The public was invited to an open house of the new Ludington Elementary School, set to be the exclusive public school in the Ludington area for pre-kindergarteners to 5th grade beginning next year.  The $101 million bond to build this elementary and expand the middle/high school was generously approved in May 2019 by a vote of the residents in the Ludington area.  The property on the corner of Bryant and Jebavy Roads was a forest owned by the school district, partially denuded to house the new structure which functionally replaces four other public school buildings, three of which are set to be demolished and replaced with residential property or turned into a parking lot (Franklin Elementary).  

Although a slim majority of voters approved this project, there were many concerns about this project to justify those who voted 'no'.  The high price tag of this project was never a deal breaker as far as I was concerned, it was more a matter of losing these anchor schools across the neighborhoods of Ludington and having a school so far removed from the community and pedestrian/bicycling infrastructure that one had to get there by driving or by bus.  

This was noted on my three-mile drive to get to the open house celebration that ran from 11 AM to 2 PM.  If anything, Bryant Road has been made much more treacherous for those traveling by bicycle on the small variable-width shoulder of the road, Jebavy's shoulders have been improved near the school but is even worse as you go a block away, and certainly, neither has a sidewalk.  

The map above was part of my introductory package I received after parking in a lot somewhat confusing by the fact that a dusting of snow was covering the road paint showing directional arrows.  You will note the sidewalks at the school are confined to a circle around the school and a small triangle to the west.  The only curb cuts are at the crosswalks leading to the parking lots, and a questionable one opening just above the rotary to the east and ending there.

If this wasn't enough to secure the belief that the engineers had no concern for 'Safe Routes to School' Day or for anybody leaving campus without being in a vehicle, the lack of bicycle racks anywhere would confirm it.  Maybe someday they will have a bike path that will go through the school forest, but for now, they won't have to transfer any of the old bike racks from the other elementary schools over any time soon.

Visitors were greeted at the entrance and would wait for a little to be given a tour after every five minutes by school personnel.  If I had shown up at 11 PM, they had a welcome by Interim Superintendent Peg Mathis followed by a national anthem, remarks by the representatives of the much-richer engineering and construction companies (GMB and Christman) along with endorsements by Steve Carlton and Jay Sam from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, followed by student testimonials.  The principals then spoke right before the official ribbon cutting.  

I missed all that, being that the school district had me thinking this was an open house with no special events planned.  Nevertheless, I'm kind of glad I missed it all, because all I wanted was a tour and maybe some light refreshments.  Never got the latter, I guess $101 million only goes so far.

The gray square in the middle of the school in the map already shown was an outdoor courtyard, you can see by the snow that it is open to the elements.  I liked this idea even though it may be impractical during half of the school year due to rain, snow, or coldness.   

The tour took us down each wing of the school corresponding to a grade level and beginning at pre-K and progressing all the way to 5th grade as you went to your left.  Above is the opening to one of the several classrooms in each wing.  Each wing was given the name of a spirit animal (no doubt further explained by Jay Sam), but each had a certain amount of sameness to it.  If you spend your first seven years in Ludington public schools, it will be down one of these wings which are mostly indistinguishable from each other, using the same common facilities each year.  

One of those common facilities is the gym, which features a nice hardwood floor and a retractable wall in the middle to create two smaller gyms.  Bleacher capacity is 800 people

The cafeteria features two separate serving lines for older and younger students.  One has to imagine that two grade levels will need to eat at the same time when six or seven grades are using the same place.

The library above is mostly a work in progress but is slated to feature interactive learning tools and be a complete 'media center'.  It does appear to offer more space than any one of the other elementaries, but it is serving up to seven grade levels.  The map doesn't show the library which goes down the long corridor along with some other common areas. 

Between the school and the circular sidewalk are some playground areas, likely divided by the internal sidewalks into grade level playing area, though this wasn't noted or part of the tour.  One does notice these will likely be used sparingly this spring in order for grass seed to take root in the bare ground covering most of it.

At the end of the day, I wondered about a couple things. 

