The Saginaw (Mich.) school district has unveiled a five-year strategic plan that calls for closing two high schools and replacing them with a new facility.
Mlive.com reports that the plan seeks way to address declining enrollment and aging infrastructure, and is a first step toward holding a bond election.
“We have a number of facilities that are really aging to a point that it’s becoming really expensive to maintain them and more importantly modernize them,” says Saginaw Superintendent Ramont M. Roberts.
Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy - or SASA -- would be demolished, and a comprehensive high school would be constructed on the site. The students would come from Saginaw High School and Arthur Hill High School.
Those two high schools have been experiencing declining enrollment. Arthur Hill has about 740 students, and Saginaw High has 440.
If voters approve a bond, construction on the high school would begin in January 2021 and finish in 2023.
The plan also calls for moving students who have been attending SASA and Handley Elementary to new facilities on the existing Arthur Hill campus. Arthur Hill would be demolished. The only part that would remain is the gym for potential after-school programs, Roberts says.
The auditorium and gym at the existing SASA would remain and be used by the newly built high school.
Saginaw High School would be repurposed for use as an after-school high school program. A portion of the building would be demolished, leaving the gym, media center, office space and one wing of classrooms. All of the outdoor athletic facilities would remain except for the tennis courts.
