Brighton board advances bond planning after parents, teachers urge major performing-arts investment

Brighton Area Schools trustees directed district staff to continue planning a potential bond measure and to begin lining up design and construction advisers after dozens of parents, students and teachers urged the board to fund expanded music and performing-arts facilities.

Speakers at the board’s public-comment period asked the board to include a dedicated band room, orchestra room with climate-controlled storage for instruments, a choir room and a 250–300-seat black-box theater adjacent to the Brighton Center for the Performing Arts (BCPA). They said existing classrooms are overcrowded, lack adequate storage and produce poor acoustics, which limits student participation and causes instrument damage.

The requests came from parents and program leaders across Brighton Area Schools. Sid Atkin, choir booster president, told the board, “Our music students deserve more than adequacy, they deserve excellence.” Jennifer Evans, Scranton Middle School band and orchestra director, said the district’s secondary music teachers are “stretched thin” and called for updated facilities, instrument storage and additional staffing. Catherine Atkin, a Brighton High School parent, asked the board to hire a full-time music teacher for Scranton Middle School so BHS choir teacher Phil Johnson can teach full time at the high school.

Why it matters: speakers said a comprehensive facility would serve large numbers of students and community users, reduce wear and tear on school-owned instruments, and free the BCPA for revenue-generating rentals and larger events. Parents and booster leaders suggested that smaller on-campus performance spaces could displace some events now scheduled at the BCPA and help its fiscal picture.

District and board planning details: the board discussed two technical routes for a bond. A “state-qualified” bond application requires more-accelerated deadlines and review, while the district could also sell bonds directly without state qualification and use a longer timetable. District staff said, without a final route chosen, key calendar dates include a decision on the application language and election timing by Aug. 11 for a November ballot and that a state-qualified application would effectively need most materials ready “basically the first week in July” to meet required windows.

Board direction: trustees asked each member to send the superintendent a prioritized list of projects the member would support, would consider, or would oppose, so administration can focus cost estimates and feasibility work. The board discussed creating an ad hoc committee or using standing committees to run interviews and select an architect and a construction manager to develop detailed cost estimates and the application language. Members also signaled they may call a special meeting in June for finalist interviews and to approve procurement if the board decides to pursue a November election.

Support and staffing concerns: several speakers and teachers emphasized staffing as well as space. Michelle Holowicki, a social-studies teacher and founding member of Brighton Musical Theatre, warned that if the district did not add staff, “If we lose Phil, we would lose the beating heart of this program.” Multiple commenters said AP Music Theory and other courses are offered inconsistently because teacher time is split between buildings.

Costs and next steps: the board agreed administration should obtain cost estimates for lead items and clarify which projects are bond-eligible versus those that should be funded from the district’s capital projects fund. Trustees referenced past bond consultant relationships (architectural and construction managers used on earlier bond efforts) as precedents and asked staff to begin interviews and planning so the district can meet whichever calendar the board ultimately chooses.

What’s next: trustees asked for member priorities to be returned to the superintendent within a week and said they will schedule further committee work and potentially a special meeting in June to approve procurement of a construction manager and architect if the board wishes to pursue a November vote.