By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published February 21, 2025
ST. CLAIR SHORES — In a 7-0 vote, the South Lake Schools Board of Education approved to extend the lease of all nonprofits at the Pare Elementary School until Aug. 31, 2025.
Kristy Schena, Kids on the Go founder and executive director, said that though the rent increased, it was a favorable decision. The rent will double for the nonprofits.
“It’s in need of major building, roof repairs and those are expenses. The school district does not want to take away from giving those funds to the children, the children they serve,” Schena said.
Schena went on to say that the mission of South Lake Schools is to serve the kids. The school district asked what the future of the building is with all the needed repairs and the increase in costs.
“They don’t want to take taxpayer money out or the money away from the students to pay for the building so what do they do?” Schena said.
Schena said she understood that is why the rent was raised for the nonprofits at Pare, and that she is okay with that.
“The future of the building really is going to rely on if we can get help to do the maintenance and to help (put) a new roof on the building and other building repairs,” Schena said.
South Lake Schools Superintendent Ted VonHiltmayer said the building was not sold and that South Lake Schools still owns the building.
“We don’t have any current offer for anyone to purchase the building,” VonHiltmayer said. “We are the owners of Pare at this point.”
VonHiltmayer said his dream is to reopen the building as a school.
“At this point we just don’t want there to be a situation where it’s costing the district money or taking money away from our students,” VonHiltmayer said. “We’re really trying to work on creating a situation where it’s mutually beneficial.”
He again stressed the idea that the school district doesn’t want to take away money from classrooms or their students.
“The mission is for our students,” VonHiltmayer said.
The Pare Elementary School building is getting older. It closed in 2010 due to declining student enrollment and students were consolidated at another school.
“Just like with your house, I mean, as it gets older, there’s going to be more and more issues,” VonHiltmayer said.
VonHiltmayer said the whole state of Michigan is seeing a population decline.
“At this point we are still losing students each year, but we’re losing fewer students than we have in the past,” VonHiltmayer said. “But it is, it’s a concern for everyone, honestly, because like I said, the birth rates in the county and the state are down and that’s going to impact everyone.”
VonHiltmayer said they are going to look at any and all options for the Pare property, near Nine Mile Road and Harper Avenue.
“We want to have a win-win,” VonHiltmayer said. “So if there’s a situation where we can continue to provide this as a resource and then not have it have a negative impact on the school, like I said, (not) pull money from the classrooms, we’re going to work toward finding that solution.”
VonHiltmayer added they are looking at other possibilities but that nothing is solidified at this point.
Chris Loria, a board member for the Big Family of Michigan nonprofit, said they’re currently looking for another location.
“It’ll be sad if we can’t find another location,” Loria said.
He also said they were expecting the rent increase. He said the organization has already survived for 22 years and hopefully they can continue to do that.
Schena hopes extending the lease is another discussion in the future.
“If maybe we can find the necessary funds or resources to help with the building repairs, they would consider continuing leasing to us in the future,” Schena said.
At this point, Schena said they are looking for help from the community with resources to fund the repairs.
“Kids on the Go and the other nonprofits have been so grateful to be part of the South Lake Schools since 2018,” Schena later said. “Our goal is to stay in this community and continue to provide the services to the thousands that we serve amongst all of us nonprofits.”
The Pare nonprofit center is home to Kids on the Go, Big Family of Michigan, Gilda’s Club of Metro Detroit, Ribbons of Hope and the Shorewood Kiwanis.