Walled Lake School Board Approves Sale of Maple Site in West Bloomfield

The former Maple Elementary School in West Bloomfield, closed in June of 2012, will soon become a housing development.

The Walled Lake Schools Board of Education approved the sale of the property to M. Shapiro Development Company, for Pinnacle Homes of Michigan, at its regular November Board meeting. The board accepted the company's offer of $725,000. 
 
“Upon closing two elementary schools, we shared with the community that we would work diligently to sell the former property of both Maple and Twin Beach Elementary Schools to residential developers who plan to build single-family homes that would ultimately bring children into the District," Superintendent Kenneth Gutman said. "The sale of the Maple site to Pinnacle Homes meets this goal.”
 
Gutman said funds will be deposited into the District fund equity, which has been dwindling as a result of declining revenues from the state.
 
Closing the schools was part of the district's efforts to reduce costs, to the tune of $44,601,823 over the past decade. Measures have included: 

• 26 percent staff reduction
• privatizing both transportation and custodial services
• negotiating more than $5 million in employee concessions
• participating in cost-saving partnerships