By Jennifer Pignolet
jpignolet@detroitnews.com
Seven years after its last bond request failed, Dearborn Public Schools is considering asking for a major bond issue next year to deal with its aging infrastructure.
The school board will meet in a work session Jan. 5 to discuss options for a possible bond issue. No decisions will be made that night, board and district officials said. A final vote would likely not take place until May, with the idea of putting a request on the November ballot.
While the issue is a matter for the full board to decide, President Adel Mozip said the district has exhausted any other options to deal with major building needs.
“I would say it’s the No. 1 issue we’re facing as a district,” he said.
The state’s third-largest school district, Dearborn serves more than 19,000 students.
No dollar amounts have been proposed for the potential bond issue, but a study that surveyed all of the district’s major maintenance needs showed a total between $1 billion and $1.5 billion.
Mozip said that doesn’t mean that will be the ask, but a smaller number would mean having to go back to the public in future years with another ask to deal with any unaddressed projects.
“It’s a lot of information to take on, and that’s why the Jan. 5 study session will be helpful, also for residents to engage in this process and bring their ideas forward,” Mozip said.
Whatever the ask is, he said, the district and the board will learn the lessons from 2019, when a bond request for $179 million failed by about 300 votes.
“You have to be more detailed,” he said. “We cannot leave it broad.”
No plans have been set yet, Mozip said, but it’s clear some buildings will have to undergo major renovations, while others may have to be replaced. Some schools have foundational issues, which may not be possible to address through a renovation.
“I would say it’s for the best of our students, for their safety, and we don’t fail them on that,” he said.
Mozip said he knows Dearborn residents value their historic buildings, and that will be taken into account.
Dearborn schools has 35 buildings, including 32 schools. Their average age is 70 years old, with several over 100, and within five years, nearly half being that old. The newest school building was constructed in 2006.
Communications Director David Mustonen said one building in most need is Lowrey Elementary and Middle School.
The nearly 100-year-old building has over 900 students, but only partial air conditioning. It needs roughly $150 million in work, Mustonen said, including all major systems, from HVAC to electrical. The age of the building, he said, makes those kinds of projects difficult.
“You can’t just start ripping out walls and stuff like you can in other buildings,” he said.
The district’s maintenance staff currently has to piecemeal parts and repairs to keep boilers running that are over 40 years old, because the district doesn’t have the money to replace them.
If there comes a point they can’t be repaired anymore, he said, or if a part has to be ordered or even manufactured just for that boiler, it could shut down a school building for weeks at a time.
In one building, he said, an elevator broke down that was so old, the manufacturer had to build a new part from scratch.
Mustonen said it will be up to the district and the board to make the case to the community, which has seen its tax rate drop after the last bond issue failed.
“We need it now,” Mustonen said. “It’s been six years. We needed it six years ago, and now things are just getting worse.”
The Jan. 5 work session will be held at 6 p.m. in the boardroom of the Administrative Service Center, 18700 Audette St., Dearborn, and will include time for public comment.
