The Michigan Department of Treasury is conducting a review of the facilities owned by Benton Harbor Area Schools. At Tuesday’s board of education meeting, Trustee Patricia Rush said accounting firm Plante and Moran was to start evaluating the buildings this week.
“The decision of the Treasury was to focus on unoccupied schools, and possibly a few schools that could be reopened if were were able to increase our student population,” Rush said.
Rush said the district owns many unused buildings that would be expensive to get back into service, and for now, they’re not part of the evaluation. A question may be how much it would cost to get those vacant buildings back online. The inspections of the occupied buildings were to begin at the high school Wednesday morning, and they come as part of the Community Engagement and Advisory Committee’s assessment of the school district. It’s going to examine the needs for repairs at the district’s ten buildings that are currently in use. The facilities evaluation will be done by the end of the month.
