Flint, MI—The Flint Board of Education is set to vote on the demolition of the Central High School-Whittier Classical Academy campus on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022.
In an Oct. 11 press release, Lambert, the public relations team for Flint Community Schools, stated the vote represents “an ongoing effort to review” the school system’s “owned and for-sale buildings.”
The Central-Whittier campus was closed in 2009 due to low enrollment and the Flint school system’s financial hardships, and its fate has been debated ever since.
As Flint Beat previously reported, just after the buildings’ closure, school officials said they hoped to reopen Flint Central High with a proposed $27 million renovation. In 2016, the district commissioned Flint-based THA Architects Engineers to develop renderings for a new high school and middle school, an estimated $78.5 million project, and in February 2021, a developer calling itself the Harvard Group also reached out to the school board about redeveloping the campus.
At the time, Ian Shetron, a partner in the Harvard Group, shared plans to turn the 28.5 acre site into a mixed-use development and later said he’d received permission to do an engineering study before Board President Carol McIntosh informed him the campus was not for sale.
When the development group first reached out, Shetron noted there was an urgent need to complete any potential renovations due to the poor state of the properties.
“Right now, Flint Central-Whittier is deteriorating, and it’s deteriorating pretty fast,” Shetron had said. “Soon there won’t be any option. The only option will be demolition. So, we’re trying to come in before that is inevitable.”
The vote on whether to demolish Central High School and Whittier Classical Academy will take place during the school board’s Committee of the Whole Meeting tonight, Oct. 12, at 6:30 p.m.
The meeting will take place in the Accelerated Learning Academy Auditorium, located at 1602 S. Averill Ave. in Flint, Mich.