First, the facility was made to provide larger learning spaces for our children in order to easier facilitate a '21st century' learning experience.  When one considers the sizes of the learning spaces in the combined four elementary schools replaced, does this new school actually accomplish this?  The coaches have already made it clear that the amount of available gym space for students has gone down dramatically, as three gyms have been effectively lost.

Second, if this school construction took the larger part of the bond money, let's say $60 million out of $101 million, and the district recently approved the sale of Foster School and its property for $20,000, then one wonders:  is this new school created on already-owned property worth the value of 3000 ($60M/$20K) Foster Schools when it effectively replaces that school plus the capacity of 1.3 other schools? 

I will never understand the new math if the answer to both my queries is 'no'. 

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Thanks for the virtual tour X.  Where many of the voters who approved this project see a modern spacious school, I see a tremendous waste of money and resources. A learning center isolated from the community and an endless money pit gorging on taxpayers pocket books and wallets. What's next, a new high school and middle school? It's still hard to fathom that the little burg of Ludington just spent 1/10 of a billion dollars on an unneeded and wasteful wish list of a project that will not do a damn thing to improve learning. Like I said before, just wait until a new millage hike is put on the ballot to increase the busing portion of the school system because we have abandoned our neighborhoods and are now forced to "ship" the kids out of the City.

Willy, your post is right on the money correct, can't say it any better than you did. Abandoning all the elementary neighborhoods was probably never even thought of during this entire episode, and neither was the busing portion that has to catch up here soon.

Aquaman, with Ludington's population growing older, how in the World did this thing pass. Most older folks want smaller tax burdens not larger ones. I guess with all of the politicking by school officials, the Ludington Daily News, The Teachers Union and all the local Lefties, it  was easy to convince the public this was a good idea. I wonder what crazy project they will be cooking up next?

Willy, all I can think of is election fraud, same as Nov. 2020. Plus the date of May.

You're going to like to see the public comment I made last night at the regular school board meeting.  Except for my three minutes, it was like that meeting was one of those Hallmark movies with everybody romancing on each other and their new school.  Oh, there was an acknowledgment that they hadn't made reasonable security upgrades at the new school, like boots for the doors, but now that they've spent their money, they will start looking into it.

I hate to consider that this whole dumb idea of moving the school to Bufu, Egypt and bankrupting the taxpayers was predicated on some evil motive of taking the kids out of the community and away from their parents to indoctrinate them, but how else does one explain the total insanity of it all.  

Thank you Lake Lady, your post is also right on key for transparency and truths, great job of thinking. Only trouble is, I just don't see the winds changing anytime soon, and it's more like: "shut the barn door or the horses will get out". Well, as far as I'm concerned, the door has been wide open already for a while, and those horses are long gone now.

I agree with Aquaman, LL. You have a unique viewpoint of the situation because you have been on the inside looking out and you know a lot that we don't.

X, thanks for putting this topic together and the photos that you posted. There are a lot of folks that will not be able to see inside the new money pit. I also didn't know what Bufu meant until I looked it up. Very funny. I remember Timbuktu as FS refers to, also Bum_uck Arkansas.

I'm dumbstruck and enlightened by all these insightful comments, X, Willy, Aquaman, Lake Lady. Especially Bufu, Egypt. I had to look that up in the Urban dictionary. I guess that is like the old slang, "Timbuktu" ... like telling your kids you're going to Timbuktu when you don't want them to know where you were going (yes, that's a different generation). But, Bufu, like Timbuktu, out in the wilderness and "none of your business" taxpayers, Just "Believe." Crazy idea that expensive conglomerate school. GLAD I VOTED "no" even if the majority didn't. The NEA probably advised the school board how to play the marketing and chose the dates for a vote. Wait until these progressive liberals have to pay the piper. One way or another the people will wake up when no more blood (taxes) can squeezed out of the turnip (taxpayers).

It's easy to guess why school bond issues almost always take place in May or February.  Voter turnout will be low, pro-bond propaganda isn't ignored as much, anti-bond ads are minimal to begin with, pro-bond turnout  by motivated contractors and schools can make quite a difference.  In 2019, I and others got a lot of grief for just questioning the bond on social media, which indicates why you rarely see a media outlet come out against a bond proposal.

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