School construction projects continue this summer in Eastpointe, Roseville

EASTPOINTE/ROSEVILLE — The summer has been busy as local school districts undergo building renovations.

Construction work has been ongoing at the four elementary schools in Eastpointe Community Schools. Much of the work is either being funded through the district’s 2019 sinking fund, which generates approximately $1.6 million per year, or through the third installment of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding known as ESSER III.

At Bellview, Forest Park and Crescentwood, crews are doing prep work to install air conditioning units for the 2025-2026 school year. The three buildings do not currently have air conditioning, and the mechanical work occurring this summer is laying the groundwork to have the units ready for the 2025-2026 school year. The work includes the installation of cabinets where the new heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment will be placed.

Next summer, all the working pieces for the HVAC mechanical units will be installed at Pleasantview so the air conditioning will be ready for the 2025-2026 school year. This summer, Pleasantview is receiving new interior doors, door frames, new cabinetry and new sinks, and the classrooms are being painted. At press time, school officials were awaiting the arrival of new desks and chairs for all the K-12 students and staff throughout the district. This excludes the Early Learning Center.

There is one bond project being done this summer. Money from the district’s $36.4 million bond issue that passed at the polls Aug. 8, 2023, is being used to replace the parking lot with asphalt and the sidewalks with concrete at Forest Park. The project is also reconfiguring the parking lot to improve traffic flow, and a new stormwater system is being installed to fix drainage issues.

“The parking lot is all demolished. It’s down to gravel,” said Superintendent Christina Gibson, who added that it should be ready for the new school year.

School officials are holding off on bond projects at Eastpointe Middle School and Eastpointe High School at this time because the district is in the middle of a facilities master plan and changes are on the way.

The long-term facilities master plan is a blueprint to guide the development and management of the district’s buildings and infrastructure over time. As part of the plan, the district will keep the Early Learning Center as a stand-alone program with a location to be determined and make the four elementary schools grades K-5. In addition, there will be two separate buildings on the same property with one building as a middle school for grades 6-8 and the second building as a high school for grades 9-12.

“We’re not going to use any bond dollars on those buildings until we have more talks,” Gibson said. “We’re able to spend the money with a certain scope. What we can’t do is add anything new. We can only use the bond dollars on what has been specified.”

There are some projects occurring in Roseville Community Schools as well. Crews just finished fixing electrical wiring in the A wing at Roseville Middle School after a power line broke in the ground over the winter. This summer, some minor parking lot repairs are happening at Eastland Middle School as well as some restriping of parking lots around the district.

Electrical work also is being done to bring in three generators at Roseville Middle School, Eastland Middle School and Roseville High School. According to RCS Director of Buildings and Grounds Joseph Smith, the new generators will be used to operate the freezers and coolers during a power outage.

Roseville also has been updating its technology this summer. School officials are adopting student 1-to-1 in-school iPads for grades K-3, meaning there is an iPad for each student, and laptops for grades 3-12 in classroom sets rather than a 1-to-1 take-home model.

“This newly adopted model will provide students with consistent day-to-day access to computers for instruction. By having the computers available in the classroom, the computers will be charged and will be in working condition for the teachers and their lesson planning,” district Director of Technology Mike Antoine said via email.

The new model had input from staff, student and parent surveys, as well as a district technology committee. A recommendation from the technology committee was presented and approved by the Board of Education earlier this year.

This summer, the student iPads and laptops are being replaced with new ones. School officials are expecting that the approximately 4,000 laptops and 1,800 iPads will be in the classrooms and ready to use in September.