001Hi, good afternoon. My name is Scott Smith. I'm the superintendent of Cedar Springs Public Schools. And I just want to thank you for spending a little bit of time to learn more about uh where our current status is with our bond work and also uh what projects we have uh before us during the summer of 2026. Got a series of slides that we'll work through. Um and so I'll share my screen quickly and then we will get started. So as we look at uh where we are with facilities um couple things to start with. First uh when you think about the uh where we are with our bond um the first time we went for a bond proposal uh of significance was in November of 2019. Uh, and that initial bond proposal failed by 438
002votes. We reached out to Epic MRA, uh, consulting and research firm out of East Lancing, and asked them to help us determine what it was about that proposal that didn't sit well with the voters. And we learned several things. Uh, but most importantly, we learned that our community did not want to pay more in taxes. um two that they um were really more interested on us focusing on the things that we needed as a district and they felt that maybe some of the things that we were asking for in that initial bond proposal in 2019 was maybe some things that were more on the want list and not on the wish list. We learned that our community did support the schools and and had a lot of faith in the district. Um and then the
003fourth thing we learned was that people uh learned better. People got their information uh by sharing it with each other. Uh so it was more of a communal uh way to share information versus uh receiving information from the district or from uh you know in the newspaper. So we retoled our thinking uh and we came back with a new proposal uh in August of 2020. Initially, that proposal was going to be on the uh ballot in May of 2020, but if you remember, that was right in the peak of COVID. And so, our district chose to push that election back until August of 2020. And that second proposal, which was for significantly less than the first proposal, passed by 13 votes. And so, we're grateful for that. Uh the second proposal uh provided $68 million
004for the district uh without any increases in taxes. It enabled us to make improvements to each one of our buildings uh including some significant renovations at the high school uh rebuilding Beach Elementary School, the academic uh areas of that building. Uh we were able to transform Red Hawk, which was the old high school uh into an early childhood center and a home for all of our district services. Uh we were also able to provide climate control for each building and then do numerous safety and security upgrades across campus. So what I'll do is I'll walk through building by building, share with you a little bit about what we've done at each of those spaces just to give you an overview of the work that's been completed so far and the work that's going to be
005completed this summer. So, starting with Cedar Trails, uh like I said, we uh improved the uh the quality of our internal environments by installing new new heating and cooling units throughout the building. So, each classroom, each space at Trails is uh warm in the winter when it's cold out and cool in the summer, uh late spring, early fall when it's hot out. So, heating and air conditioning was a big uh upgrade at Trails. Uh we also did all new interior finishes, so new carpeting, uh new paint, uh throughout the building. We either repaired or replaced the roof as needed. So that structure is in great a great spot as uh at at Cedar Trails. We did replace some furniture as needed and we will continue uh to do that work. You know, double-checking, making sure
006that the furniture we have is functional, safe, and suitable for uh our youngest learners at trails. Uh we did uh build construct two new playgrounds which we were fortunately able to open uh in December of 2025. Uh so when students came back from uh Christmas break, they were able to start playing on uh new playground structures, which we were excited for. Um over the summer of 2026, we're going to do some significant sidewalk repair and replacement. Um, and then also we're going to do a parking lot redesign at trails to help separate the uh the the traffic that is um coming to Cedar Trails in the morning and in the afternoon to drop off or pick up kids um from the traffic the families who are parking and then choosing to walk their children up
007to the front door. Some prefer a drop off curbside option. Some prefer walking their children up to the front door. the old uh or the current design at of the uh parking lot at trails uh requires those individuals who are parking and then walking their children up to the door to cross through that drop off uh traffic loop. What we want to do is separate those two things just to increase safety uh in that uh space both before school and after school. And then the other big thing at Cedar Trails was uh we made improvements to both our interior and exterior signage uh which helps people uh just navigate the building uh at a higher level. Uh taking a look at beach then uh really we redesigned beach from the ground up. Um the uh
