The new Sheiko Elementary in West Bloomfield Township stands two stories tall, its grand front entrance coming to a point at the center of the building. Two wings, still under construction, extend in either direction.
The project involved tearing down the former Sheiko and building anew. The previous facility was nearly 70 years old and needed significant previous investments just to “bridge the gap for maintaining a safe and appropriate learning environment for students and staff,” the district’s website says.
The only reason the district was able to do the project? The community’s voters approved a $148 million bond issue in 2023.
Michigan school districts with aging buildings have but one remedy to upgrade or replace older infrastructure: Asking the community to raise property taxes or, in some cases, keeping them at the same level for longer to pay for it.
In the last five years, Metro Detroit districts have increasingly asked for more bond issues with higher price tags. In 2025, districts in Macomb, Wayne and Oakland counties requested 23 bond issues, up from 12 requests in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and 15 in 2024, according to a Detroit News analysis.
The totals show a near doubling of requests over a four-year period, along with the dollar amounts districts are seeking to rebuild or renovate school buildings, saddling taxpayers at the local level and creating inequities between neighboring districts.
“One reason that we are seeing more school bonds is that voters are rejecting them at a higher rate ― and schools then bring them back again at a future election,” said Jarret Skorup, vice president for marketing and communications at the free-market-oriented Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland. “Lawmakers should tighten up the rules on these elections, either by further limiting the dates of these (expensive) elections or requiring a cooling-off period of at least a year or two before pushing another tax increase.”
Bob Dwan, executive director of Michigan School Business Officials, said families with options to move or open-enroll their children in other districts can choose between schools with brand new facilities or ones that struggle to keep 40-year-old boilers running.
“If you had a choice between a low-functioning infrastructure and a brand new infrastructure with all the latest tech and advancements ― it gets really difficult for the district that is unable to secure the funding to enhance their building when the neighbor is able to do that,” Dwan said.
The numbers have climbed higher in recent years, he said, because of construction costs and a higher demand with lower supply, from labor to materials.
“It’s not that they’re doing anything outlandish, it’s just that the dollars don’t buy what it used to, and it costs more,” Dwan said.
Voters reject some proposals
Voters have approved a majority of the asks ― 78% of bond issues have passed in those three counties in the last five years.
In 2022, 59% of Troy Public Schools voters approved the largest bond issue in the last five years, totaling $555 million. Utica Community Schools had the second-largest bond issue in that time, a $550 million request that passed with 69% of the vote.
Rounding out the top five over the last five years in the tri-county area were Novi Community School District’s 2025 request for $425 million, Huron Valley Schools’ ask for $361.3 million, and South Lyon Community Schools’ request for $350 million.
Multiple other districts have passed requests topping $100 million and even $200 million. The asks show no sign of tapering off. The Dearborn Public Schools is considering a bond issue, with infrastructure needs across the district reaching $1.5 billion, according to district studies.
The success rates of recent bond requests around Metro Detroit show a willingness for residents to approve an increase in their taxes to benefit their communities.
But some experts and local superintendents, even in districts where new money was approved, said the system of districts relying on bond issues to renovate and replace aging infrastructure further exacerbates inequities, widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. Districts can’t use their general fund dollars, which are the majority of their funding, for major building projects.
In that same five-year span, voters in three districts ― Almont Community Schools, Armada Area Schools and Lamphere Public Schools ― rejected multiple requests for bond money.
Charter schools, which are independent public schools, can’t request bond issues.
State’s school infrastructure needs top $23B
The systematic fix would be a statewide overhaul, a dedicated funding source for buildings, public school officials said. As of 2023, at least 19 other states had a dedicated funding source for school buildings, according to the Education Commission of the States, an organization that provides support to state policymakers around education issues.
But the need in Michigan is astronomical: $23 billion just to address the basic needs of the state’s existing school buildings, according to a study the Legislature requested last year. That doesn’t include upgrading buildings that were constructed 50, 80 or 100 years ago for 21st-century learning or safety standards.
Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, said that number was a “gut-punch.”
“My stomach sinks, you know, when you think of, where can we raise money, or what can we cut to even put a dent in this infrastructure thing?” Polehanki said.
But as to whether there’s any momentum toward fixing the problem, Polehanki said, “there is no solution right there that I can point to anytime in the near future.”
“There are other ways to raise revenue,” she said. “It’s not always palatable, but sometimes, you know that has to happen.”
But the Mackinac Center doesn’t think a state funding mechanism is needed for school infrastructure. Since revenue from Michigan’s 6% sales tax largely funds the operating costs of the educational system, local districts mostly only have to worry about getting bond issues approved, Skorup said.
“If a local school board can’t get their citizens to support new buildings, why should taxpayers across the state do so?” Skorup asked.
Michigan’s school spending continues to rise, while the results on state tests or the National Assessment of Educational Progress remain flat or declining, he said.
“School boards and superintendents should prioritize these funding increases and spend the money on buildings and equipment if they think it will mean better safety or educational results,” Skorup said.
Superintendents asked to become sales people
Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti is overseeing $700 million in projects across the district, taking advantage of one-time dollars made available during the pandemic. It’s a small fraction of what the district’s needs are, according to a study done in 2019 that listed about $1.5 billion in necessary projects. Seven years later, Vitti said, the number has grown to about $2.1 billion due to rising costs and aging buildings.
Vitti said he wants to show the community the district is being responsible with its existing dollars and hopes the voters will support a future bond issue when they can see the tangible results of new buildings and updated classrooms under the current Facilities Master Plan. He’s already strategizing for when that could happen ― in 2039, when previous bond issues are paid off, and a new bond wouldn’t raise property tax millage rates.
In the current system of funding school construction projects in Michigan, that’s Detroit schools’ only option.
“The way the local millage works is that’s all fungible money,” Vitti said. “You can put it in capital and put in teacher salaries. We’re restricted with general fund, and, you know, we can’t attack this facility issue.”
Northville Superintendent RJ Webber was new to his job in 2023, just as the board was ready to put a bond issue on the ballot.
His new job, he found out, was one part leading the district and one part salesman. He had to sell voters on the vision for how their money would be spent if they approved the bond issue, including additions to existing buildings, programming and technology upgrades, and other infrastructure improvements.
“You’re asking for professional educators, not salespeople, to provide a compelling case as to why a community should invest in its community public schools,” Webber said.
What’s frustrating, Webber said, is that many districts are not asking for the Taj Mahal, but just enough money to meet basic needs.
“I’ve had friends who serve communities that have had to put a full court press on just to get enough money to redo their boilers and their HVAC,” he said. “We’re talking basic ― keeping the roofs from leaking.”
Webber said he doesn’t take it for granted that his community supported the $134 million bond. He just wishes that didn’t have to be the case.
“Every kid in Michigan, and every kid in this country, is worth a high-quality public education,” he said. “There should not be this variability in what kids can experience.”
jpignolet@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Why school bond issues and their price tags are growing in Detroit area
Reporting by Jennifer Pignolet and Ben Warren, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
