Davis Middle School sports a new LED sign after maintenance staff finished installing it Oct. 30, causing an uproar on social media as it replaced the historic stone sign.
Hillsdale public schools are switching out its build- ings’ signs with electronic ones that will display school and community events. In addition to Davis Middle School, the Bailey Early Childhood Center also re- placed its sign. The Davis Middle School Board is still deciding how best to pre- serve the school’s old stone label.
“The electronic signs al- low us to provide timely information to students, to parents, and to community members, which is a prior- ity for our school district: to communicate effectively with it,” Hillsdale Commu- nity Schools Superintendent Shawn Vondra said. “I’ve heard mostly positive things. People are looking forward to it.”
Each new sign costs $9,800. The building site and development budget, which funds changes to infrastruture, paid for the upgrade. Half the costs, however, came from fundraising done by the school’s parent-teacher organization.
“I’m aware of some things on social media and Face- book people have asked, ‘Why didn’t you use this to buy math books? Why didn’t you use this to buy some other things?’” Vondra said. “When you have a building site and development fund, there’s a list of things you can do with those funds that are approved and acceptable by the state of Michigan. The signs are one of those things.”
Other complaints on so- cial media included a desire to integrate the historical stone sign, which dates back to the ’60s, into another area of the school grounds to match the school building, which was built in 1929.
“What I wished they would have done is take down the old sign and used those materials to create a new façade around the new sign to help it blend in,” said Hillsdale resident James Al- lion, who attended Davis in the ’70s.
Allion suggested install- ing the sign on a different spot of the school’s property. However, he thinks provid- ing notice of events hosted by the school and district will benefit the community.
“It’s a very neat way to keep the public informed of what’s going on in the school system,” Allion said.
To preserve the history of the building, Vondra said the board hopes to find another place on the school’s campus to repurpose the stone sign. For now, however, it remains in storage.
Although the new sign is electronic, Vondra said it will not burden the school’s budget because it does not use much energy.
“The new sign will be a valuable communication tool for the school and school district,” Davis Middle School Principal Erin North told the Collegian in an email. “We are excited to start using it soon.”