KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Kalamazoo Public Schools officials say building a new El Sol Elementary in the Vine neighborhood where the school has been located is not going to work.
Parents learned that at the three sessions that were held Monday by KPS as they try to figure out if they will build the new school at the corner of Oak and Vine streets where it currently is located or on Baker Street on the East Side where Brucker Elementary was until it was torn down in the 1980s.
The district wants to build a 75,000 square foot school but at the current location, it would have some classrooms opening into the parking lot and have the smallest playground in KPS.
Parents say they feel they were duped into supporting the 2022 bond that will pay for the building because they were told El Sol would remain in the Vine Neighborhood.
Several suggested building a school for pre-kindergarten through second or third grades in the Vine Neighborhood if they build a new El Sol on Baker.
Facilities director Karen Jackson says they had not considered that, but says it might be possible.
The building that houses El Sol Elementary is 100 years old and officials say it needs to be replaced.
Residents say without El Sol, the area would revert to becoming an “early education desert” again as it was before the school opened in 2008.
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