History of Holt Schools
The earliest classes were taught in Delhi Center (later Holt) in 1840 by Lydia Wells in the log cabin of George Phillips, a Delhi pioneer and first postmaster. The first log schoolhouse was built in 1840 at the present site of Holt Road and Park Lane and Delhi District No. 1, or the Delhi Center School, was established in 1842. The budget for the school in 1843 was $10.36 and thirty-eight students were enrolled. The second school building, a frame structure, replaced the log school in 1852 on the same site.
In 1875, a two-story red brick school was built to replace the frame building of 1852. It had an ornate cupola for the bell and was visible from quite a distance. The cost of construction and furnishings was about $2,300. Grades one through six were housed on the first floor, while seventh and eighth grade students were on the second story. Two teachers were hired for the forty to sixty students in 1875. This school was the largest in the area with the Maple Grove School coming in second in Delhi. Disaster struck on the night of November 11, 1914, when the large brick school burned to the ground. While their school was gone, students continued to learn in a variety of nearby buildings including local churches.
A meeting was called by the Board of Education on December 19, 1914, consisting of the following men: J.J. Manz, H.E. Gunn, J.D. Thorburn, George Wilcox, and C.V. Keller. The board voted to ask for an eight-thousand dollar loan to build a new school house. When the recommendation was presented to the voters it passed by a 54-12 majority. The new school was built on the site of the old building in 1915. The building consisted of three classrooms with additional classroom space available in the basement. It opened in the fall of 1915.
As new young families moved into the district post-WWI, space became tight at the school. Makeshift classrooms were added in the basement but lacked ventilation and were located adjacent to the chemical toilet tank, giving off a severe odor which made learning difficult. Over the course of 1921-1923, a bond proposal was brought up for a vote seven times, failing each time. It took until the seventh vote and active community members campaigning for passage of the bond. After the bond passed, an addition was built across the front of the school in 1923 consisting of three classrooms, an office and hall on the first floor, an assembly room, chemistry laboratory and one classroom on the second floor.
Additional classroom space was added in 1926, with a wing built on the west side of the building consisting of four classrooms on both the first and second stories.
In 1925-1926, Holt added 12th grade to its curriculum. The Class of 1926 was Holt's first twelfth grade graduating class!
In 1935, a gymnasium, kitchen, cafeteria, and four classrooms were added. The old auditorium was also converted into a library and additional classrooms. These 1930s projects were part of the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federal agency for the alleviation of unemployment during the Depression years.
By 1963, an addition was made to the north side of the building. In 1969, a new gymnasium and swimming pool were added to the building.
Following the opening of Midway in 1949, the school building served upper grades until 1959 with the opening of the new Holt High School. From 1959 to 1976, it was used as Holt Junior High School for grades six and seven. Then since 1976, it has served as Holt Middle School. See Hope Middle School section below for the history of this beloved old school building beyond 1980.
Outbuildings
In the mid-1940s, Holt Schools built two wood outbuildings behind the main school building off Holt Road and Park Lane. The buildings were initially used to house elementary grades. They later were used by band, music, and shop classes. The old outbuildings were razed in 1963 to make room for an addition to the then-Holt Junior High School.
Midway
In 1948, a building and site fund millage was passed by Holt voters, which provided for the building of Midway Elementary School on Spahr Avenue. Its doors were opened in the fall of 1949 with seven classrooms, beginning a new era of education in Holt.
The district had changed from the old village school concept (three room, seventy-five students, five teachers) to over 1,000 students housed in two buildings with thirty-five teachers. Midway first consisted of seven classrooms, with later additions in 1954, 1956, 1960 and 1967.
Midway closed as an elementary school in 2014 and has since operated as Midway Early Learning Center.
Elliott & Sycamore
As the baby boom flooded further students into the district, another bond issue passed in the Fall of 1952 for $360,000 which was used to build Sycamore Elementary and Elliott Elementary schools, both of which opened in the fall of 1953” with seven rooms each. Mr. Alton Stine and Ms. Josie Watrous served as the schools’ first principals. The twin schools started identically, but have evolved differently over time through additions.
Elliott School was named for a much-loved teacher in Holt, Miss Tessa Elliott. Miss Elliott came to Holt in 1918 and taught for the following thirty-eight years, through 1956. She commanded the respect of two generations of Holt children and taught perhaps as many as 1,200 students in her years in Holt. A portrait of Tessa Elliott hangs in Elliott Elementary School. It was originally a gift of the Elliott PTA in 1958. After having been removed for many years, the portrait was restored by the Holt-Delhi Historical Society and the Holt Alumni Association and returned to its home in the school in 2017.
