Construction is set to begin on a $1.7 million expansion at Cherry Knoll Elementary School after Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) school board members approved a bid contract Monday. The project is one of several underway or on the horizon funded by the district’s $107 million capital bond approved by voters last year – with the next task to include TCAPS leaders finalizing a location and design for a planned new Montessori school.

Board trustees awarded a contract not to exceed $1.7 million to Grand Traverse Construction Monday to oversee the Cherry Knoll project. Project plans calls for the construction of four new classrooms at the East Bay Township elementary school, including two upper elementary and two lower elementary classrooms. The expansion work will take place at each end of the existing classroom wings. Other renovations will include two new staff restrooms, sound attenuation in the corridors, and the installation of bottle fillers at school drinking fountains.

Cherry Knoll Principal Dr. Victoria Derks says the school – which enrolls 446 students and has experienced growing numbers annually due to open enrollment and school of choice programs – is currently “using every possible space in the building.” The school has converted rooms designed as offices into classrooms to try and keep up with demand, but those spaces are constrained compared to traditional classrooms. “We’re just very tight,” Derks says. “We are providing a great learning environment, but the new space would provide more room to spread out. Our staff, students, and the parents are very excited about the renovations. Our students really love to learn, and the addition will provide much more space to be able to expand that learning environment.”

Christine Thomas-Hill, associate superintendent of finance and operations at TCAPS, says district staff will begin working with Grand Traverse Construction immediately on finalizing a construction schedule. She expects site work to begin in the coming weeks. Students will remain at Cherry Knoll while the school is under construction, with the project set to be complete by August. Thomas-Hill notes that safety dividers are put up to separate students from construction areas; construction workers are also prescreened and wear ID badges on-site as a precautionary measure. The noisiest aspects of construction work will be reserved for after-school hours or weekends to minimize classroom disruptions.

Cherry Knoll’s reconstruction comes on the heels of renovations at four other schools this summer and fall. Courtade Elementary, Willow Hill Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, and West Middle School all have new redesigned main entrance and office areas as security upgrades, improving the line of sight and requiring visitors to pass through the main office before entering the school. Silver Lake also has a new dedicated bus ramp, while a new roof and soffit has been installed at West. Thomas-Hill says final touches are being put on the Silver Lake and Courtade main office projects, with staff likely to move back into those reconfigured spaces in the next two weeks. Other upcoming bond projects set to come before the board for approval this winter include $1 million in bus replacements, $1.5 million in Thirlby Field renovations, a $200,000 project to install digital signs at all the high schools, $1.5 million in district-wide staff laptop upgrades, a $4.5 million improvement project at the Coast Guard Athletic Fields, $1.4 million in renovations at Blair and Westwoods elementary schools, $250,000 in Central Grade restroom renovations, and $200,000 in improvements to Central High School’s gym and restrooms.

TCAPS leaders are also expected to revive discussions this winter about the location and design of a new Montessori school. Last February, the TCAPS board voted unanimously to approve the construction of a new facility for the TCAPS Montessori at Glenn Loomis program, expanding from a pre-K through sixth grade configuration to a pre-K through eighth grade model. The goal was for the project to be completed in time for the 2021-2022 school year. But leaders temporarily put the brakes on the project this fall after the City of Traverse City rejected a TCAPS request to vacate Griffin Street between Pine and Oak streets to accommodate construction of the new school. TCAPS wanted to reroute the road and use some of the land it currently bisects for the new Montessori facility; the district owns the land on either side of the road, but not the road itself.

In a letter to former Superintendent Ann Cardon explaining the city’s rejection of the request, City Manager Marty Colburn said Griffin Street is important to east-west travel and serves as a key service street for both school facilities and local businesses. “In turn, this helps reduce ingress/egress onto Fourteenth Street, lessening interference as well as enhancing safety along the corridor,” he wrote. Colburn also said that the city’s corridor master plan for Fourteenth Street prioritized moving parking away further from the street – in contrast to TCAPS’ plan – and locating parking lots on the rear or side of buildings instead.

Colburn offered a “compromise” design solution that would locate the new Montessori building along Fourteenth Street, shift parking to the north, and allow for vacating a shorter section of Griffin Street from the eastern end of Thirlby Field to Pine Street. Colburn said the design would allow TCAPS to shut down road access during school hours and events, but maintain public use when school is not in session. Colburn said the design would support “both daily school operations as well as Thirlby Field activities.”

The city’s rejection took TCAPS' targeted 2021-22 completion date off the table, with district leaders pausing to consider their options for a location and design. Thomas-Hill says Board President Sue Kelly and Interim Superintendent Jim Pavelka plan to renew discussions in the coming weeks at a committee level on the district’s options. Those could include accepting the city’s proposed compromise, identifying an alternate location elsewhere on the property, tearing down the existing Glenn Loomis building and constructing a new school over it, or building the new school on TCAPS property on Franke Road. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages: Tearing down the existing Glenn Loomis building would require moving students elsewhere during construction, for example. Since Montessori is a magnet school, parents must provide their own transportation – meaning families would either have to shuttle students to an interim location further away (likely Bertha Vos Elementary), or TCAPS would have to pay for temporary busing.

Thomas-Hill says all options are on the table and will be carefully evaluated to ensure the best long-term solution is chosen for the new Montessori school. In the meantime, the district is still moving forward with plans to begin enrolling seventh grade students next year and to expand to eighth grade classes in 2021. The existing Glenn Loomis library will be used as a classroom space for some of the older students until the new school can be built, according to Thomas-Hill.

Pictured: Cherry Knoll Elementary School