Dearborn Public Schools presents $1.51 billion, 15–20 year facilities master plan; board told to weigh bond for November

Paul Wills, the district’s program manager, presented a four-phase facilities master plan the Dearborn Public Schools board on Monday that would spend roughly $1.51 billion over 15–20 years to renovate and build schools, upgrade districtwide systems and reconfigure some feeder patterns.

Wills said the plan combines site and facility assessments, enrollment projections, facility condition indexes and community input led by Byron Fisk, and that the district is now in a program-validation phase. "This 1.51 billion is over that 15 to 20 year cycle," he said, describing a series of bond tranches and long-term cash-flow modeling.

The proposal organizes work into four phases. Phase 1 is described as roughly $366 million over three to five years and would include new K–8 neighborhood concepts at sites such as Lowry and an estimated $80 million in districtwide improvements (security vestibules, toilet rooms, roofing, technology, buses and furniture). Phase 2 was described as about $394 million; Phase 3 would contain major high‑school renovations for Dearborn High and other campuses; Phase 4 would complete remaining elementary and administrative work.

Staff emphasized program goals beyond bricks-and-mortar: deeper academic and STEAM spaces, improved traffic flow and parking, special-education accommodations and operational efficiencies the district says can preserve general‑fund dollars for programming. A typical proposed K–8 building was described as roughly 160,000 square feet housing about 1,300–1,350 students.

The presentation included site-level concepts for Salina/Becker (an addition and swing-space plan), O Smith/Nolan and Duval configurations, plus possible repurposing of Henry Ford property as a fieldhouse or central office. Staff also discussed repurposing newer facilities as swing space and options for adult‑education use.

On financing, presenters said the district has an opportunity in the near term to pair its bond plan with a declining city debt (combined‑sewer‑overflow) obligation so that the combined millage for homeowners could remain near current levels while enabling school bond sales in a series of issues. Staff recommended continued outreach to the cities of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, union representatives, PTA groups and other stakeholders ahead of a June board meeting at which trustees are expected to select which projects to include and review ballot language. Wills told trustees the board should aim to finalize ballot language before July deadlines for a November placement.

The board did not vote on placing a measure on the ballot at this meeting; staff said the June 22 meeting would present more detailed project sheets and a staff recommendation on the final ballot dollar figure.