008major portion of the beach project all of the classrooms the academic wings are brand new uh with a new project. Um, beach got all new classroom furniture, new cafeteria furniture, renovations to existing spaces. Uh, we redesigned the kitchen, redesigned the um, uh, cafeteria space to create more spaces for students. Uh, we did renovate the gymnasium uh, with some paint and upgrades to lighting. The art and music rooms we uh, upgraded as well. Uh both of those rooms got new windows, uh new heating and air conditioning systems, new lighting, new flooring, and then new paint uh to freshen those spaces. Uh Beach also has a beautiful new playground. Uh numerous site improvements across uh the across the area of campus where Beach is located. Then uh again, a fresh new look at interior and exterior signage
009uh at Beach just helps people navigate the building. So, Beach is a brand a brand new space and and when we designed and built Beachch, we designed it uh with the intention of not how we're going to use it in 26 uh 2025 2026. We really wanted to think ahead how might we best use that building at some point in time in the future. And so, uh the decision was made to to construct a space that would be suitable that would serve uh students K5 uh with four sections of each grade level. Now, we don't have a current K5 structure. Um, currently our elementary students uh in grades kindergarten and first grade go to Cedar Trails. Our second graders and our third graders go to Beach. Our fourth graders and our fifth graders go to
010Cedar View. Uh when we built Beach though, we did build it in such a way that we could reconfigure that building uh very very easily into a K5 building. So, if there was ever a point in time that the that the district uh wanted to go to a different model of how we're delivering instruction to our elementary students, uh now with the redesign at Beach, we could actually do that. At some point in time, we could very easily transition. We could have a K5 building at at Cedar Trails. We could have a K5 building at Beach. We could have a K5 building at Cedar View. Um you know, families that I've talked to in the past have said that would be a desirable option. Right now, we do not have a plan to create three
011K5 buildings, but it is something that we will continue to look at. We'll talk to families, talk to staff, see if that would be a better option for us moving forward. But again, at this point in time, we don't have any plans whatsoever uh to go to a K5 structure uh at any point in the near future. At Cedar View, uh we have a new secure entrance. uh we are actually uh it required us to move some spaces around in the building to move the area where the uh office was. Uh but now when guests come to the building during the school day, they buzz into the vestibule. Uh then they can buzz into the office. They can't get access directly to students like they could at the old Cedar View Elementary School. Uh again,
012a new heating and cooling system. Uh new interior finishes, paint, carpet. Uh Cedar View also had uh significant work done on their roof. So either areas were replaced completely or repaired um so that they're up to speed and up to standard. So the roof is in great shape at at View. Um also uh they got all new classroom furniture um because the classroom furniture was at that was at Vue was um had survived or lived its useful life. Uh and so we looked to replace that with with this bond project. Um, also they got a new playground at view. Um, new sidewalk repairs and replacement has either taken place or will take place during the summer of 2026. We redesigned the parking lot to improve uh flow uh traffic flow through that space and also
013make it safer for pedestrian traffic uh as well. And then the last thing we did at Cedar View was also uh improve the interior and exterior signage so people can make their way around the building uh with a little bit more ease. Uh taking a look at the middle school. Um the middle school got fewer projects uh assigned to it than the other buildings, but the middle school was one of our newest buildings. We opened it up in uh early 2000 uh right around 2004. Uh and so that building is just 20 years old. Um, and so, uh, we did, uh, provide some new classroom furniture as needed. We didn't go through and replace all the furniture at the middle school the way we did at Beach and the way we did at at Cedar
014View. Um, we did put in some new cafeteria furniture that was actually kind of brought down from the high school. We replaced some high school furniture and then moved some things over from the middle school. We did some sidewalk repair and replacement. We did a redesign of the parking lot. That was actually one of the first projects that we did um to help uh get traffic off of 16 mile and off of Northland Drive in the morning and in the afternoon. So, we created some longer queue lines for families who were uh dropping off or picking up uh students through the drive-through lanes. We also created a new separate entrance and exit for the buses to try and provide a safer uh just less mixing of uh cars uh vehicles that were there for student
