GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Reimagine GRPS is moving forward, a unanimous decision to approve the plan by the school board made it official Monday night.
However, some parents in the district still have questions and concerns about the plan to close and consolidate 10 schools and renovate others. They say they would have liked more time to review it.
"I think it's moving too quickly for families that have only had five and a half weeks, really four and a half weeks if you consider Thanksgiving, to review and offer feedback on a complex plan during one of the busiest times of the year," said a parent during public comment Monday night. "We deserve transportation plans relating to these changes, and staff and families need to know how the district will deal with inevitable construction delays that will impact projects, moves and staffing."
Those changes, Superintendent Leadriane Roby said, came from their community input sessions.
"I think that we've demonstrated our willingness to address plans, it's and iterative process," said Superintendent Roby. "We have never said that this will be a perfect plan, six months from now, it's still not going to be a perfect plan, but it's a purposeful plan around how do we do what's best for our community, how do we do what's best for our scholars?"
Currently, about 51 percent of the districts building's are being used, the plan is to bring those numbers up to around 75 percent.
The first two schools to close will be East Leonard Elementary and Stocking Elementary., with East Leonard students relocating to Kent Hills Elementary or Coit Creative Arts Academy and Stocking students relocating to Harrison Park Academy or Sibley Elementary.
"We need to have strong programming within our schools," said the superintendent. "If you have it in one school but don't have it in another, that becomes an equity issue. And we are really trying to address that. We're trying to right-size our district for our current conditions, but also leave space for growth in the future."
Superintendent Roby said that after the winter break staff will continue to work on the plan to make sure transitions coming up will happen as smoothly as possible.
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