STERLING HEIGHTS (WXYZ) — A new $70 million facility designed to serve students with special needs is opening in Sterling Heights, marking a major milestone for the Macomb Intermediate School District.
The Donald Bollinger Education Center will welcome its first students after Labor Day. The 140,000-square-foot building will serve around 250 students ranging from infants through age 26.
WXYZ reporter Evan Sery has the story in the video below:
For Ashley Levell, the moment carries deep personal meaning. Her son, A.J., was born without a heartbeat and has brain damage and global developmental delay. He is nonverbal and was enrolled in the Macomb Intermediate School District at age 3. Now 15, he will be among the first students to attend the new facility.
"He's nonverbal and they have given him the best quality of life that anyone could give him," Levell said.
Levell said the emotion of the moment hit her before I arrived to speak with her.
"TEn minutes before you walked in here I was crying, I was like, 'wow!'" Levell said.
She believes the new building will hold the same significance for A.J. and his classmates that the district has always held for their families.
"The new building will become his second home and for a lot of the other kids because they spend so much time here," Levell said. "This is their home away from home, this is a family."
The facility was funded through a 2022 school district bond proposal. Superintendent Mike Devault said the investment is designed to serve the community for generations.
"There's a pool, there's a greenhouse, all kinds of therapy rooms, special accommodations for kids to learn life skills," Devault said.
"When you do this kind of a project, you're making decisions for decades, it's like a 50-year investment," Devault said.
The center is named after Donald Bollinger, a longtime district employee who began working with the Macomb Intermediate School District in 1975. Now serving as deputy superintendent, Bollinger — affectionately known as Bolly — said his path into special education began long before his career in Michigan.
"Originally from Minnesota and worked at a camp there with special needs students and it kinda peaked my interest and developed from there," Bollinger said.
A dedication ceremony honoring Bollinger's legacy is scheduled for this Sunday. He said the recognition came as a surprise.
"That's part of why I was so surprised, I thought it would be named after someone who already passed on," Bollinger said.
Despite the honor, Bollinger said the credit belongs to those around him.
"I prefer to give credit to everybody else, they do all the hard working, I'm just trying to support them, that's what my job is," Bollinger said.
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