Added on July 15, 2019  Marsha Chartrand

Bond proposal will help High Point School better accommodate student needs

So named because it is located at the “highest point” in Washtenaw County, High Point School’s mission has evolved significantly in its nearly 50-year history.

Designed in 1972 and completed in 1975, the school originally served students with disabilities who had previously been in institutions. Students who attended High Point in the 1970s were physically, emotionally, and cognitively capable enough to learn how to live and work independently, and they attended High Point School specifically for career training programs.

Today, High Point serves a different population of students, ages 3-26, many of whom have severe and multiple disabilities and individual medical needs. Most students use wheelchairs or walkers, and many have medical equipment that also needs to travel with them down narrow hallways and into oddly-shaped classrooms.

In the 1970s, the philosophy was to create unique buildings and classroom spaces to stimulate learning. High Point’s building is a perfect example of this design. Classrooms are grouped in “pods;” the classrooms are unusually shaped and have little or no closed storage space; there are long, narrow hallways; limited bathroom facilities; and many entrances and exits. While the philosophy of those times may have served the building’s original occupants well, student needs, staff needs, and educational methods have all changed greatly in the past 47 years.

A county-wide bond proposal is set for August 6. This estimated 0.37 mill increase over 10 years for a $53.295 million bond issue will reconstruct a new High Point School on the same site, and make renovations to the existing gymnasium and pool. Because this bond is county-wide, the millage is spread out over a large population and the relatively modest tax increase will help raise the entire $53 million over a 10-year period.

The following table provides sample costs for homeowners.

Market Value	Taxable Value	Monthly Cost	Annual Cost
$100,000	$50,000	$1.54	$18.50
$150,000	$75,000	$2.31	$27.75
$200,000	$100,000	$3.08	$37.00
$300,000	$150,000	$4.63	$55.50

Ashley Kryscynski, Communications and Public Relations Specialist for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD), who provided a tour of the current High Point facility, explained that High Point’s original student population is now being served primarily within their home districts via special education programs. However, the varied and unique needs of current High Point students, who come from every district within Washtenaw County, would not be practical to serve on a small scale, especially in smaller districts like Manchester.

“This is the only specialized school for SXI (Severe Multiple Impairment) students in the county,” Kryscynski explained. SXI students have moderate to severe impairment in cognitive ability and impairment in one or more of the following areas: hearing, vision, physical and health. “Many of our students are medically fragile,” she added. Those students have a 2:1 ratio of students to staff.

The High Point building also includes classrooms for Honey Creek School, a K-8 Charter school designed to intentionally integrate students with disabilities with their general education peers, and Gretchen’s House, a privately owned day-care facility. Until recently, it also accommodated the Huron Valley Beauty Academy, part of the South & West Washtenaw Consortium, which has since relocated to Saline.

The challenges begin before you even enter the building. Kryscynski pointed out that the long, narrow, partially-uncovered walkway from the bus drop off area means that students and their aides need to navigate difficult turns with wheelchairs and other equipment just to get inside the building; often in inclement weather conditions. Indoors, long, narrow, sometimes dead-end hallways, frequently with even narrower doorway openings, make student safety as well as convenience a challenge. Storage of wheelchairs and other equipment is often in hallways, further limiting accessibility especially in the event of an emergency. In-class storage areas are limited at best. Multiple doorways to the outside are a security concern. Lavatories are also unusually-shaped, often too small to accommodate equipment, and multiple entrances create privacy concerns in an atmosphere where staff’s primary goal is to provide impaired students with the greatest amount of dignity possible.

“The staff makes do with all these inadequacies, but it’s a challenge,” Kryscynski said. “The facility really speaks for itself.” Kryscynski added that there will be four public open houses held over the next few weeks so that voters can see for themselves the changes that are needed to help High Point continue to serve the county’s most vulnerable students. These are scheduled for the following dates and times:

• Tuesday, July 23 at 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday, July 25 at 5:30 p.m.
• Thursday, August 1 at 5:30 p.m.
• Sunday, August 4 at 12:00 p.m

The ambitious timeline of the bond would allow plans to be finalized this fall, with demolition to take place over the winter, while High Point School relocates temporarily to the old Willow Run High School in Ypsilanti for approximately 1-1/2 years. The reconstruction would begin in the spring of 2020 and be complete for the beginning of the school year in September 2021.

The end result for High Point students is that each student be able to “Create their own story” in terms of their abilities and needs. “We want to maximize their opportunities and give them personal dignity,” Kryscynski explained. “The inclusion policies at High Point allow each student to succeed to the best of their abilities.”

Being able to use the space that they have more efficiently and effectively will help the staff create the best possible stories for each of the students who attend High Point, both now and in the future.