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January 30, 2026

GLPS Families,

It was certainly another winter weather week, but it was nice to get back into a bit of a routine after Monday. We were still up checking on things early all week, but the weather cooperated just enough to keep us in school. 

For my update this week, I wanted to call your attention to two exciting projects that are underway in the district and that we shared at the board meeting on Monday. The first, the Morris Property, has been a long time coming. In the early 2000’s, farmers Dave and Betty Morris gifted GLPS a roughly 80-acre parcel of land north of Grand Ledge on Grand River Hwy. The gift was conditional on the district building a school building on it that focused on agriculture and natural sciences programming. In accordance with the timeline outlined in the agreement, we have been working on this project through our current bond planning, and we are excited to share that we will break ground on the building in the coming weeks! We are still in the planning phases for programming on the site, but we expect to have PreK-12 agriculture and natural sciences programming available for students starting sometime during the 2026-2027 school year. For more information, including renderings of the building, please take a look at these slides from Monday night’s board meeting.

The second project that we are excited to share is a new life for the original Wacousta school building. As you may recall, we opted not to demolish the building when the new one was built because of cost, and the fact that it is still in great shape. At one point, there was some interest from Watertown Township in the building, but renovations to meet their needs were not cost-effective. So, we took a step back and considered how we can use the space to serve the Wacousta and greater Grand Ledge community. To those ends, we have developed a plan that leases space to community partners and creates permanent homes for GLPS programming. We are in the process of working with the Wacousta Co-Op preschool and the Grand Ledge Area District Library to utilize areas of the building, and we are also looking at providing both our archery and robotics programs with more space to meet their growing needs. We will also use some areas as staff professional learning spaces. Finally, we are exploring the idea of building a career and tech ed (CTE) culinary arts program, which would allow students to learn valuable employability skills in the fields of food service and preparation. Many of our students indicated this is an area of interest in their educational development plans, and we currently do not have opportunities to meet their interests. This entire project is a wonderful example of utilizing community resources to serve the community, and we are excited by the partnerships that it represents. We still have work to do to finalize all of the placements, but we are certainly heading in the right direction. For a proposed map of the layout of the partnerships and additional information, please see these slides from Monday’s board meeting.

Finally, I have been asked a number of times over the past couple of weeks about our policies surrounding federal, state, and local law enforcement when it comes to interacting with students at school. I would like to call your attention to the family message that I sent last year on 1/31/25. While the message is a year old, it still holds true as it is rooted in the mission, vision, and beliefs within our strategic plan, and it speaks directly to our board policies. I encourage you to re-read it, or read it for the first time, in order to understand how GLPS operates. 

That is all I have for this week. As always, I appreciate your support and I am thankful that we have the opportunity to work with you and your children every day. Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm! I am #proudtobeacomet!

Dr. Bill Barnes
Superintendent of Schools