Reconstructed DeKeyser Elementary shows changes coming to 2 more schools

STERLING HEIGHTS/UTICA/SHELBY TOWNSHIP — As the newly reconstructed DeKeyser Elementary School was ready to welcome students back, Utica Community Schools held a ribbon cutting and open house Sunday, Aug. 24, and a media preview a few days earlier, to showcase the completed project, which is the first of similar reconstruction projects planned for two more elementary schools in the district.

DeKeyser Elementary opened in 1971 with an open-school design, meaning the school did not have classroom walls or doors.

After the passing of a $550 million bond issue in May 2023, school officials wanted to update the school in terms of safety, more collaborative learning communities, technology upgrades, new playground equipment, lighting and furniture, and diverse spatial uses. The DeKeyser Elementary reconstruction cost approximately $32 million.

“I think when we set out to do a major emphasis for the district, this 2023 bond issue, there was an emphasis around what do we want to see happen with transformation in our facilities,” UCS Superintendent Robert S. Monroe said. “That was also a big part of what the Board of Education pushed forward when they requested me to start a strategic plan for the school district over the next five years, and that strategic plan, it called for creative ways for instructing our students today but also looking at how we can transform our facilities to better leverage that instruction for today’s learners, but also for tomorrow’s learners as well.”

In terms of safety, doors and classroom walls were added to the formerly open-concept facility, and the doors include safety locks in classrooms and impact- and shatter-resistant glass. Other safety features include a buzzer system for visitors and a new audio-visual system, which can send immediate alerts to the school office in the event of an emergency.

“We have the ability to lock down every area within the building with a push of a button in the office, but the technology also allows our teachers to shut down,” DeKeyser Principal Shannon Hathcock said. “So, if there was something that were to happen in this end of the building, our teachers can put the building into a complete lockdown just by the push of their fingers on their lanyards, which is an amazing safety feature.”

While the school has separate classrooms, different grade levels will also have shared spaces that intend to promote collaboration and flexibility among students and staff. This is also evident in the school’s furniture, much of which can be moved around as educators see fit.

“You’ll notice that there are no name tags on these (desks) because really, we’re not assigning a seat to a student like you would see back when we went to school,” Hathcock said. “These chairs are meant to be very flexible for different purposes, different reasons . . . So our teacher desk is also very condensed . . . and we have movable workstations that our teachers are excited about.”

The updated classroom technology is a new audio-visual system, which includes a projection system, a document camera and a lanyard microphone that can be used to amplify voices or alert the main office in emergency situations. All DeKeyser classrooms are included in this upgraded system.

Other DeKeyser Elementary School updates include a new playground, a cafeteria/gym that is separated by a retractable wall, and a buried geothermal energy system.

“The students are very excited to come in and see their new (playground) equipment,” Hathcock said. “It’s divided in two sections, so we’ll have two different grade levels outside, divided by some great sensory options down the middle.”

DeKeyser is the first of three UCS elementary schools that are currently scheduled for reconstruction. Over the next two years, both Graebner Elementary and Havel Elementary, which were built with similar open-school concepts, will be completely reconstructed to reflect the new building design.

“Each building will be a little unique, have very similar attributes but kind of the visuals, it’s own style,” Monroe said. “It will have its own, you know, branding for its community of learners, which is exciting because in Utica Schools we probably have four or five different models of elementary schools for our 25 different elementary schools. The goal is to keep it Utica but, at the same time, give each community their own something that they can embrace and call their own.”

For more information, visit uticak12.org.