015support but also with our transportation group. Uh and then the last thing at the middle school as well, we invested in the interior and exterior signage just to make it easier for guests to move around in that building. The high school was another big area of uh of enhancement based on the investments that we made of the bond dollars from 2020. Uh we have 12 new classrooms at the high school. Um many of them are designed to be multi-purpose, multifunctional with some uh movable wall partition so we can be flexible, more flexible with our space in that building which we're excited for. uh we redesigned the office and created a new student services center to try and uh create a separation between the principal or assistant principal's office as well as the counseling offices. So
016creating some a dualpurpose space for students uh to be able to visit when they were coming down to the office for either support on counseling or support um from the building administrative team. Uh we really uh did some neat things in the cafeteria. Uh redesigned that space, added some more square footage, included all new lighting to make it fresh and bright, uh as well as a new sound system. Um we also replaced uh some classroom furniture at the high school as needed. Um we did not do a whole uh wholesale changeover like we did at Beach and like we did at View. Uh but we did do some upgrades to furniture at the high school. New cafeteria uh furniture was also done at the high school. We redesigned and repaired replaced sidewalks as needed. We
017did a whole new uh redesign of the parking lot in front of the building on the north side which goes along with some changes that we made at the tennis court and to the um stadium entrance, the stadium plaza. Uh we added a new weight room and a practice center on the east end of the building which we were really excited about. our students are very excited about using. Uh we added uh we replaced the tennis courts uh at the at the tennis area um with eight new uh uh concrete courts that are beautiful. Uh so those courts will last a long time. Initially we were not planning to do the tennis courts, but we were able to save enough money out of their projects that freed up some additional bond dollars to uh utilize
018on the tennis courts. our tennis courts were in rough shape and they needed replacement. And so we were grateful that we had those bond dollars to be able to do that work for our student athletes and our community members. We have a lot of community members who uh utilize the tennis courts to play tennis on a regular basis. Uh the stadium plaza we redesigned and repurposed, made it much wider. It's a safer space. Uh people can flow through much much better. Uh it enables us to get more people in and out of that area more quickly. Uh we also included new stadium lighting uh and sound system. And then we added an egg science barn uh up on the hill between Cedar View and the high school. So if you're coming around the corner, uh
019you'll see a a neat new red building up on the top of the that of that hill. That's our egg science barn, which will also be used by our maintenance team and also used by our FFA program. At Red Hawk, uh we also did some significant renovations. Uh, Red Hawk was initially built in the 1950s. Uh, and it was initially designed to be Cedar Springs High School. Uh, but as the district grew, we grew out of this building. We transitioned Red Hawk into a single section um, one grade level building. Uh, which served sixth grade, it served eighth grade for a very small bit. Uh but Red Hawk was um due for another uh re-imagining uh because we needed to get better efficiency out of the building. Having just one section of students here um
020resulted in us having large uh areas of the building which we only used for a very small amount of time during the day or we didn't use at all. Uh and so we rethought how we designed Red Hawk and actually uh were able to create an early childhood center uh with 12 uh preschool classrooms as well as a new administrative offices. Uh and Red Hawk is also the home now for our before and after school care program. So our campus kids program uh has a nice home uh in a and a more permanent home uh for it at Red Hawk. The last group that uses Red Hawk on a regular basis. Uh besides outside of our athletic teams and our community groups is our the Cedar Springs Parks and Recck Group. All of their programming
