By Harold C. Ford
The February 18, 2026 meeting of the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) featured a revised plan for the long-abandoned Central-Whittier campus that retains more elements of its original architecture; a playground initiative funded by the C. S. Mott Foundation that promises new playgrounds at five Flint elementary schools; and renewed FBOE tensions that resulted in the launch of possible “felony charges.”
Flint Central rebuild
After numerous starts and stops toward reopening the deteriorated Flint Central-Whittier campus – shuttered in 2009 – a revised redesign plan was announced at the FBOE’s Feb. 18 meeting. The plan will preserve a few more elements of the structure’s classic design than announced back in December 2025, including some familiar brick-and-mortar components.
Additionally, multiple firms that will participate in the teardown and rebuild of the campus were confirmed. The targeted date to reopen the campus for students is the fall of 2028. Visible evidence that the project is underway should occur in April 2026 with the installation of a security fence and other preparatory steps.
(Image courtesy Flint Community Schools)
Demolition
As previously announced, the Central and Whittier buildings will largely be razed, except for the tallest portion of Central often referred to as “The Tower.”
“The Tower itself will be preserved,” affirmed Plante Moran’s Valentino Mancini, senior project manager, during a presentation to the Board.
Mancini said The Tower is old, vulnerable, and will need additional support as the structure around it is demolished and removed, while columns, beams, and new walls will ultimately offer support for the five-story feature.
As for the Whittier building, Mancini said: “That will come down in its entirety.”
Demolition targets also include removal of the underground tunnels that still exist beneath the campus, the track area, and many trees – close to 30 by this reporter’s count – based on a schematic map shown during Mancini’s presentation.
Without removal of the trees, Mancini explained, the demolition, excavation, and building phases of the project would be “very, very difficult,” and replanting them is not likely.
Even so, he added that his firm is “planning to save as many trees as we can,” and planting new trees on the property is a possibility. Flint Community Schools (FCS) Superintendent Kevelin Jones also suggested that he and others will walk the property to review which trees are targeted for removal and why.
Preservation
The considerable public outcry regarding the initially-proposed near clean-sweep demolition of Central-Whittier, aside from the campus’s tower, was apparently heeded by school leaders and project managers.
At the Feb. 18 meeting, it was announced that additional elements of the campus will now be preserved, including: a large arch that hovers above a doorway; other limestone arch and leaf pieces; a cupola, or small dome, that currently sits atop one of the roof peaks; metalwork; solid wooden doors; and some plaster detail found in the interior of the building. Further, much of the concrete will be removed, crushed, and used as backfill on the site.
“I’m really thrilled about the salvaging,” said Trustee Melody Relerford. “It does my heart good.”
Construction team
The project team named at the same Feb. 18 meeting includes Lansing-based Clark Construction as construction manager, while Stantec, with some 450 locations in North America, will provide the architectural, mechanical, electrical, and structural engineering teams. The civil engineering team will be assembled by the Michigan-based firm of Spalding DeDecker, and landscaping services will be headed up by Berkley, Michigan-based Foresite Design.
(Photo by Jenifer Veloso, courtesy of Mott Foundation)
Centennial parks and playground initiative
In addition to Central updates, Superintendent Jones announced that FCS would be the first recipient of a collective $20 million initiative by the C. S. Mott Foundation to renovate the city’s playgrounds.
The district will receive just over $7 million to upgrade playgrounds at five elementary campuses: Potter, Freeman, Durant-Tuuri-Mott, Eisenhower, and Doyle-Ryder.
FCS plans to employ a co-design process for the upgrades that’s similar to the one used to renovate the playground at Brownell Elementary last year. Beginning in March, student focus groups and stakeholder surveys, assisted by the Flint Center for Educational Excellence, will kick off the co-design process. The second phase in April will include conceptual renderings and gallery walks, during which the public will be invited to view conceptual renderings – including those imagined and drawn by students. Phase three in May and June will then see the rollout of final renderings and the start of construction.
The process will include school-based advisory teams, community school directors, building administrators, school board members, parents, neighborhood association members, and students according to Ja’Nel Jamerson, president and CEO of FCEE.
Jamerson also explained that finalized playground features may include medical equipment, early childhood play areas, safe and accessible surfaces, walking paths and play circuits, plentiful lighting and seating, and community-friendly design.
