As hundreds of Saginaw High basketball fans prepared Thursday for travel to East Lansing this weekend to root for the Trojans in the state semifinals and finals, there was no reason to cheer for the future of their school building.
At least half could become empty within 18 months as a result, similar to many other former schools in town.
A joint March 23 meeting of representatives from the Board of Education, the City Council and the County Board again failed to resolve the issue, leaving an uncertain future when Saginaw High and Arthur Hill merge in September 2024 with the grand opening of Saginaw United High, under construction now, near the old riverfront Bean Bunny site.
Saginaw United is a highlight of a $100 million property millage that voters approved in 2020. Arthur Hill is set to be repurposed for a re-located SASA, while a portion of Saginaw High is slated for conversion to a middle school.
The issue that lingers is that two remaining wings of SHS, half the 69-year-old structure, would remain empty. If subsequently demolished, passersby on Webber Street would have sightlines all the way back to the football field and running track.
A tentative agreement was unveiled last fall through which the school board, the city and the county each would contribute $750,000 in federal funds to save those two sections with a multi-purpose center for local social agencies, allowing people to make one stop instead of being required to various locations. ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) was the city/county source, with ESSER (Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief) as the school district’s source. These monies are intended to help communities and schools across the nation recover from the pandemic’s damage.
The $2.5 million for the new middle school will come entirely from the millage.
Prior to the holidays, the County Board and City Council did not follow through on the arrangement, leaving a major portion of the Saginaw High building’s future up in the air. Saginaw Daily has been the only local media source to report on these developments, and so the building’s uncertain future has not been common knowledge.
Board of Education President Charles Coleman said two weeks ago that he would make an inquiry at Thursday’s meeting to city and county officials, but he did not.
Afterward, Coleman explained, “I’ve been told it’s not going to fly,” but he would not identify the city and county leaders who he said had told him this. He added that they told him their ARPA budgets already were finalized, even though City Manager Tim Morales said during the meeting that the Council still has nearly $1 million that has not been designated.
In attendance Thursday with Coleman and Morales were Superintendent Ramont Roberts, school trustee Ruth Ann Knapp, Mayor Pro-Tem Annie Boensch, County Controller Robert Belleman and County Commissioners Sheldon Matthews, Jack Tany and Lisa Coney.
The group is titled “Liaison Committee” to express cooperation between the three governing units and the combined quarter-million dollars they oversee annually. The next session is set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20, at school district headquarters, Millard at South Warren.
While liaison reps again declined to discuss the combined $2.25 million for the Saginaw High building, they also failed to finalize a far smaller sum, $15,000, to publicize summer recreation and employment options for young people.
Until calendar 2009, the trio of governing units contributed $5,000 apiece from their general budgets for a widely circulated “Hot Times” guide with a trademark smiling sun cartoon.
Matthews responded that he would need more information before pitching the idea to his fellow commissioners. During ARPA discussions, some commissioners from districts outside the city expressed sentiments that the City of Saginaw, with only 44,000 remaining residents among the overall county’s 190,000, should not receive priority out of proportion.
In terms of both Hot Times and a far larger project, the agency multi-purpose center in the Saginaw High building, Coleman has responded that both would benefit the entire county, not just the city, noting that, “The city is part of the county.”
Meanwhile, at MSU’s Breslin Center, Saginaw High takes on Ferndale High at 5:30 Friday in the semis. If the Trojans win, they will vie for the school’s seventh state basketball title (’42, ’62, ’96, ’07. ’08, ’12) at 6:45 on Saturday, facing either Romulus Summit or Grand Rapids South Christian.