Additions were made to Holt’s elementary schools in 1955-1957 as part of a bond proposal to build a new high school. Further additions came in the 1960s and in the decades since. The athletic field next to Elliott Elementary was added in 1972.
Holt High School
Now Holt Junior High School
Additional growth was constant during the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1955-57 a new high school was constructed. The cost of the building was $1,000,000. The building was originally designed as a campus style layout with four separate buildings. It has undergone remodeling and additions through the decades. The formal dedication was held in October, 1959, with Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy" Williams as the guest speaker.
The then-former high school building at Holt Road and Park Lane became the Junior High School from 1959 through the fall of 1976, when it became the Middle School for grades 6-7.
The Holt High School building at Aurelius Road and Sycamore Road underwent extensive renovations during 1963-64. The four campus style buildings were connected and a cafeteria, music room, shop room, special education unit, and a home economics wing were added.
In 1968-1969, additions were again under construction at the Senior High School. The addition included the pool, auditorium, music rooms and classrooms.
In 1972, the auditorium was dedicated to Dr. Maurice Pernert, who had been Superintendent of Schools from 1958 until his unexpected passing in 1972. A portrait of Pernert originally hung in the lobby outside the auditorium after its dedication. It was removed for many years due to damage and was returned to its home at the auditorium in 2018 after a restoration effort by the Holt-Delhi Historical Society and the Holt Alumni Association.
The newly constructed athletic field and facilities were dedicated in September in 1972 to Dr. Franklin Troost, who had been the team physician for thirty-four years, from 1930 to 1964.
In 1982, a bond issue was passed for building upgrades, which were completed in September. By 1993, the north “horseshoe” wing was added to the high school. Since 2003, the building has been used as Holt Junior High School after the opening of the current Holt High School.
Annexations
Dimondale Schools
In 1962, the voters of the Holt and Dimondale School Districts voted for an annexation of Dimondale into Holt educationally. The former Dimondale High School was razed after the merger and is the current the site of the Dorothy Hull Library. The Dimondale Elementary School on Walnut Street accommodates the students from the former Dimondale Schools and part of the Maple Grove and outlying Holt areas in proximity to Dimondale. The elementary was built in 1951, with additions in 1961, 1963, and 1965.
Island School
Delhi Fractional District No. 1, or the Island School District, was founded in 1849 on the farm of Hosea Box at the modern day southwest corner of College and Jolly Roads. Island School students were divided among Holt, Mason, East Lansing, and Lansing schools in 1964 and 1965.
Lott School
The Lott School, or Delhi District No. 4, was established in 1844. The school building was at the northwest corner of Dell and Pine Tree Roads. Lott School was annexed into the Holt Public Schools in 1951. Holt sold the school in 1953 and it still stands as a private residence.
Grovenburg School
The Grovenburg Schools were held in homes until Delhi District No. 3 was formally established in 1847 in southwestern Delhi Township. In 1866, the schoolhouse was built on land given by John and Mary Fisher. Grovenburg School was annexed into Holt Public Schools in 1952. The school building still stands on Grovenburg Road.
Gunn School
The Gunn School, or Delhi District No. 7, was formed in 1867 and a log school was built at the modern northwest corner of Holt and Washington Roads. The brick school was built in 1886 on the same site. Gunn School consolidated with Holt Public Schools in 1957. The building was later used as a church and art studio before being purchased back by HPS in 1997. It is now used for educational and historical purposes in the community.
Other Delhi Rural Districts
Delhi District No. 2, or the North School, was established in 1842 and was annexed by Lansing Schools in 1960.
Delhi Fractional District No. 5, or the Maple Grove School, was established in 1853, the portion south of I-96 was annexed by Holt Schools in 1963 and north of I-96 was annexed by Lansing Schools in 1965.
Delhi District No. 6, or the Harper School, was established circa 1845 and was annexed by Mason Schools in 1955.
Delhi Fractional District No. 8, or the Dunn School, was established in the 1840s and was annexed by Mason Schools in 1955.
Delhi Fractional District No. 12, or the Nichols School, was annexed by Mason Schools in 1955.
