ISHPEMING, Mich. – Nice Community Schools has begun construction on a major addition to the Aspen Ridge Middle and High School building, a long-anticipated project that includes a new practice gymnasium and two classrooms.
“We’re really excited,” Superintendent Bryan DeAugustine said. “We’re building a new practice gym and two new classrooms here at Aspen Ridge. They’ll service our middle school for the most part, but we’ll see positive results for the entire building.”
Although work on the site has just begun, DeAugustine said the expansion has been in development for years.
“This has been a project long in the works,” he said. “We had a big proposal a few years ago that we tried to make happen, but we had to chunk it up a little bit. We did some renovations to Westwood High School, and now we’re coming over to Aspen Ridge to put that gym on that we’ve been talking about for quite a long time.”
DeAugustine said the additional gym space is essential to accommodate the district’s growing academic and extracurricular programs.
“In 1997, when all of those elementary and middle schools consolidated here at the Aspen Ridge campus, we lost a lot of square footage for gyms because we closed a lot of schools,” he said. “As time has gone on, we’ve added more sports. We have a really busy winter and spring schedule with a lot of kids looking for floor space.”
The total cost of the addition is $5.5 million, which DeAugustine said wouldn’t be possible without the continued support of local taxpayers.
“Our community is really good about renewing our sinking fund,” he said. “The sinking fund currently will be in operation through December of 2033. So we have quite a few years in front of us, and that allowed us to have that borrowing power to get that $5.5 million to make this project a reality.”
District officials plan to have the new gym completed in time for the start of the winter semester in 2026.
