Proposed new gymnasium complex, school tech and infrastructure upgrades highlight proposal
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
COLON — Voters in Colon will be deciding Tuesday whether or not to approve a school bond proposal that district administrators say will not raise the tax rate for residents.
On the Aug. 5 ballot, residents in the Colon Community Schools district will vote on approval of a $14 million bond proposal from the school district, which includes a number of safety, infrastructure, and learning environment upgrades as well as a brand-new gymnasium building dubbed the “Magi Athletic Complex.”
If approved, the current debt tax rate for the district, currently at 0.37 mills, will remain the same, which would mean there would be no increase in the tax rate levy for residents in that regard.
“With us being as small as our community is and understanding the demographics of who lives and works and send their kids to school in this community, [no tax rate increase] is extremely important,” Colon Community Schools Director of Operations Olivia Spidle said.
Some of the projects that would be funded under the bond proposal, if approved by voters, include repairing the parking lot at the elementary school building, a new parking lot at the football/athletic complex, new sidewalks at the high school/middle school, a partial roof replacement at the junior/senior high school, adding air conditioning to the high school’s band room, upgrading classroom instructional technology, and new playground equipment at the Stone School in Leonidas.
Spidle said many of the proposed projects in the school buildings came as the result of a facilities assessment conducted in January, which while the district did well, there were a few areas the assessment noted still needed to be addressed, in particular the roof.
“The assessment identified that there were low spots on our junior/senior high school roof that can be replaced so then down the road, we don’t have to do a full-scale roof replacement and we’ll maintain what’s already there,” Spidle said.
The classroom technology upgrades, Spidle added, are also needed for the district as some of the technology is quickly becoming outdated. She said classrooms currently use ceiling projectors, which she estimated will be technologically “out of date” within a year.
“The older those get, the harder it is to find replacement bulbs and replacement parts, and the quality they’re projecting isn’t as good as it could be if we were to be able to purchase, for example, smart boards, which is what most schools are turning to,” Spidle said.
“Our main focus has been, what can we do to improve the learning experience for our students that are with us now and for the generations to come. Not only that, but also the experience of our teachers. We want to provide them with the best things we can, but knowing how small we are, our resources are limited.”
However, the biggest project that would be funded if the proposal passes is the Magi Athletic Complex, a proposed new building that would include a 94-foot competition basketball court, a competition volleyball court, bleacher seating for 1,320 people, new locker rooms, equipment storage, concessions, office and storage space, and a community walking track that would be open to the public.
According to district officials, if the proposal passes, having the new complex would solve an issue that they say has been happening for several years – student-athletes staying at the junior/senior high school until late hours of the night due to limited gymnasium space for practice while sharing it with other departments, such as the band program.
Athletic Director and Dean of Students Noah Dooley said those concerns have been discussed by parents “for a long time,” noting some of the issues they have had with gymnasium space at the high school over the last several years.
“What our parents are seeing right now is that, for years, there’s been late-night practices, it’s been crammed with the gym, not a lot of space for, I don’t want to say for sports and band to co-exist, but let’s say the band has the gym one night, there’s nowhere for us to practice,” Dooley said. “We can practice at the elementary school’s tiny gym, but we have so many practices going on at once that there’s no space.”
Spidle said those late-night practices caused by lack of gym space is “putting a strain on our kids.”
“We’ve had kids in the building until 10, 11 at night and then having to get right back up at 6 the next morning, we’re putting a strain on our kids, our student-athletes, expecting them to be at practice but waiting for that gym time to be available and expecting them to perform educationally the next day,” Spidle said. “So, we’re looking at ways to alleviate that.”
Dooley said district officials have made site visits to different schools to look at their gymnasium complexes in the last 14 months, and that it’s been a “thorough process” to pin down what they’re looking for in an athletic complex.
Spidle also added that the new complex won’t be just for students at the school district, it would be available for the entire Colon community, in particular with the walking track, but also for other aspects of the complex.
“We very much well knew, hey, this competition gym shouldn’t be just for the students of Colon, but it should be for the whole community, and how can we incorporate that,” Spidle said. “So, the walking track, we’re planning on having a staff member out there during the day so that community members can come during the day and use the walking track. Of course, we’ll have to work out logistics, but we want to be able to offer this to as many people as we can who live in the community and who are essentially paying for this.”
Superintendent Rick Hilderley, who started his tenure as superintendent in early July, said having a new athletic complex, if the bond passes, will also give new opportunities for the district and the community as well.
“Right now, we don’t have the ability to host MHSAA tournaments as a result of our smaller gym, so this will be an upgrade to the ability to host tournaments, and every time you bring people to town, they’ll eat at restaurants and shop in stores, so there’s a financial implication for the community too,” Hilderley said.
In conversations with the community held over the course of the last several months since the bond plan became public, district officials said there’s been productive conversations and a lot of questions answered about the bond and what it contains. While the athletic complex is a major part of the proposal, Spidle noted the district is still ultimately focused on academic achievement, something she said the district hasn’t necessarily been vocal about in recent years.
“At the start of this past school year, we adopted and implemented a K-12 math curriculum, which is extremely costly, but we’ve identified that math is a subject of focus across the board. That’s true for most schools in the state and country,” Spidle said. “So, the school has been doing things to improve the educational experience of our students, but we haven’t done a great job of putting it out there to parents in the community to say, hey, we’ve recognized there’s needs here, and this is what we’ve done. I want to make sure our community knows that education will always be and will remain the top priority for Colon schools.”
Overall, district officials say it’s ultimately up to the voters to decide whether or not to approve the bond, and while they cannot say either way how they feel people should vote, they said there is a lot for people to consider when they go to the ballot box on Aug. 5.
“I think that people should consider what type of experience we want to offer not just our students, but also our community members. What’s the best way that we can provide for our kids educationally and also athletically,” Spidle said. “I’d ask that voters think about this as not just something intended for athletes; we have been very instrumental in gearing this toward all of our students, whether they play sports or not.”
“I think what they need to consider is just like your home, you have to constantly be improving and updating your facilities as a school district. You can’t just let things go until they crumble. This is an opportunity to be able to do that, and to do it in a way that doesn’t cost more than is already being paid,” Hilderley said.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 5. Colon Township will vote at their Township Hall at 132 N. Blackstone Ave., while Leonidas Township will vote at their Township Hall at 30970 King Rd.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
