By Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com


At the Brighton Board of Education meeting Monday night, Supt. Greg Gray said that school officials have conferred with their financial advisers in performing the district’s required “due diligence” on the $59 million bond issue passed last fall.

Due diligence is defined as “a comprehensive appraisal of a business, especially to establish its assets and liabilities and evaluate its commercial potential,” in this case, its reliability in paying back the interest on the bonds. Gray says the interest rates have recently increased by one-half per cent but continue to be favorable, and he anticipates no delay in conducting the bond sale sometime in May. He says the COVID-19 pandemic “could set construction back a bit,” but that won’t matter because he was anticipating a light construction schedule this summer regardless. Gray says the majority of construction will be taking place during the summers of 2021 and ’22.

Improvements to district schools with implementation of the bond issue include a new STEAM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math center at the high school, plus STEAM classroom renovations throughout district schools, a new multi-purpose facility that can be used for athletics and other activities, parking lot and roof replacements, new HVAC units at the high school and many other upgrades.