The issue comes in a $168-million bond proposal before votersnext month. If approved, part of the Seneca building would be usedas a freshman center, and the rest would be renovated for a newpreschool center. Seneca was originally built to be Chippewa ValleyHigh until the current high school was built.

The high price of land in the Chippewa Valley district, abyproduct of the area's booming growth, is a major reason schoolofficials want separate buildings for ninth-graders rather thanbuilding a third high school, says interim Superintendent MarkDeldin. "The [school] board bought the Dakota High property in 1989for $9,000 an acre," Deldin recalls. "Two years ago, we bought 41more acres adjacent to it for $100,000 an acre."

Deldin says Chippewa Valley officials are also aware that manyinner-ring suburbs overbuilt schools in the 1950s and 1960s. By the1970s, schools were being closed from St. Clair Shores toLivonia.