If a motion made by East Lansing Public Schools Board of Education at its Sept. 8 meeting passes, Red Cedar Elementary School likely will be closed after the 2016-17 school year, a move that will affect MSU faculty and students.
In a split decision of 4-3, the board passed an action plan to make renovations and additions to five of the district’s six elementary schools and reconfigure them to grades K-5, moving students in grade six to MacDonald Middle School. The board’s motion would repurpose the Red Cedar building for a use not yet determined. If possible, board members said students and faculty from Red Cedar would move to Glencairn Elementary School upon Red Cedar’s closure.
The board’s motion will be up for a public hearing 6 p.m. Sept. 19 at MacDonald Middle School’s auditorium, and a final decision on the matter will be put to a vote Sept. 26.
Fred Poston, vice president for finance and operations, sent a letter to the superintendent of East Lansing public schools asking that Red Cedar not close because of the effect it would have on foreign married students and their families, many who live in Spartan Village and send their children to the school.
“I suspect that many of the families for which Red Cedar is a school of choice will find other accommodations, probably outside the district,” Poston said in the letter.
Estimated costs of the project are about $62 million and include remodeling the interiors and exteriors of the buildings and technological advancements for student learning. The changes would be paid for with the extension of a pre-existing debt levy on taxpayers, a move likely to go to the polls in February 2012.
Though many of the students permanently located in East Lansing likely would be able to easily adapt to a transition of communities, students from international countries might have a harder time fitting in with students who have lived in the city most of their lives, Red Cedar School Association Co-president Liesel Carlson said.
“It will be challenging to blend a neighborhood school with the international community,” she said. “Socially, it would be easier to integrate Glencairn going to Red Cedar.”
School Board Vice President Kay Biddle chose Red Cedar because of the low concentration of permanent resident housing in the area. She said she believes a similar dynamic could be recreated in other schools.
“I don’t believe that what people love about Red Cedar is about bricks and mortar but rather the experience,” Biddle said. “I have great confidence that our faculty, our staff and our families can embrace a celebration of cultures in a new location.”
East Lansing resident Ellen Campbell, one of many members of the school district to make public comments at the meeting, said integrating the Red Cedar districts might bring aspects of the global culture so loved by families at the school to other schools in the district.
“I’d like to have that (diversity) in our other public schools, as I’m sure a lot of people would,” she said.
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