Detroit Makes Gains on $1.5 Billion Building Plan

By Jeff Archer

The Detroit public schools have hired two companies to undertake the first stage of the massive $1.5 billion school renovation and construction project approved by voters in 1994.

The school board voted 9-2 last week to hire two Detroit-based, minority-owned companies as managers for the first third of the overall project to refurbish the district's aging schools. The project also won approval from the state treasurer for an initial allocation of $89 million.

Construction should begin this spring, said district spokesman Steve Wasko. The presence of construction workers at the city's schools should be a welcome sight to the parents and school officials who lobbied for passage of the 1994 referendum, which set a record nationwide as the largest school-bond measure ever passed. (See Education...