East Lansing Voters Strongly Support Ingham ISD Bond, as Nearly $100 M Bond Approved in Special Election
Ingham Intermediate School District will be getting a $99,960,000 bond proposal to reconstruct and renovate its special education buildings, which serve 12 area school districts, after the majority of county voters approved the measure in a special election Tuesday.
About 55% of Ingham County voters favored the bond proposal in the May 5 election, which saw a turnout of about 19% county-wide. The proposal passed with about 54% in favor overall, as the school district boundaries are slightly different than the county boundaries.
East Lansing voters were more supportive of the bond than surrounding areas, as more than 70% of the 3,828 votes from East Lansing precincts were in favor of the bond.
The bond, which will levy a property tax of 55 cents for each $1,000 of taxable value in its first year, will be used to replace the Beekman Center in Lansing and renovate Heartwood School in Mason.
Voters have entrusted Ingham Intermediate School District, or Ingham ISD, to deliver quality and equitable opportunities for students utilizing special education resources and now it’s the district’s job to see that vision through, Ingham ISD Superintendent Jason Mellema told East Lansing Info after the election.
The hope is to start construction on a new building to replace the more than 50-year-old Beekman Center by Fall of 2027, Mellema said, and for construction to finish in two years. Renovations to Heartwood School would follow.
Right now, especially with the Beekman Center, which was constructed prior to modern special education and accessibility mandates, Mellema said students aren’t able to benefit from the full breadth of resources Ingham ISD would like to offer. Tight classroom spaces, narrow door frames, crumbling ceiling tiles, a less than wheelchair-friendly bus dropoff and an inoperable pool are some of the barriers the Beekman Center currently has to serving its students.
“I’m grateful to our community that they are trusting us with this opportunity, and I’m excited about what this means and how this is going to impact kids in the future … just being able to say thank you is a big thing,” Mellema said.
Throughout the process of reaching out to local districts and voters to share the stories of students and families whose lives have been changed by their experiences at Beekman and Heartwood, Mellema said it was a positive experience to let people know about another side of education in the area.
It’s a small number of students in the county that are served between the Beekman Center and Heartwood School, Mellema told ELi leading up to the election, about 240 students between the ages 3 to 26. But it’s very telling of the worldview of equity and community within Ingham County that voters would have a positive reaction to a bond proposal that seeks to create opportunities for students that can often be overlooked in education, he said.
When the Beekman Center was first constructed, it was a facility that was considered the first of its kind, Mellema said, operating years before federal requirements mandated special education programming. And now that the Beekman Center building has outlived its usability, Ingham ISD looks forward to construction of new infrastructure to maintain that legacy of breaking ground on new opportunities for all students to have the best future they can.