Seven Michigan Charter Schools Located in Buildings You Wouldn’t Expect

When it comes to finding safe and suitable facilities, charter schools are often forced to think outside the box.

For starters, unlike traditional public schools, charter schools don’t receive or have access to any additional taxpayer money for their buildings. They’re forced to pay for everything out of their per-pupil funding.

On top of that, traditional public schools usually don’t want to give charter schools access to their unused buildings, and in some cases, they’ll even demolish a perfectly good building just so a charter school won’t get it.

So while most charter schools in Michigan are located in buildings that were originally designed to be schools, some are not. With that in mind, here’s a look at Seven Michigan Charter Schools Located in Buildings You Wouldn’t Expect:

Benton Harbor Charter School Academy – Located in an old Kmart store

When Benton Harbor’s only Kmart store closed in 1983, it devastated a good portion of the community that loved the Blue Light specials and other deals. The building sat empty for more than a decade, until a new public school academy called the Benton Harbor Charter School Academy started looking for a suitable location.

The charter school acquired the old Kmart building and then spent millions renovating it into a suitable school facility. When you pull up to the school these days, you can definitely tell that it used to be a department store, with its enormous parking lot out front.

Black River Public School, Holland – Located in an old furnace factory

Throughout the country, you see a lot of old urban brick factories that have been renovated into office space or apartments. In Holland, you’ll find an old factory that is now a charter school.

The Holland Furnace Company building was built in downtown Holland in 1930, and the architecture was beautiful, with an art deco entryway filled with beautiful marble. The factory churned out furnaces for decades. It was sold to the BASF Corporation in 1965 but then closed a few years later and sat vacant for decades.

In 1999, Black River Public School, a K-12 charter in Holland, acquired the building and turned it into a school. The beautiful art deco entryway was preserved, and the school is now one of the most beautiful in the state.

FlexTech High School, Brighton – Located in an old conference center

When the Genoa Woods Conference Center opened in 1997 in Genoa Township, just outside Brighton, it became one of the premiere facilities in Livingston County. It hosted dinners for the chamber of commerce, fundraisers for community groups, wedding receptions and more.

In 2011, though, the conference center closed. It didn’t sit empty very long, as FlexTech High School, a new charter high school authorized by Central Michigan University, opened its doors. The building was in excellent shape, so it only required minimal retrofitting. The school was so successful that a few years later, FlexTech built an addition onto the building.

Lake Superior Academy, Sault Ste. Marie – Located in an old restaurant

When Lake Superior Academy, a Montessori charter school, was looking to open in 2016, there were few options when it came to finding a suitable facility. Looking outside the box, the school founders ended up finding a great location just south of town – a former log cabin-style restaurant located just off I-75.

It was formerly called the Rustic Grill, and it required a fair amount of renovation to become an elementary charter school. The dining room became a classroom, and the school has been thriving ever since.

Charyl Stockwell Academy, Brighton and Hartland – Located in an old auto engineering facility, medical office and container shipping company

This one is a triple whammy. Charyl Stockwell Academy and its middle/high school, Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy, are located on three campuses in Hartland and Brighton. None of the three locations was originally built to be a school.

When the elementary school opened in 1996 as the Livingston Developmental Academy, it was located in the former Genei Inc. building in Hartland, a shipping container company. When the school expanded a decade or so later to include a middle and high school, it was located in a former auto-engineering plant in Brighton. The huge garage doors they used to need to bring the cars in and out are still there.

Then when the middle school expanded a few years ago into its own facility, it moved into some former doctor and dentist offices across the street.

Woodland School, Traverse City – Located at an old recovery center retreat

The biggest charter school campus in the state can be found just south of Traverse City, where the Woodland School sits on 250 gorgeous acres of woods, trails, ponds, streams and more.

When the facility was first built in 1982, though, it was the Williamsburg Recovery Center, a treatment facility for people suffering from chemical dependency. It served that purpose until 1992, when the facility closed and moved its operations to a few nearby hospitals. The property sat vacant until 1996, when the Woodland School acquired the land and the buildings and turned it into one of Michigan’s most beautiful charter schools.

Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Detroit – Soon to be located in an old hospital

The current Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a charter high school, opened in 2011 in an old elementary school. They’ve done their best to make it work as a high school, but elementary schools and high schools don’t work the same.

The Jalen Rose Leadership Academy made big news earlier this year, then, when it was announced that the school will soon be moving to the former Henry Ford Hospital in Royal Oak Township. Renovation work will begin immediately, but it’ll take a couple years to get the building ready for a high school. It’s slated to open in the fall of 2027.

MAPSA and Michigan’s charter school community continue to advocate for equity when it comes to funding for facilities, in the meantime, we celebrate charter schools innovative approach in creating outstanding learning environments.