By Harold C. Ford
The Beecher Community School District (BCSD) on Flint’s near north side has shared more information on the $20 million renovation of its mostly-abandoned Beecher High School campus at the corner of Saginaw Street and Coldwater Road.
The district’s superintendent, Richard Klee, provided details on the project in a presentation to BCSD retirees in Frankenmuth on Sept. 25, 2024.
“The big news is facilities”
“The big news is facilities,” Klee told the retirees. He said most of the $20 million budget would be used to upgrade what locals in Beecher, Mich. refer to as “the Old Building,” which was constructed in 1926 and closed due to low enrollment roughly 20 years ago.
Upgrades to the building are already underway, Klee explained, including roof replacement, gutting of the interior, and the ordering and installation of new windows.The campus’s nearby industrial arts and music buildings are also being demolished as part of the overall project.
“The goal remains for an opening in the Fall of 2025,” Klee said, “although that is contingent upon supply chain and worker availability.”
“Guardian angel”
The renovation project was inspired, said Klee, “with the help of a guardian angel, Matt Rizik.”
Rizik is Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Companies, a business founded by well-known southeast Michigan entrepreneur Dan Gilbert. Klee called Rizik a “tax guy” for Gilbert at Rocket Mortgage, although Rizik’s responsibilities far exceed that description.
Prior to the renovation announcement earlier this year, Rizik had also helped funnel financial support to BCSD for athletic upgrades that included new locker rooms and basketball hoops in the Lacy Field House, football helmets, and weight lifting equipment.
“Our athletic department is tripped out,” said Klee, pridefully.
Rizik and BCSD leaders had been envisioning a new high school for Beecher for about two years before the project came together. Klee said an earlier plan to demolish the Old Building and build a new high school was abandoned when the team realized that the 1926 building was structurally sound and a makeover was a less expensive option.
Two buildings to three
Beecher students are currently housed in two crowded buildings that face one another on opposite sides of Neff Road.
Dailey Elementary serves students in pre-K through 6th grade and Beecher Middle/High School, located in the former Dolan Middle School building, serves the school district’s 7th to 12th graders.
If the plans for a newly renovated high school are realized, students in grades 9-12 would attend the new campus at Saginaw Street and Coldwater, the Dolan building would serve students in grades 5-8, while Dailey would house pre-K to 4th grade students.
Since taking up the superintendent role four years ago, Klee has led the first meaningful campaign to rid BCSD of abandoned buildings and properties.
At its zenith in the late-1960s and early-1970s, Beecher boasted 11 school buildings within its 5.9 square miles. All had been abandoned in recent decades save two — the aforementioned Dailey and Dolan.
“We’ve sold off everything,” Klee said, except the former Summit Middle School building and Henderson Field, a patch of land used as a practice facility by footballers of yesteryear.
“We have our ten million”
A 61-page proposal document on the $20 million renovation shared with East Village Magazine (EVM) detailed the sources of the project’s financing. They included:
- $500,000 from a Michigan Enhancement Grant;
- $1.5 million from a Michigan Department of Education Grant;
- $2 million from a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Project Funding Grant;
- $5 million from a State of Michigan Budget Allocation;
- about $500,000 from private donors.
“We have our ten million,” Klee said, who added that the district anticipates a matching $10 million from a yet-to-be-identified Michigan-based foundation.
“Reimagined Beecher High School”
The proposal includes a “reimagined Beecher High School” with the creation of a “Beecher health sciences career pathway.” Every incoming freshman, Klee explained, would take a health occupations class that exposes them to possible health careers. That would be followed by “work-based learning” in students’ junior and senior years with on-the-job experience at nearby health facilities.
Klee explained that health careers were a popular choice based upon recent surveys of senior year students. “In the greater Flint area there are plenty of health care jobs they can do,” Klee added.
Klee said a new room at the renovated high school will house a health clinic, while another will house a business and technology lab.
The proposal document also described the intent of a “Career Academy” at the high school:
“The proposed Career Academy will transform Beecher High School into a hub of innovation and skill development, offering specialized programs in fields such as healthcare and the business industry. Our goal is to provide students with hands-on learning experiences, industry certifications, and pathways to both higher education and immediate employment.”
“A lot of progress”
“Beecher has seen a lot of progress in the four years I’ve been there,” Klee said. He noted that, when he arrived at Beecher, one-third of its teachers were not certified, academic scores were low, enrollment was dropping, and the budget was in the red.
“Within the first year we went from the red to the black, settled a three-year teacher contract with seven percent, six percent, and five percent pay increments over a three-year period. We moved the Beecher teachers’ salaries from the bottom of the county to off the bottom [with] a generous insurance package.”
Klee said all teacher vacancies but two have been filled, and “everybody’s certified or on the path to certification.”
He added that the district’s test scores have also risen, as has its graduation rate.
Scramble for students on Flint’s north side
Beecher’s $20 million high school upgrade is not only an improvement for current students but also a bid to draw others back to the district – a goal for every district when each Michigan student brings with them almost $10,000 in state aid.
Accordingly, schools everywhere are scrambling to attract students with improved facilities and attractive academic offerings, and the plan for Beecher High School enters at a time of great competition in the area.
Within a four mile diameter around the two Beecher campuses are three other schools vying for the same students: New Standard Academy — which enrolled 779 preschool through 12th graders last school year as compared to BCSD’s 600; Flint Community Schools’ Brownell-Holmes campus, currently undergoing its own $40 million upgrade and serving scholars up to grade 8; and Hamady Middle High School – which regularly pulls more than half of its students from outside its district boundaries.
Despite this landscape, Klee seemed optimistic that the renovated Beecher campus could double the district’s high school enrollment from 200 to 400 in the next two to three years.
But, he added, “It’s going to be a battle.”