021uh is housed here at Red Hawk to create again more of a home home base for that group. So, at Red Hawk, uh the new heating and cooling system that I've talked about with other buildings, new windows and doors, new interior finishes, carpeting, paint, new lighting, uh a new roof, or uh the roof was either repaired or replaced as needed. Classroom furniture was replaced uh here at Red Hawk. Uh we have a new playground for our elementary or our preschool age students and our GSRP students. We did redesign the parking lot and repair and replace sidewalks as needed. There'll be some additional work done during the summer of 2026 on uh further parking lot redesign and enhancements and then further sidewalk repair and replacements. Uh we also included exterior and interior signage uh here at
022Red Hawk. Um and then have multiple secure entrances uh throughout the building so that we can keep our students uh safe whether they're here for um GSRP preschool or whether they're here for campus kids. Um, and so we're we're just excited about all the enhancements that we were able to make at Red Hawk. The only building that I haven't talked about is Hilltop, and I'll get to that in just a minute, but I'm thinking about some projects that we're going to be doing this summer. We've got the Cedar Trails parking lot. We've got sidewalk work to be done. Um, really focusing on foot traffic spaces and and vehicular traffic. So, we're going to be doing a lot of work on the roads, either uh top coating and sealing the asphalt that's in good shape or
023uh replacing the asphalt that's in rough shape. Um, we're also going to be adding a connected sidewalk that goes from north uh Northland Drive uh over by Cedar Trails all the way over to the high school. Um, so an individual, whether it's a guest community member after school or whether it's a student during the school day before or after school, you can actually walk from uh 17 mile over by the high school entrance all the way over to Northland Drive on campus on a sidewalk without having to uh engage any with any vehicular uh with any uh vehicular traffic. So, we're really excited about that as well, both for our students, our athletic teams who run on campus after school uh and our community members who like to exercise and walk uh on campus during
024the summer months when the weather is a little bit more uh forgiven. So, that's the bulk of the work that we're going to be doing this summer. U now I just wanted to give a a brief update on Hilltop and where we were headed, what what the status is of that building. Currently, the building is empty. It's vacant. We moved the administrative offices down to Red Hawk during the summer of 2024. Uh so we have now u excuse me 2025. So we've now been in the building uh for just over a year. Um the current status at Hilltop the heating system has failed and is not repairable. So right now we're unable to heat the building. Uh fortunately we're transitioning into spring and um the need for heat will will not be as great as
025it was over the winter. Um, we did shut off the water to the building because there were several leaks uh inside the structure that we were not able to trace down. Uh, and so it was better to just shut the water off um, uh, to avoid uh, having extra expense uh, and extra taxing of the city water supply on that building. Um, there are significant structural repairs that are needed uh, the building. right now we don't have any programs uh that are needing a space. So uh the current status of of Hilltop is really a big question mark. Um some just some food for thought. Um, we spend about $5,000 a month uh where we were spending about $5,000 a month when Red Hawk was excuse me when Hilltop was empty just to keep it
026the lights on and keep it heated uh to prevent freezing and and damage to the uh to the um plumbing system. So, uh, as you can see, uh, on this table, you know, we've spent about, uh, $90,000 in the last 18 months. Um, after we moved out of, uh, Hilltop, it drops down to about $5,000 a year. So, some things that are in need of repair. Uh, you'll notice if you come up on campus on the east side of the building, there's some exterior brick that have fallen off, uh, up by the, uh, up by the, uh, roof line. What's happened is the uh building it was 100 years old. Um it it actually has an interior brick wall and then the the exterior fascia brick and the exterior brick is tied to the interior
027brick wall with metal straps. Um over the last 100 years, mother nature's not been kind to those weather metal straps and um they have corroded and and actually failed. And so in some parts of the building, the actual brick exterior walls are is bubbling out. It's pushing out away from the main structure of the building and nothing is holding it in place. So we had a whole section of roof on the east side of the building um that uh came down uh back in the fall uh late October, early November. Um, fortunately, no one was injured, but we did put up some safety fencing around the building uh just to help keep pedestrian traffic away from the the the close uh the close passage on the building itself. Uh like I shared, there's several water
