The Chelsea School District (CSD) plan to reopen Pierce Lake Elementary School is happening with some programming expected to begin this summer there as well as a community open house.

CSD Superintendent Michael Kapolka updated the school board and community at the July 22 CSD Board of Education meeting.

Kapolka said they have completed the licensing process and have obtained an occupancy permit, and they have started to move in. A soft opening was held recently with Camp GABIKA, which is a Chelsea Community Education Summer Camp: GABIKA: Grand Activities with Bold Imagination and Kinship in Adventure, where outstanding staff lead campers through a summer of fun engaging activities and games.

It was announced this past April the district has a plan to reopen Pierce Lake Elementary as the Early Childhood Center for Fall 2024. Phase one of the project involved updating the building’s infrastructure to meet current standards. Kapolka said there are still some pieces to wrap up, such as graphics, painting and getting the rooms in order, but things are close.

So much so that on July 29, the district is opening the Early Childhood Special Education classroom there. Kapolka said it will be exciting to have some programming in there this summer.

He said it’s been a lot of work, but they’re excited.

A community house is also being planned, but there is no date just yet. It’s expected it will not interfere with the traditional open house where parents will meet with teachers.

This would be a community open house, where Kapolka said community members, school board members, former students and parents can come back into Pierce Lake and check the space out.

He said this reopening has probably been on the minds of many in the community for the past decade.

Opened in 1997, Pierce Lake was originally a building for kindergarten through fifth-grade, and then over time it transitioned into a school for third and fourth graders. It closed in 2010, as the school district was wrestling with budget challenges paired with a period of declining student enrollment.

It’s expected the district will soon announce an even more detailed update, including an open house date, in the coming weeks.