ISHPEMING – The Ishpeming school board voted this week to enter into a five-year, $115,000 agreement to lease the ground floor of the former C.L. Phelps School building from the downstate development company the district sold the property to last summer.

Ishpeming Public Schools closed the sale of the former school to G.A. Haan Development of downstate Harbor Springs at the end of June. The property is undergoing considerable renovations as Haan turns the building into Phelps Square Apartments, with 24 residential units for people with low to moderate incomes.

Ishpeming school district voters in May approved the sale of more than $7.8 million in bonds to make sizable upgrades to the Birchview Elementary School and Ishpeming Middle/High School buildings, in part to fulfill the need for added classroom space, a cafeteria and other facilities that was created when the district closed Phelps at the end of 2010.

But district Business Manager Anthony Bertucci said Haan’s letter of intent with the board stipulated that the district “would be a tenant of the building to assist with the development of the Phelps school property.”

Bertucci said the district will use the ground floor, particularly the gymnasium, as a space for various school club team sports and practices to alleviate some of the strain on its other facilities. Though the ground floor is currently gutted and under construction, the district anticipates being able to be using the building by December.

In other action, the board approved giving Bertucci the authority to make day-to-day decisions on the construction under way at Birchview as part of those bond project upgrades, a move that Superintendent John Summerhill said will make work progress more smoothly.

“All of (those decisions go) back to the board and me as well – it’s just to expedite some of that stuff so you don’t have to wait and convene for a meeting,” he said. “So you’re not operating blindly from the board or anybody, (but) as the construction goes there will be decisions that have to be made on an ongoing basis – changes and things like that.”

Contractors broke ground at Birchview on Oct. 13, beginning a project to replace all classroom window shades for increased security and energy efficiency and the building’s lighting fixtures with energy-efficient LEDs, and constructing two new classrooms, two new computer labs and handicap-accessible restrooms.

The board is also looking at bids for work on the middle/high school building, which Summerhill said he anticipates will begin at the end of November or early December. Those renovations include the replacement of windows with new energy-efficient ones that remain historically accurate to the building and an addition on the building’s north side that will house a cafeteria, kitchen area and student commons on the second floor and a wrestling area and fitness center on the first.

Zach Jay can be reached at 906-486-4401. His email address is zjay@miningjournal.net.