Efficiencies Case Study: Lansing School District
The Challenge
Lansing School District serves over 10,000 preK-12 students across 25 buildings. Facing a 9.2% enrollment decline since 2018, a shrinking population and a decreasing tax base, Lansing School District sought ways to maintain educational excellence. Strategic consolidation was identified as a key solution, but the costs exceeded the district’s available funds.
Support from Launch Michigan
After learning more about Lansing School District’s in-district consolidation plans, Launch Michigan worked diligently to assist the district in accessing these funds and provided technical assistance, including:
11x Efficiency Study Funds: Lansing School District was unaware of the 11x and 12c efficiency grants until Launch Michigan connected them. Our team worked together with the district to apply for these funds to conduct the necessary consolidation study.
Timely Notification: Launch Michigan quickly informed Lansing School District of 12c funding criteria and guided them through the application process.
Liaison with MDE: Launch Michigan acted as a communication link between the district and the Michigan Department of Education for both the 11x and 12c applications.
The Results
Recently, Lansing School District was notified that they will receive $24.5 million for facility updates and consolidation through the 12c implementation grant. Specifically, these funds will be used to provide facility upgrades to four buildings that will allow for the consolidation of students within the district and to upgrade several health and safety aspects of the buildings, such as improving air quality and updating secure entry systems. This work is projected to result in $3.84 million in yearly savings for the district to reinvest in students.
Conclusion
Increasing awareness and use of this program is of the utmost importance as school districts face increasing challenges and limited resources. Funds in 11x and 12c have been appropriated in the state budget for several years, but the dollars remain unspent because districts don’t know about them or how to apply.
Launch Michigan has demonstrated its ability to proactively work with districts to deploy these dollars and can support more districts if given a formal technical assistance role and funding to build more capacity.