028is water issues right now. Um uh we received a call a few months ago from the city saying, "Hey, you're running uh your water usage is is significantly higher than what it normally is." Um do you have any idea why that might be? uh for Hilltop and um we knew that there were several leaks. We've been working with local contractors to try and fix those. But um when a we leak is happening below the ground, below the behind the wall or below the floor, sometimes it can be really difficult to trace uh without doing some major um uh major renovation or major demolition to track that uh to track that leak down. So, uh, we've had multiple structural engineering assessments done on the building. So, we feel like we've got a pretty good sense of
029what the building needs. Um, and the last thing, you know, in the last, uh, 24 months, we've spent over $125,000 on that building just in just to do the repairs um, as necessary um, to keep it keep it functional. Um, the mechanical system, the electrical system is in need of replacement. plumbing system. There are lead pipes in the space, so that would need to be refreshed. Um, heating and cooling system, like I shared, we lost both boilers uh in the last 6 months. We lost one uh in November when we couldn't get it fired up when we were looking to start the heating system. We lost the second boiler in January. And neither of those boilers are in a place where they could be repaired. So, in order to heat the building now, uh it
030h it would have to they would both have to be replaced. Um and then, you know, I talked a little bit about the exterior brick shell that's detaching from the inner uh building structure. And so, that's a problem that we'd also have to address uh before we would be able to use that building for any um any programs. um talked about the the steel uh failures of the building and the corrosion. The steel lentils above the wing the windows in several areas are corroded and so it's really we're questioning the amount of structural support uh that we have above the windows on some of those uh exterior walls in certain areas. There's some reduced uh evidence of reduced support by the exterior walls uh on the roof joists. Um, one of the structural engineers actually
031took some pictures and showed that the exterior wall was so the roof joist slit sits on top of the exterior wall and rests there. It's showing that this exterior wall is moving out away from the roof joist and so less of the roof joist is able to support the the snow load and support the load of the roof itself. Um, and so that's a concern uh that we'd have to address. We actually built an interior wall uh all along the second floor of the building on the east side just to take the weight off the uh exterior wall. We built a new the new interior wall to take the weight off the exterior wall um on the east uh the east side of the building just to help distribute that weight a little bit better.
032And then uh the last thing that's really interesting, the foundation on the north end of the building, there's keen evidence of compromise. So, um, if you, uh, come up to the building from the north end, so down by the tennis courts off 17 milei, uh, you'll see when you look at the building, there's certain sections, there are several areas where there are actually some significant cracks. You can see some cracks in the, uh, brick up above, uh, the doors and up above the garage door area. That's evidence that both sides of the foundation are are kind of failing and it's it's actually causing the building to buckle this way. And so, it's splitting up at the top. Uh and so that would be another area that's of significant question uh in terms of what we
033do. Uh and then you know numerous leaks from the roof uh from the plumbing system itself. Now that it's getting warmer uh as we you know transition from spring into um into summer there'll be an increased uh risk to having mold uh and other uh contaminants in the building. Uh and then you know again that structural water damage that we have to address. uh those that's just a list of of things that we would have to really tackle before we could occupy it. So, first before we could occupy that building, before we'd actually determine a use, we'd have to determine a plan for the building. What programs would we use in it? We don't have one right now. Um we'd have to redesign the building based on the new programming that it would support. the
034entire building would have to be brought up to code and we'd really have to do a complete interior demolition uh and renovation if we were going to uh move forward and and with a plan to utilize that building in the future. So, um we needed to get an idea. I wanted to provide the board with an idea of what it might cost uh to do the renovations at at Hilltop. So, we took a look first at just what we spent at Red Hawk. Red Hawk was built in the 50s, so it's roughly 70 years old. Hilltop was built in the 20s, so it's about a hundred years old. Um, so that Red Hawk was the oldest building that we could compare uh to at at Hilltop. Uh, and so Red Hawk had has 58,780 square