Stantec and Clark Construction, already on board for the Central-Whittier project, will build the playgrounds. Planners expect the new playgrounds to be completed by June 2026.
Divided Board votes to authorize “investigation of felony charges”
Also at its Feb.18 meeting, the Board voted 4-3 to launch an “investigation of felony charges” relating to comments by Trustee Relerford – though the way the motion was presented didn’t immediately make that understanding clear.
“Board, I seek a motion and a second from the board to approve action item 21.6: third-party investigation of felony charges – the third party being the Allen Law Firm – through a recommendation from Attorney Gardner of Thrun Law,” FBOE Vice President Laura MacIntyre said. President Joyce Ellis-McNeal made the motion, which was then seconded by Secretary Claudia Perkins.
As discussion began, Treasurer Dylan Luna said that he’d not been aware of the agenda item, noting that it wasn’t in the Board packet.
MacIntyre responded that the item was on advice of Thrun Law, which she had sought out because “accusations were made in the last Board meeting that have serious legal, uh, felony implications for the Board, the president, and a certain third-party vendor.”
She added that more wasn’t written down because “the investigation will include breaches of the Open Meetings Act and confidential information,” and that “the investigation itself is going to be looking at the disclosure and the leakage of some of the communications of legal opinions.”
“It needs to be done immediately because of the potential consequences,” concluded MacIntyre before discussion continued. “You just can’t say whatever you want in an open meeting.”
While the ensuing discussion did not mention the person who’d made the accusations now in question, Ellis-McNeal did offer a summary of what had been said that spurred the motion for investigation.
“Last Wednesday, a public accusation was made when we voted for a certain company. The accusation was that President Joyce Ellis-McNeal take kickbacks and get money from this contract,” Ellis-McNeal said.
“The board member requested public – that it be put in the public record … I requested a full investigation to be done to prove or not prove that these allegations is true,” Ellis-McNeal said. “This is my reputation”.
In review of that Feb. 11 meeting, the statement Ellis-McNeal was referring to came from Trustee Relerford. It was made after Relerford had been given the floor by Ellis-McNeal and began to ask Superintendent Jones a question regarding an earlier-presented report. Ellis-McNeal interrupted, saying Relerford could not change the agenda, to which Relerford responded that she wasn’t and asked that she be allowed to finish.
Ellis-McNeal then began speaking, followed by MacIntyre, while Relerford stated she still had the floor. The back-and-forth escalated until Relerford said, over calls for “Point of Order” from Ellis-McNeal and MacIntyre: “We already have a contract in place with Genesee Health Plan, so why are we adding money to it?”
Ellis-McNeal then said “Point of order, this has nothing to do with Genesee Health,” to which Relerford replied: “It does. ‘Cause you getting a kickback, that’s why. I want the record to show that.”
In addition to MacIntyre, those voting for the resolution to launch the investigation were: Ellis-McNeal, Perkins, and Linda Boose, FBOE Assistant Secretary-Treasurer. Voting against it were: Luna, Relerford, and Trustee Terae King.
In his comments before the decision, King noted that the trustees were being asked to vote without knowing the investigation’s scope, timeframe, or cost – nor the reason Allen Law Firm was suggested over other firms. He questioned why there had been no discussion or closed session to learn all the Board’s legal options before being presented with an opinion they’d not collectively agreed to seek out.
“I’m just concerned when we talk about that – because putting something to this magnitude on the agenda not only sews distrust inside the community, but it kind of – it kind of fractured at the board table because we usually don’t do it that way. We just don’t.”
For her part, Relerford said she was “all for an investigation” but she wanted the Board to “follow the policy and send the complaint.”
“I don’t know where felony charges come from,” she said during discussion. “It sounds like somebody’s feelings was hurt, but feelings are not a felony. So I just ask my colleagues: just submit the information so the entire board can make a decision and not just two people in they emotions wanting the district to pay for something because they feelings are hurt. ”
Future meetings of the FBOE are scheduled for: March 18; April 8, 15; May 13,20; June 17. Dates, times, and locations can be accessed on the district’s website.
Editor’s Note: This article originally ran in East Village Magazine’s March 2026 print edition.
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