Van Buren County Schools will partner with Fall Creek Falls State Park to transform the district-owned Little Falls property into an outdoor classroom and community space.
Director of Schools Katina Simmons said the initiative began when Assistant Park Manager Devin Simmons approached the district about utilizing the land for educational and public use. Simmons said the property has been in the school system’s possession for many years and contains waterfalls that have previously been difficult for the public to access.
“He has told us in our school board meeting that he doesn’t know of any other partnership like that between a state park and a school system, so we’re pretty excited about that too,” Simmons said.
Simmons said the state park will assume all financial responsibility for the project, ensuring the school district incurs no costs for the development. Simmons said the park staff will use the site for their own training purposes while they perform the necessary labor to improve the land.
“Fall Creek Falls State Park has agreed to do some cleanup work, some trail work to make a trail to some of those areas, but as far as it goes past that we’re not sure, we’re still in the planning process of that,” Simmons said.
Simmons said the development of the property will include the installation of trails and other necessary infrastructure.
“We have a forestry class, we’re hoping that in the future our forestry classes might want to utilize that property to do some of that work,” Simmons said. “So just kind of looking for opportunities in the future for our students to use the property.”
Simmons said the district recently sought and received school board approval to move forward with the partnership. Simmons said that while the specific timeline for completion is not yet established, the primary goal is to make the natural area more attainable for both students and the local community.
“It’s going to allow their staff to get some some support and training also, and then making trails and then things that’ll be there, infrastructure,” Simmons said. “And then as far as the school side, you know, we can take students there to do some outdoor classroom.”
