Battle Creek Public Schools has a long standing tradition of being committed to excellence. We provide outstanding learning opportunities to students through a high quality curriculum, outstanding teachers and support staff, and great learning environments. The purpose of this article is provide information about the upcoming bond election.
I’ll start with a little background information about how we got to this point. In March of 2019, the spring semester of my first year as superintendent, I organized a strategic planning team to go through the strategic planning process. This team was made up of teachers, administrators, parents, students, classified staff, community members and board members. We went through a three meeting process to identify the needs of the future for BCPS. The number one goal that resulted from this process was to have an elementary facility that could accommodate two classrooms per grade level in grades K-6 by the year 2023.
After identifying this goal, the facilities committee of the board and I went through an RFP process to select an architecture firm to complete a space study to determine if the current elementary school building was structurally sound enough to proceed with looking at existing space. Through this process, we selected CWP Architecture as our firm to do this study. The study found that the elementary school was structurally sound to proceed.
After the space study was complete, a committee from the original strategic planning members met throughout the summer of 2021 to narrow the scope of the project to meet our strategic planning goal. After several summer meetings, the committee agreed to the scope you will see in the links below.
After narrowing down the scope of the district’s needs, the district put out an RFP(request for proposals) for selecting a Construction Manager at Risk for the project. In December of 2021, a selection committee reviewed all proposals with the assistance of CWP Architects and Perry Law Firm, the district’s attorney. Upon completion of the review and interviews with three construction management companies, a recommendation to select Hausmann Construction was made to the school board. The school board accepted that recommendation and selected Hausmann Construction at it’s December board meeting. The contract was approved at the January board meeting pending a successful bond election. We believe that this scope meets our immediate and future needs as a school district while also being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.
For the vast majority of parents and patrons, it may seem like a short timeline from getting this information to casting your vote but rest assured that this has been a multi-year process of planning. The committee and district wanted to ensure that consistent and accurate information was shared.
It may sound egotistical, but people want to live in Battle Creek and they want to send their kids to Battle Creek Public Schools. They want to do this because we have an outstanding school system, filled with fantastic teachers. We provide outstanding learning opportunities for our students. In a community like ours, our school system is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason why people want to live here. A small town with small town values, a safe community where you can send your kids to the pool in the summer, a place where people look out for each other, and a place where kids get a top notch education. This is who we are and what we do for our kids. Our facilities should match our mantras of being the school of choice and being committed to excellence.
Click on the links below to see more information about the upcoming bond election:
- https://battlecreekbond.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/BattleCreekBond
- https://twitter.com/BattleCreekBond