ROCKFORD, Mich. — Rockford Public Schools plans to give North Rockford Middle School some major upgrades.
“Adding for additional capacity as we experienced growth throughout the district,” Mike Cuneo, RPS assistant superintendent of finance, explained to FOX 17 Friday. “The other things is, then there’s the addition of the orchestra room.”
North Rockford Middle School will add several new classrooms, renovate 18 existing classrooms and add 3,000 square feet to the orchestra room.
In total, the district is adding about 10,000 square feet to the building.
“This is going to benefit the children’s teaching and learning environment and allows us to provide for the growth that we anticipate for the district in the future,” Cuneo added.
Voters approved an RPS bond proposal back in 2019— which includes this project.
“The bond…initiative was to spread this over a ten-year period with the issues of three separate series of bonds up to the 174 million, not to exceed it,” Cuneo added. “It’s been approved. Prices have been locked in and we feel confident that we’ll be able to meet whatever unforeseen contingency that would come up with allowances that we have in that building.”
The district plans to start with construction on the addition. Classes will be moved to the addition while renovations are completed on the other classrooms.
Work is expected to start this summer. The district hopes to complete the project by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