035feet of renovated space. Um, we spent uh just over $12 million on Red Hawk. Uh, so the price per square foot at Red Hawk was $211 per square foot for renovation and construction costs. So if we were to apply that same number to Hilltop because that's the closest comparison we have, Hilltop's got 68,542 square feet. Um, if you take the 68,542, you multiply it by 211, it it's gives you a baseline number of 14 million462,362. Now, when we adjust that number for inflation, because we did the work at Red Hawk in 2021, 2022, um, when we adjust that number for inflation, now it's just short of $17 million just to get us just to get us started. Um the other thing that's tricky is the scope of the work at Hilltop is much much much
036greater than it was at Red Hawk. And so early um you know speculation conversations with with uh construction professionals and experts in the area uh including Triangle Construction who worked with us on all of our bond projects uh since uh 2021. um they're they're saying the scope of the work really is closer to, you know, anywhere from 22 to $25 million. Um so if we want to if we want to use that space again, we're going to have to do a significant investment uh into the infrastructure of the building and the exterior of the building. How would we pay for those renovations? Well, we could use our operations budget. Uh we do have some re reserve funds. Um, we could try to rank grants to get some uh support or we could pass a bond
037um put a bond proposal in front of the community and ask for their support on the project. Now, um the only way that we can do this would be a tax increase. Uh so it would be a new tax uh for voters. Realistically, it would be for $25 million in that ballpark. 25 to 28 million. um we'd be asking voters for their um support in either May of 2027 or November of 2027. So, we're about 18 uh 18 months out or so before we would be ready to put a proposal on the ballot. So if if you look at how we've done uh the support that voters have given to the district over the last 20 years, um realistically our community has been very supportive of the uh of the district when we're asking for
038two things. Uh one is just general support in the form of operating millages um uh without increasing uh the debt levy or the taxes that our community is paying or um the uh bond proposal that we passed in 2020 by 13 votes. The other uh bond proposals, the other tax uh questions that have been on the ballot that have failed have failed because it there was an increase. We were asking for an increase in taxes. So, if you remember what we learned from the proposal that failed in 2019, our community was very clear that they did not want to pay more in taxes. And so, we've just got to think about that as we move forward uh with any discussions about what to do next with Hilltop. So, four options that are currently being considered
039by the board of education. Uh one is to just leave the building as it currently sits um as a empty vacant space. That's not ideal. typically buildings um if if you vacate them and leave them empty uh they have a tendency to deteriorate even faster. So leaving it status quo really isn't a strong option for us. We could put a bond proposal on the uh on the ballot and see how that went. Um the fourth third option would be to demo the building and retain the land for a future school. If we took the current Beach Elementary School, the new building, and all of the accessories, the uh the gymnasium, the cafeteria, the playground, that we could rebuild that space on the property that Hilltop currently sits on. And then the last thing we could
040do is sell, basically donate the property. you know, we would not get a lot of money from an investor who was coming in to look at that building uh because there's just not a lot of um they would have to put a lot of money into the building before they could even start using it. So, the property the building as it sits is really a deterrent to us uh selling the property itself. So, um you know, that's the the the extent of my um uh my prepared comments, my prepared remarks. Um, if you've got additional questions after watching this video, I encourage you to do one of two things. Please either email me at uh scott.smith csredhawks.org or you can give me a call at 616691204, my extension is 10001. I'd love to answer any
041questions that you've got uh help provide some clarity around uh our direction moving forward uh with our facilities. Again, I want to thank you for uh tuning in and taking some time to watch this video. Um, and I hope that you found it informative. Uh, and again, if you've got questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. We thank you for your ongoing support and look forward to our students having some really neat experiences in the classroom spaces and the facilities uh that we've been able to create uh based on the gracious support of the community uh when they supported our bond proposal in 2020. Thank you very much. Go Red Hawks.