It takes a long time to plan $18.3 million worth of school bond projects.

That’s the key takeaway from a conversation with Suttons Bay Public Schools (SBPS) Superintendent Casey Petz. While it’s already been more than a year since voters approved an eight-figure bond proposal intended to “right-size” the district by removing unused space, most of those projects are still nearly a year off. While locals won’t see “shovels in the ground” around campus for a while yet, though, Petz tells the Leelanau Ticker that this summer has seen considerable “preliminary work behind the scenes” to get the district ready for a few very busy years.

The $18.3 million bond, which local voters passed by a comfortable 776-to-628 margin in May 2024, will involve replacing or upgrading boilers, roofs, windows, and other infrastructure, along with improving security, and building a new all-purpose gym. Perhaps the biggest part of the project is the removal of some 55,000 square feet of under-utilized building space, including the dated "north wing." Student enrollment at SBPS has dwindled by about 50 percent over the past two decades.

Petz says “design and development work” is still underway on most of the projects, with the district eyeing an October or November “information night” for the community to come to campus, review the plans and provide feedback. Bond work will then begin in earnest next year, starting with “relocating and onlining our new boiler system that serves about two-thirds of our campus,” Petz says.

“The first major projects that will be visible from the outside looking in will start in the mid-to-late spring of 2026,” Petz tells the Leelanau Ticker. “So, we’re actually not that far away. We're inside of 12 months, at this point, for when we expect some of this work to to begin. And then all the big stuff really starts to kick off as we get into the summer of ‘26 and fall of ‘26. That next year is going to be very busy on campus.”

Petz says SBPS staff has taken advantage of the summer break to get started on legwork necessary to get campus ready for its makeover. One important bit of behind-the-scenes work now underway? “Emptying out the north wing.”

Some of the stuff recovered from the north wing, Petz notes, will go to “scrap recycling,” which could put some extra money in the district’s coffers. “There's a good amount of steel in there that we're essentially pulling apart and piling up for a scrap metal, because we can sell that,” he says. Beyond obviously valuable materials, though, Petz says there are many things in the building that may have “emotional attachment” for alumni.

“People have asked about the gym floor. They have asked about scoreboards and basketball hoops. They've asked about lockers, cabinetry, and desks,” Petz says. “We know that there are people out there that want repurpose some of these materials, and we're trying to be mindful of that when we take the north wing down. So, we’ll eventually select a period of time where we can get everything piled up in a part of the campus – probably the middle school gym –and then we’ll say, ‘Here's what's available. Come in and make an offer.’ It would be run as a district fundraiser, and whatever money we raise would go toward funding programming and supporting our students.”

Also on the brain this summer at SBPS: the district’s sports facilities. In June, the district closed on the sale of 9.5 acres of land to Peninsula Housing – land that serves as athletic fields. Under that deal, Peninsula Housing is leasing the land back to SBPS for three years, which Petz calls “a nice transitional buffer” that will allow the district “to utilize the fields over the course of the next three years, while we relocate our fields, update our facilities, and complete our construction projects.”

Petz also says the SBPS high school gym received a “major refresh” this summer, to prepare for when the district removes the middle school gym to build a more modern, energy-efficient replacement.

“We redid our scoreboards and and upgraded to a different electronic management system of how we're keeping score for volleyball and basketball. We replaced the back wall, because there was some damage there. We refinished the floor. We ordered all new seats for home and away,” Petz says of the high school gym renovation. 

The overall goal of all this preparation, Petz says, is to make the years of bond work as seamless and non-intrusive to students and staff as possible.

“That’s the good news: Most of the bond projects won’t be terribly disruptive for how we operate the school, because we’re not putting things up; we’re taking things down,” Petz says.