A $750,000, summerlong remodel and retrofit of Suttons Bay Public Schools’ (SBPS) former two-story elementary building will allow — for the first time — a specialized, standalone middle school to welcome students grades 6th through 8th to campus next fall.

This investment coincides with the launch of an all-new middle school curriculum model designed “to do the very best it can for the social, emotional, and educational needs of an adolescent-age kid,” says SBPS Superintendent Casey Petz.

Petz says the idea has been incubating among teachers and students for years. “Ask any teacher in Suttons Bay and they will tell you how necessary this investment in our students is to address the significant and urgent needs of our kids as they grow into young adults.”

Among the biggest concerns, explains SBPS Middle School and High School Principal Andy Melius: With a combined middle and high school, everything — from schedules, electives, shared staff and services — “has traditionally been aligned and timed with the high schoolers’ needs academically.”

Melius adds, “When you have 6th graders starting in with 12th graders, kids are landing quite a bit away from their comfort zone. They leave elementary blossoming and figuring out who they are. We knew that immediately immersing them in this middle school/high school building with older students — who are pushing the boundaries as they define who they are — they were not getting a great experience. We knew we could do better.”

Now the focus will be entirely on middle schoolers’ unique needs, says Melius. For starters, the new middle school building is being reconfigured with open common areas for students to engage with peers and get the support of teachers outside of the classroom proper.

Bekah TenBrink, director of Leelanau Investing For Teens (LIFT) in Suttons Bay, believes this shift alone will be a positive change for students, after seeing the success of LIFT’s teen center and after-school mentor program, founded four years ago. She says young people from rural communities in particular can feel the lack of a dedicated space where they can be themselves. “Our program is passionate about making sure teens know they are seen, loved and belong. Not only are they coming to a building, but that building is filled with engaged mentors that are excited to see them each week.”

Similarly, says TenBrink, SBPS’s “updated space and floor plan will help to centralize the middle school and help the middle school students to feel like they have a place to belong.”

Moreover, with LIFT mentoring both middle schoolers and high schoolers, TenBrink says, “We learned in our early years that they needed to be separate programs. High school and middle school students are at very different maturity levels. Setting high school and middle school students apart allows for ample room for the student to grow into themselves at a natural rate.”

In addition to its own building, SBPS middle school will now have a dedicated staff “which understands and specializes in that age group, so we can push them just past their comfort zone,” says Melius. Four core middle school teachers for math, science, English language arts, and social studies “will focus 100 percent of their day teaching our middle school students.”

The district is hiring a dedicated epecial education teacher and a full-time social worker/counselor — also just for the middle school. 

Addressing students’ mental health and emotional needs was another of “the most pressing concerns,” Petz says, noting that the milestones for brain development in middle school-age children are “as transformative as they are for young children 0 to 6. Equally amazing — although sometimes not so much fun for parents— are those adolescent years where brain chemistry is the key factor in brain development. We are really focused on designing learning around that.”

Melius says that includes exploratory classes, which will lean into the new middle school staff’s own passions and areas of expertise. “The hope is to have STEM and robotics options, cooking, sewing, public speaking, creative writing, outdoor education opportunities, and experiential learning within the community and village,” he says. “It’s just a quick walk downtown.”

Petz says, “In a small rural school, this team approach and focus on just middle school students is no easy task to implement, but we are confident in our plan to make this happen.”

He adds that this is a significant investment in SBPS’s facilities and systems. “All in, we will spend roughly $750,000 of our bond/sinking fund dollars to renovate and retrofit the two-story building for the middle school model.” He notes that these are not the general fund dollars reserved for expenditures on teacher/staff salaries, curriculum, student support, and operations.

SBPS middle school enrollment is also undergoing shifts and changes, with new interest and families “coming back to the district,” says Melius. Currently the district expects 25 to 33 students in each middle school grade level, or 75 to 80 kids total.

The district hosts an open house on Monday (May 24) to share news of the new middle school model with current and prospective students and their families. 

Pictured: Current middle school students in the soon-to-be-renovated middle school space, by Shelagh Fehrenbach, (current elementary principal and also soon-to-be middle school principal) at Suttons Bay Public Schools