardy’s point that the board made the decision to demolish in a public meeting after being presented with several options, and further says the district is close to finalizing the plan after months of work and many dollars already spent.

“The longer we wait, the more expensive it gets. It’s been a year and a half. Think of the construction market and prices and diesel fuel for concrete and asphalt, all those kinds of things,” he tells The Ticker. “And we've got a million dollars already into architects and engineering and design spend.”

The coalition is not particularly sympathetic.

“That's on them,” MacDonald says. “I don't think they should have spent that money until they had a better feel from the community.”