SAGINAW, MI — When 2025’s Spring arrives, Saginaw city school leaders will pick a display location for the Saginaw High School sign and the Lumberjack that highlighted Arthur Hill High School.
Where?
The location decision will not be as difficult as the past decade’s plan for the new Saginaw United High on the riverfront, but it won’t be easy either.
Representatives of the Board of Education, the City Council and the County Board weighed in at an Oct. 17 session. Preliminary suggestions include Ojibway Island, Hoyt Park’s Veterans Plaza or elsewhere in the central parks, or maybe across the Court Street Bridge where historic signs already stand, ranging from the Twilite Drive-In to Aubry’s Cleaners. Then there’s always the Saginaw United campus, with athletic facilities still under construction south of the new school.
A top priority is protection from vandals. Superintendent Ramont Roberts said the district will aim for 24-hour video surveillance.
At the same time, a goal is a site that is popular and heavily traversed, where alumni may stop for photos and selfies.
Why not keep the signs at their original places? One reason is students want their own identities as SASA, which moved into Arthur Hill, and as the new Saginaw Middle School, which occupies a portion of Saginaw High. These changes, along with Saginaw United and the new Handley Elementary, round out the promises from a $100 million bond that voters passed in 2020, along with another $40 million in federal pandemic response fund to cover cost overruns.
County Commissioner Sheldon Matthews jokingly asked if the memorials would be placed side-by-side. The Rev. Charles H. Coleman, school board president, answered that indeed Saginaw High and Arthur Hill would share space, even with a sports rivalry that dates to the 19th century, captured for basketball in a book by former AHHS Coach Dave Slaggert, “Remember the Trojans and the Lumberjacks,” available for purchase from the Saginaw Community Foundation or for rental from your local library.
Regardless, the two schools will look anything like twins. The Saginaw High sign is 15 feet long while the Lumberjack is 13 feet tall.
Other attendees were Lisa Coney, Mark Piotrowski and Board Coordinator Suzy Koepplinger from the county; Annie Boensch and Michael Balls from the council; and from the school board Joyce Seals, Ruth Ann Knapp and Janet Nash.
