Wayside Middle School

December 15, 2023
The first project to get underway in the 2023 Bond Program is the construction of a new Wayside Middle School, located on Old Decatur Road near Bailey-Boswell Road next to the current school building. On Monday, December 11, the EMS ISD Board of Trustees approved the construction management method for the project, which is one of the first steps in preparing for construction of a specific bond project. This approval of a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) model means that EMS ISD will hire a construction company to oversee the entire building project from start to finish. The district will begin the process of hiring that construction company in January 2024.  

Soon after the bond election in November, representatives of EMS ISD, project architect VLK and project engineer TNP met with the City of Saginaw regarding the Wayside project. During the meeting, the group discussed the site location and project timelines. The city is requiring EMS ISD to provide a traffic impact analysis and a drainage study on the site before they issue construction permits. The district plans to begin conducting these studies in January with the goal of construction hopefully beginning in the spring. The first phase of construction is the demolition of the former EMS ISD Administration Building complex located next door to the current Wayside. Once those buildings are demolished and removed, the site can be graded in preparation for the construction of the new middle school. 

Wayside Middle School will follow the same general design as Marine Creek Middle School, but will include a color scheme and graphical features that make the school distinctly Wayside, honoring the history and traditions of the campus that date back to the 1960s. 

On Wednesday, May 1, the district’s construction contractor will begin mobilizing on site for the first phase of the Wayside MS replacement campus project. The new school will be located on the site of the former EMS ISD administration building, just south of the current Wayside and across from Bryson Elementary School. For the safety of all in our community, the former administration building and surrounding outdoors spaces will be fenced off from public access and secured once it becomes a construction site. 

Wayside students and staff will be able to continue having school in the current building while construction is underway on the new facility. However, the start of construction will impact current practices for traffic, parking, and access to our building. Campus leaders have been working closely with the district’s Operations team, Transportation, and EMS ISD Police to identify workable solutions during construction. 

All parents, neighbors, and members of the community are invited to a community meeting at 6 pm Thursday, April 18, in the Wayside MS Cafeteria. District leaders, along with representatives from the project's construction contractor, will outline the construction plan, site safety plan and timelines for the new school and answer questions about the project. In the meantime, here are some important details from the EMS ISD Operations team to help the community plan drive times and visits to the Wayside campus: 

Prep work continues at the site of the former EMS ISD administration building, with surveys of exterior buildings submitted to the City of Saginaw. This is required before demolition can begin. Safety fencing around the construction site has been completed, and scheduling is in process for the revisions of the existing Wayside front drive and construction of a temporary practice football field in the open space adjacent to Bryson Elementary School. This project is part of the 2023 Bond.