001Hi, my name's Scott Smith. I'm the superintendent of Cedar Springs Public Schools. Thank you for clicking on this video so you can learn more about the status and the future uh considerations for the Hilltop building on campus. I'll share my screen and give you a little bit of an overview. Uh this video is really intended to be uh more of a um uh a highlight uh of some previous uh information that we've shared uh with community members uh as a part of our um spring update uh spring facility update. So, uh specifically today we want to talk about the Hilltop facility. Uh and so I'll just go through a couple things uh with you uh as far as that building goes. Um current status of the Hilltop building, it's empty, it's vacant. Uh the heating
002system is failed and it is not repairable. Uh so in order for us to heat that building, uh we would have to put new heating system. Our water is shut off because um we've got several leaks uh within the building uh related to the water system uh both behind the walls and underground. And so uh there the both of those situations are are going to be difficult for us to diagnose and uh and and repair. There are significant structural repairs needed at the building. Uh and currently the district has no programming needs uh for that space at this time. So, I wanted to just talk a little bit about how much it costs per month uh for us to uh keep that building open or while we had the building open, how how much it
003cost. Um it was about uh $5,000 a month. So, we were spending about $60,000 a year uh just to maintain that building uh even though it was empty. Uh some recent repairs that we've done to the building over the last 24 months, uh we've had to do some exterior repair. Uh you notice on the east side of the building there's uh the brick facade is actually falling off the uh upper structure of the building. That's because the retaining strips, the metal strips that hold that exterior brick on and connect it to the actual building itself, uh many of those uh strips have corroded which is allowing that uh brick facade to um become dangerous and fall off the building. Uh we've also had to install fencing, numerous water way issues that we faced. Uh we've
004had multiple structure structural engineering assessments done. So, so far uh over the last 24 months, we've spent about $125,000 out of our general fund, our operational budget uh in order to maintain that building. So, some critical repairs that are needed at that space, one, the mechanical system is in need of uh complete replacement. Uh the electrical system, the plumbing system, and then the heating and cooling systems are have all failed and are in need of some significant attention. Also, I mentioned the exterior shell of the building is detaching from the inner building structure. And so that's a significant concern uh for us from a safety perspective uh right now as well. We have gone through and gone done an asbestos abatement. So, we pulled all the asbestos out of the building. So, it is ready
005for the next steps, whatever it is that uh the board decides to do. Some future work that would have to be done before we reoccupy that building. Uh first and foremost, we'd have to determine a plan uh for how we would use that building on campus. Uh we would have to go through a complete redesign process based on new programming that the building would support. The entire building would have to be brought up to code. Uh there would need to be a complete interior renovation uh that would be required both to meet the new uh function of the building, but also um to uh bring the the the interior spaces up um to a level of uh a capacity as far as occupying the space goes. Um and then we would have to replace uh
006exterior brick uh around the uh perimeter of the original building as much of that uh uh brick is now showing signs of failure. So, four I four considerations that the board is uh is considering uh currently looking at, first and foremost, uh we could leave the building as it sits uh unoccupied and vacant. That does present a significant liability to the district. The second thing we could do is go to the voters and ask for a bond proposal uh to pay for the costs of renovating the building. Uh the third would be to demo the building and retain the land for future use, whether it be a school or some other uh community space. I the fourth thing could consider would be to uh sell the sell the property or donate the property to um
007another uh group. So, um right now just in terms of costs, we think that's an important thing to be mindful of. Uh if we look at the Hilltop project, the uh best projection that we can use is the cost of re uh renovating uh the uh Red Hawk building. Um and so uh over the 2021-2022 school year, we renovated Red Hawk at a cost of $211 per square foot. So, if we applied that same $211 per square foot to the Hilltop building, uh there's 600 and uh 6 68,542 square feet at Hilltop. So, just the base price of that repair based on our current uh renovation projects or renovation projects that we've recently completed on campus, that would cost uh the district somewhere in the vicinity of uh $14.5 million. Now, uh when we uh
008adjust that figure based on inflation over the construction cost increases over the last 4 years, now that number has increased to uh somewhere in the vicinity of uh $17 million. It's important to note that the scope of the work at Hilltop is much much much greater than what the scope of the work required was here at um Red Hawk. And so, you know, as we look at total true construction costs, uh Triangle Construction, our construction managing company, and GMB, our architecture and engineering firm, uh estimate that number to be closer to 22 to 25 million dollars uh when all said and done in order for us to bring that building up to speed and make it functional for some uh element of our program. So, how would we pay for the renovations if that's the
009direction that the board wants to go? You know, we've got a couple of options. One, we could use the operations budget, um but that's just not realistic um because we utilize the operations budget uh to run our district on a day-to-day basis. We could use reserve funds. We do have money in the bank, uh but we don't have 25 million uh dollars to uh fund that project. And if we did, we'd be spending all of our savings on a particular on one project. Uh we could look for grants, but there are just very few of those grants are few and far between. Um we could do a bond proposal. It would result in a tax increase to our community. Uh we'd have to go to the voters in May or November of 2027. I can
010say if we look back historically over the last 25 years, um the district or whether it be Cedar Springs Public Schools or the Kent ISD has um asked uh 13 different questions regarding uh increases or maintenance of taxation of the Cedar Springs Public Schools uh district residents. And of those 13 uh questions regarding taxes or 13 proposals, um only five of them have passed. So, the voters have said no eight times to um similar projects like this. Uh they've only said yes to uh bond proposals or enhancement millages uh five times out of the 13 times that we've asked. So, the likelihood of this proposal being passed by our voters, if you just look at the voting history, is not uh not really strong. Again, this is a shortened version. There will be more information
011shared at the board meeting on uh April 23rd. We've been talking about this uh for for uh a significant amount of time at board meetings, but uh if you've got specific questions, you can reach out to me. My email address is listed or you can give me a call uh or you can come and attend the board meeting on the 23rd um to hear more of what I'm sharing with the board uh and hear more about the discussion uh that the Board of Education members are having uh regarding the Hilltop building and next steps that we uh need to really consider uh moving forward. So, I do appreciate uh you coming and and and clicking be a part of the video. Uh and again, if you've got any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out
012and let me know. I we hope you have a great day. Thank you very much uh for spending a little bit of time with us. Take great care. Bye-bye.