This school year, Community High School (CHS) has undergone several building updates, including new floors, railings, paint and most recently, the installation of a second set of doors in the front entrance. These changes are part of an ongoing effort to improve the school while preserving the original charm of the historic Jones School.
However, some CHS staff members are indifferent toward the renovations, especially the new doors.
“I have no opinion on them. They’re just doors to me,” said Kevin Davis, a CHS Community Assistant. “They do keep the cold out a little bit, but I think they’re more just aesthetic.”
While Davis doesn’t see a clear functional purpose for the addition, he acknowledges their architectural significance.
“If you look at the structure of the entryway, they originally had doors there,” Davis said. “What the architect is doing is trying to get this building back to where it was.”
Built in the early 1920s as Jones Elementary School, the building CHS occupies now has changed significantly with time, and many of its original features have been damaged or lost. For Dean Marci Tuzinsky, honoring Jones School by bringing these features back is crucial. Specifically, Tuzinsky is stripping much of the garnish and paint from things like the stairwell endcaps, windows in the theatre and the oak doors which reveals the initial Jones School look.
“They painted the wood brown, but it used to be a darker brown. So, they tried to take the paint off and return it to this finish,” Tuzinsky said. ”It wasn’t until they stained it, they wanted to come back and put this back to Oak so that it matches.”
Along with a variety of historic furniture pieces that remain throughout CHS, Tuzinsky often finds that several architectural elements students see every day are original to the Jones School building. From the wood trim to the terrazzo flooring, many materials were built to last and have remained functional for over a century. According to Tuzinsky, many of these features date back to the original construction of the Jones School and were intentionally preserved during renovations. While CHS is focused on preserving the school’s history, sometimes it calls for new additions in order to keep the school running and efficient.
“These [stairwell railings] are new and they were raised,” Tuzinsky said. “These were the height for elementary school students the whole time we’ve been here.”
This new set of renovations didn’t just start this year, though. The changes were first set in motion when construction began at Community in 2020 during the COVID pandemic.
“When we came back to Community, we had been scheduled to have construction done, but they couldn’t do everything in one step,” Tuzinsky said. “It ended up being a lot harder. That is, they decided it was too much. They couldn’t do the painting and the flooring at that time, so they came back.”
As one of the oldest buildings throughout Ann Arbor Public Schools, CHS also has a history of additions and renovations beyond Jones School. Specifically, Tuzinsky vividly remembers the school’s major expansion in the 90s.
“When I started at Community High School, there were only 300 students,” Tuzinsky said. “When they did that addition in the 90s, they moved the entire school out over to what is now pathways. So, they got 12 classrooms out of this addition on both sides.”
Looking to the future, Tuzinsky hopes to renovate rooms 202 and 204 to restore its character, maintaining the fireplace and potentially merging the rooms to become a student resource center. Tuzinsky wants both rooms to be helpful for students to relax and connect with their counselors or any other aid they might need.
“Kids could just come in there if they have an open block. Kids can work on their college applications and they can get some help and there’s a fireplace in there,” Tuzinsky said. “Kids could come and just sit on a ledge and read. There’s a place where kids can hang out, where there’s some adult supervision.”
With renovations continuing and more planned for the future, CHS is working to balance remodeling with preservation. The new doors are just the beginning of efforts to honor the school’s past while supporting its future.
