FLINT, Mich. — The Flint Board of Education has accepted a $750,000 grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to kickstart redevelopment plans for Flint Central High School.
During its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, the board unanimously approved the grant to help revitalize the historic campus at 601 Crapo St.
“Flint families and community members will have a voice in this process, just as they did with the Brownell STEM Academy and Holmes STEM Middle School Academy campus planning,” stated Flint Board of Education President Joyce Ellis-McNeal in a Feb. 20, 2025 press release.
The grant will fund the project’s design and planning phase, incorporating community input and exploring the preservation of original design elements.
“This investment underscores our commitment to creating a modern educational facility that reflects the excellence and resilience of Flint scholars,” Superintendent Kevelin Jones said. “This new school will provide opportunities for innovation, academic growth and community engagement for generations to come.”
Jones confirmed that while discussions are underway about preserving some original design elements for nostalgia, the building will ultimately be new, pending community and board approval.
Beginning in March 2025, a two-month programming phase will involve a series of discussions with the surrounding community to gather input on goals and space requirements. The Flint Center for Educational Excellence will help facilitate this stage of the planning process.
Once the Programming Phase is complete, the project will move into the schematic design phase, which will focus on site analysis, preliminary building layouts and conceptual renderings.
The Flint Central High School project follows the multi-million dollar renovation of the Brownell-Holmes STEM campuses on the city’s north side.
“A new high school is a direct investment in Flint and a direct investment into Flint youth,” said Carma Lewis of Flint Neighborhoods United.
Flint Central High School closed in 2009 due to districtwide budget cuts, high cost of maintenance and declining enrollment. After more than a decade of school closures, Southwestern Classical Academy is the last operating high school in the district for 464 remaining high school students.
This is not the first time Flint Schools has considered redeveloping the high school. After the building closed, school officials estimated renovations would cost $27 million.
In 2016, the district developed renderings for a new high school and middle school, an estimated $78.5 million project that was eventually dropped.
More recently, in 2021, the district discussed selling and redeveloping the 22 abandoned school properties with one development firm proposing to repurpose it into a mixed-use development.
For updates on the Flint Central High School project, visit www.flintschools.org.