TCAPS Board Approves Bertha Vos Sale, Discusses Cell Phone Policy

Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) trustees voted Monday to authorize the sale of the vacant Bertha Vos Elementary School to Acme Township for $600,000 – potentially clearing the way for the building to be repurposed as a township hall and community space. TCAPS trustees also discussed enacting a new “away for the day” policy that would require students to keep their phones stashed away during school hours, with local parents, physicians, teachers, and students advocating for the change.

Bertha Vos Sale
TCAPS trustees unanimously voted to authorize staff to sign an agreement to sell Bertha Vos Elementary School to Acme Township for $600,000. Agreement terms call for Acme to pay $400,000 for the building upfront, followed by five years of $40,000 annual payments to cover the remaining $200,000.

Acme originally submitted two purchase options to TCAPS last fall: a flat payment of $675,000 or a purchase of $800,000 that would be split into a $500,000 upfront payment and the remaining $300,000 spread out over five years. After receiving approval from trustees to proceed with negotiations, TCAPS administrators have since spent several months working with Acme on a final deal. The revised lower offer of $600,000 reflects repairs needed – including a new boiler and new roof, according to TCAPS Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Christine Thomas-Hill – as well as an appraisal putting the property value at $500,000. “I don’t think they can come up any higher,” she said. “They’re paying a number that exceeds their appraisal amount.”

While TCAPS Superintendent Dr. John VanWagoner acknowledged he would’ve preferred a higher sale price, he also said TCAPS is continuing to accrue costs holding onto the building. Those include utility and other maintenance expenses averaging $40,000 annually, plus significant staff time spent on trying to negotiate the sale. “It is just aging day by day, the condition of it,” he said. Noting that TCAPS missed out on a previous opportunity to sell the property for $730,000 to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, VanWagoner said he would “hate for some reason to lose” another offer, especially one that goes to a “purpose that suits TCAPS in the end pretty well and part of our taxpayers as well.”

Acme Township Supervisor Doug White previously stated the property would serve as the community’s new township hall. Grand Traverse County has expressed interest in using space to offer a new Senior Center extension, while GT Metro Fire is envisioning using a portion of the building for a new fire station. Northwestern Michigan College’s Extended Education Services and Traverse Area District Library have also discussed programming uses, with all four organizations submitting letters of support for the project. Childcare, after-school activities, and community events are also envisioned for the property.

TCAPS trustees agreed to the lower price, but made it clear they didn’t want to see the figure further reduced. They struck a proposed provision from the purchase agreement stating that the parties could negotiate on price if significant roof repairs or replacement are needed. Trustees agreed the offer should be as-is. TCAPS administrators will next go to Acme leaders to work on a final agreement.

Cell Phone Policy
TCAPS will consider a change to student cell phone rules after a group including parents, teachers, students, and physicians advocated during public comment Monday for adopting an “away for the day” policy to limit phone usage during school hours.

Parent Jill Hammer said there has been a growing “grassroots dialogue” about the damage inflicted by students having access to cell phones during school, calling it a “major disservice to our children’s education.” Her husband, Brian Hammer, questioned how TCAPS could join a lawsuit against social media companies – as the district recently agreed to do – while still allowing students to use cell phones at school. He advocated for a policy that would require phones to be powered down upon entering school and stored in lockers for the day. Other Michigan school districts ranging from Bloomfield Hills to East Lansing to Utica have already enacted similar polices, he noted.

Dr. Stephanie Galdes, a pediatrician and parent to three TCAPS students, said that children and adolescents are “especially susceptible” to impacts from social media, which can cause everything from body dissatisfaction to disordered eating to low self-esteem. Students already use their phones for hours after school, she said. “We do not need to give them more time while in school,” she said. “We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis.” Jody Mackey has taught at TCAPS for 25 years and said that when she requires students to lock their phones away during field trips, they turn their attention to each other, socializing and forming new friendships. “The kids need us to do this for them,” she said. “They want us to do it for them. They want us to take these phones away.”

Trustee Erica Moon Mohr agreed “one thousand percent” that a policy change is needed. She said that while walking through school buildings, she often sees a sea of students with their heads down, absorbed in their phones. “It is constant,” she said. “It is all the time in the hallway. It is all the time in the lunchroom. It is all the time at sports practices. It is all the time on the sidelines. We have to do better.”

VanWagoner cautioned that a new policy will have a “lot of tentacles,” requiring input from teachers and administrators and taking into consideration issues such as whether teachers can have their own cell phones on them during school hours, if phones will be allowed in classrooms when used as part of the curriculum, and what enforcement would look like. Board Treasurer Josey Ballenger noted that teachers already have to enforce the current district policy, which says cell phones can’t be out in classrooms. “No matter what we do, they’re going to have to police this,” she said. “They’re dealing with this already.”

Dr. Paula Colombo, a local psychiatrist, said some parents may push back against a policy change, wanting their students to have cell phone access for communication or emergencies. However, she said students already have access to TCAPS email (student Chromebooks allow email but block social media sites) and can go to school offices to contact parents. In emergencies, such as lockdowns, students are supposed to focus on safety procedures and not be texting or using social media, she said. Colombo supported a medical exemption to the phone policy, but noted such cases would likely be rare.

Board President Scott Newman-Bale said the arguments in public comment were “amazingly articulate and varied,” more so than he could recall on any other topic. “I definitely do agree that we need to be looking at it sooner rather than later,” he said. Parents hoped a new policy could be in place before the start of school this fall, though Newman-Bale cautioned two months was a rapid timeline to enact a new policy. “It has to have deep thought and commitment,” he said. VanWagoner said he would work on getting policy examples from other districts as well as staff input on the change, with the goal of working with the board’s executive and curriculum committees this summer on a proposal for consideration by the full board.