Graveraet Possible for Alternative High School

Now that students won’t be in Graveraet School in Marquette anymore, the race is on to find a new use for the vintage facility.

After debating Graveraet’s future for hours last night, the Marquette school board voted to move 5th-graders to Bothwell Middle School this fall.

But the board doesn’t want to close Graveraet, or Kaufman Auditorium.

They think they can find a new use for what many see as a city treasure.

Superintendent Jon Hartwig says the alternative high school has a waiting list right now, and Graveraet would certainly help with that if the school were moved there.

5th-graders are the only students at Graveraet this year — the 4th-graders moved out last summer.

A new renovation plan proposed last night to make it a K-through-5 school would cost about $1.3 million.

Graveraet was built starting in 1926, and it opened the following year.

It served as Marquette’s high school until 1964, when Marquette Senior High School opened.