Education Center
The Education Center, designed to house administrative offices, was built by Holt Public Schools in 1966 on Spahr Avenue. The building housed the Board of Education and administrative offices until 2003, when they moved to West Holt Road to the then Ninth Grade Campus (or North Campus), during a district restructuring. From 2003 to 2017, the Alternative Education program moved into the building, until it moved to the North Campus as well. This building was vacant from 2017 to 2019 and was razed in November 2019.
Wilcox
Wilcox Elementary School was built in 1968 after Holt Schools purchased property from Dr. Daniel Sturt, developer of the Heather Haven subdivision for use as a neighborhood elementary school. The building was designed by Wayotte-Webb Architects and built by Reniger Construction. Additions were made to the school in 1971, 1993, and 2022-2023.
The school is named for the Wilcox family, particularly George R. Wilcox, who had been a Board of Education member in the early 1900s and owned the farmland on which the school was built.
Holt Junior High School
Now Holt High School North Campus
In 1975 a new building was added to the Holt School District. Originally Holt Junior High School, housing grades 8 and 9, the building opened in Fall 1976. It is located on West Holt Road, the district's first building constructed in this area. The school originally had quad-classrooms by subject, and by 1981 full walls were constructed between the original open concept quads. A west hall addition has been added to the building. From 2003 to 2016, the building served as Holt High School's Ninth Grade Campus. It is presently known as the Holt High School North Campus, housing Holt's 12th grade class.
Hope Middle School
In 1980, the Holt Middle School was dedicated to Bernard L. Hope, a Holt alumnus, athletic record holder, and longtime Board of Education president, following his sudden passing in 1980. In 1981, a $3.2 million bond was passed, the majority of which was used for an addition and renovations to Hope Middle School. A large northern addition was added to the building including 17 classrooms, a library, and administrative offices. In May 1982, the old school building (originally built in 1915) was razed and as the new school building was built on the site. Prior to the demolition, a chain of students passed 5,000 books from the old second floor library to the new library in the northern addition. The "new" Bernard L. Hope Middle School opened in Fall 1982. Today, the building consists of the 1981-82 addition, as well as pieces from 1935, 1963-64, and 1969.
Washington Woods & Horizon
Both Horizon Elementary and Washington Woods Middle School were built in 1992-1993 with bond dollars, which cost $24,000,000. They came along with districtwide renovations. Washington Woods opened in Fall 1994. Horizon also opened in Fall 1994, designed to be Holt’s first balanced calendar school. It is currently the longest operating balanced calendar school in the State of Michigan.
Holt High School
In 1999, Holt Public School purchased 157 acres of land from the Kahres Dairy Farm on West Holt Road. In 2000, Holt voters approved a $73.5 million bond proposal for the construction of a new high school and other districtwide improvements. Designed by TMP Architecture, the new Holt High School was built over the course of 2001-2002-2003 and opened in the Fall of 2003 at a cost of $67 million. Holt High School remains the newest school building in Holt Public Schools, now more than 20 years later.
Holt High School Principals
Mr. David S. Yape, 1909-1910
Mr. Paul Straight, 1926-1927
Mr. Charles H. Mann, 1928-1931
Mr. Keith B. Odle, 1932-1933
Mr. Stuart L. Openlander, 1934-1938
Mr. Wesley E. Black, 1938-1945
Mr. Barret Vorce, 1948-1952
Mr. Ronald B. Sage, 1952-1955
Mr. Robert Schieffer, 1955-1959
Mr. John Wellington, 1959-1966
Mr. Merritt Chandler Nauts, 1966-1974
Mr. Paul Jolly, 1974-1985
Mr. Tom Davis, 1985-1993
Mr. Brian Templin, 1993-2013
Mr. Michael Willard, 2013-Present
Holt Public Schools Superintendents
Mr. Larned Goodrich, 1923-1936
Mr. Titus T. Wilt, 1936-1938
Mr. Stuart L. Openlander, 1938-1945
Mr. Benton Yates, 1945-1951
Mr. Rex B. Smith, 1951-1958
Dr. Maurice Pernert, 1958-1971
Dr. Donald Shebuski, 1971-1978
Dr. Henry Sienkiewicz, 1978-1987
Dr. Mark Maksimowicz, 1987-1997
Mr. Tom Davis, 1997-2008
Dr. Johnny Scott, 2008-2015
Dr. David Hornak, 2015-Present