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Hundreds of residents urge Ann Arbor Board of Education to pause Thurston Elementary rebuild over flooding, habitat and safety concerns
Summary
Residents and parents at the Feb. 12 board meeting urged trustees to pause or revise plans for the new Thurston Elementary, citing repeated flooding, soil‑stability questions, harm to Thurston Nature Center habitat and student safety during years of adjacent construction. Trustees scheduled a study session to review alternatives and technical reports.
At a Feb. 12 Ann Arbor Board of Education meeting, more than 100 community members urged trustees to pause or revise plans to build a new Thurston Elementary School on a site they say is flood‑prone and ecologically sensitive.
Hundreds of residents signed up to speak during the public‑comment period, which board staff said included 123 speakers; trustees set total public‑comment time at 45 minutes. Multiple residents told the board the district’s current proposal places the new building near Thurston Pond, risks flooding neighboring homes and would damage the Thurston Nature Center.
"Please pause this," said Gabriel Volsacek, identified in the meeting materials as an engineer, who asked the board to locate the new Thurston farther from the pond because prior local fixes had failed to stop flooding. Emily Davis…
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