School leaders in Mount Clemens plan to ask voters this spring to approve a huge bond issue that will not only change the appearance of the secondary complex, but also come with a millage reduction.

The Board of Education earlier this week approved placing a 20-year, $91.8 million bond proposal on the May 6 ballot.

Officials said proceeds from the bond will be used to preserve the district’s rich history by revitalizing its historic building while addressing critical infrastructure needs, and position the district in a position to attract more students.

“This is just the beginning for us,” Superintendent Julian Roper told The Macomb Daily.

According to a news release, the proposed bond program is focused on creating historic preservation and modernization of the schools on Cass Avenue, providing safer spaces, and creation of a comprehensive career and technical education program.

Highlights include:

• Separating entrances and learning environments for the middle and high school

• Constructing new security vestibules at the entrances

• District-wide building repairs and upgrades

• Integrating modern learning spaces into classrooms

• Repaving parking lots

• Improving athletic fields

• A new gymnasium

• Creating CTE opportunities aimed at student interests

The most visible change for the combined high school and middle school programs will be creation of separate entrances. This will result in partial demolition of the east end of the building and construction of a new classroom space, according to school leaders.

Parents and students have frequently requested a divide between the middle and high school that will allow for safer learning environments, according to the news release.

Mount Clemens-based Partners in Architecture is working on renderings of what the improvements will resemble. The financing end is being prepared by the Plante Moran accounting firm.

Mount Clemens Community Schools officials say the mechanics of lowering the tax rates will be spelled out during a series of upcoming town halls.

Longtime school board President Earl Rickman III said the bond plan is result in a year-long effort of gaining community input through surveys and workshops. Ideas and suggestions from community members were central to the process “because we didn’t have a plan sitting on the shelf.”

“When you hear $91.8 million, you think of sticker shock,” Rickman said. “But it’s for the safety, health and welfare of our students and staff. It’s the best thing for them.”

Board members note the original high school building opened in 1924 and the rest of the secondary building was done in the 1960s.

Over the decades, the district has applied “all of the band aids” it can to repair the physical structure, Rickman added.

“For us to be successful, to provide the quality of caliber of programs that our students need, we need new facilities,” he said.

Getting to this point

The long-troubled district had many obstacles to get to this point.

Once thriving, Mount Clemens experienced enormous losses in student population, plunging from 5,000 in the 1990s to around 800 in recent years.

The downward spiral created a perpetual cycle: A shrinking student population required the services of fewer teachers.

For years, the district has been forced to close buildings, lay off staff, win concessions from unions, and make other cuts in an effort to stave off a state takeover. The school board fashioned a deficit elimination plan and kept spending under that plan’s limits.

“Everyone took it on the chin, everyone heavily sacrificed,” Rickman said at the time.

By 2021 the Mount Clemens Community School District was finally out of a budget deficit and also sold bonds to refinance its previous bond issues. That move saved taxpayers about $373,000, according to school officials.

But families continued to send their children to other school districts.

However, for the first time about 40 years, the enrollment has been slowly inching upwards. Over the last two years, approximately 40 more families have chosen to put their children into Mount Clemens schools.

“Sure, the numbers are small now, but we’re trending in the right direction,” Roper said.

School officials say they hope to bolster their curriculum offerings with the help of the bond program, with an emphasis on technology and state-of-the-art classrooms. Stronger programs and a refurbished learning environment will help Mount Clemens compete with neighboring districts, they added.

“One of the big things people have not been crazy about here is having the middle school kids in the same building as our high schoolers,” Roper said.

“With this bond, we’re going to separate the two on this campus. Our high school students will be in one building, the middle school students will be in a separate building. That is a huge piece from a safety perspective that we’ve gotten from the community feedback.”

To accomplish that, one side of the eastern end of the complex could potentially be demolished and a new, smaller structure constructed.

If voters approve the bond, the work is projected to begin at the end of next year, officials said.

Lower taxes

School officials say the bond program also has the potential to lower the community’s property taxes.

Because roughly 50% of Mount Clemens property is occupied by government, churches, or other non-taxpaying entities, the tax burden is heavily dependent on revenue generated by homeowners and business operators.

“I knew this city is overtaxed as I have been having conversations with folks about this issue,” Roper said. “I understand. This is an entirely different ballgame.”

But how can Mount Clemens borrow $91.8 million and see a millage reduction?

“There is no simple, easy explanation as it involves the interplay of several Michigan Department of Treasury programs,” said Robert Gavin, of the Farmington Hills-based law firm Collins & Blaha, which is acting as bond counsel for the school district, in an email.

“With or without the proposed bonds, the debt levy would have reduced by 1.0 mill to 10.8 mills in 2025 anyway. The new proposed bonds will maintain that tax rate for a number of years, but are not projected to increase that millage rate.”

All of the details have been reviewed and signed off by the Michigan Department of Treasury. Likewise, the district’s municipal advisors, PFM Financial Advisors LLC, have also provided input on the plan.

According to information on the proposal, the estimated millage that will be implemented is 1.3 mills, for a 1 mill net decrease on the previous year’s levy.

For a homeowner whose property has a taxable value of $100,000, the annual savings would be about $100, according to documents supplied by the law firm.

The plan to improve schools comes at a time when the entire Mount Clemens community is undergoing a metamorphosis of its municipal footprint.

In 2023, officials unveiled a massive, $8.8 million ceiling-to-basement rebuild of the Mount Clemens Public Library, just across the street from the high school.

A $6.5 million revitalization project to spruce up the downtown is set to start this spring. The project is aimed at making the area more user-friendly and encourage more businesses to open in the area.

Mayor Laura Kropp recently announced plans to move City Hall from its building along the Clinton River to a two-story office building in the central section of the city at Cass and Main Street.