Grosse Pointe North High School has undergone a facelift over the last two summers. The school was built in 1968, and some parts of it went untouched until recently,
Grosse Pointe North Principal Kate Murray said. This is the second summer of renovations at the school.
“The first summer, what happened was, on the second floor and half of the third floor, the asbestos was abated,” said Murray. “Then the classrooms received new ceilings, new paint, new tiles, new lighting, and then during the course of the school year the second half of the third floor was completed the same way.”
Murray said that there is much more mechanical work being done to the school this summer, mainly with the air handlers and cooling tower, which keep the whole building cool, along with replacing the original windows in all of the stairwells, and a new ceiling in the cafeteria.
“The A Building renovations will be completed by the time school starts,” said Murray. “The project that will continue into the fall is the renovation of the library. There will be a new entrance to the library, so you won’t have to enter through a stairwell, and then the final classrooms on the third floor along with the boys and girls bathrooms.”
The renovations at Grosse Pointe North are a part of a $114 million bond issue that was passed by voters in 2018 to update the buildings in the district.
With these renovations came another major change at Grosse Pointe North. The relocation of the Grosse Pointe Public Schools Central Administration offices from 389 St. Clair Ave. to Grosse Pointe North.
Superintendent Jon Dean said that with declining enrollment at Grosse Pointe North, space became available at the school for the Central Administration offices, and the district used the money from the sale of the old building to fund the renovation of what used to be the counseling center at Grosse Pointe North.
“We were looking for ways to be more efficient,” said Dean. “We were at 389 St. Clair, and that was an old school building, it was the first Grosse Pointe school building, built around 1910.”
Dean said the original Central Administration building was reconfigured to hold the offices of 60 people, when there were only about 30 working in the building. That along with the cost of utilities for such a large building were not ideal, so they were able to move their offices to the space at Grosse Pointe North in November 2021.
“It allows us to be more visible,” said Dean. “I like being around the kids and interacting with them. Being in the building is an upside, but a downside is being here makes interacting with North easier, but it can create some feelings in the other schools, so we have to make sure to spend a lot of time at other places so it doesn’t feel like we’re spending all our time here.”
Dean said he is excited about the renovations being done to Grosse Pointe North and that there are $250 million worth of upgrades and repairs to be done throughout the district in the future.