Group Works To Charter Curtis Elementary School
Goals: To Educate Children Close to Home, Save Jobs
By Paul Gingras

A group of volunteers called the Three Lakes Area Education Committee is working to keep Curtis Elementary School open as a charter school. Doing so will keep 77 students going to school close to home, if the Tahquamenon district decides to close the small school to cut costs. Establishing the charter school would keep the village of Curtis from losing a community institution and jobs, supporters say, and will even give the school a new focus on the environment and technology.

The group is now ready to apply to universities that can authorize charter schools, following months of research and consulting several charter school experts. The group is also working with the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. Applications will be sent by the end of the week, said the group's spokesperson, Virginia Witt, a retired teacher and resident of the village.

"We cannot let [Curtis Elementary] close, and we are trying to do something about it by chartering it," she said. "The feeling here is that the school is the heart of the community, and this is a close-knit community."

Charter schools function similarly to public schools. Any student can attend free, and they are governed by the same laws as public schools. They differ in that they often provide specialized curriculums.

Curtis Elementary has been in jeopardy for several years, owing to financial problems at its parent district, Tahquamenon Area Schools, which has considered closing the facility to save money.

In its quest to gather support from area organizations, Three Lakes received a formal letter of support from the Portage Township Board of Trustees at its Tuesday, November 13, meeting.

"I feel very positive" about chartering Curtis Elementary, said Township Supervisor Donald Ferris, a former teacher at Tahquamenon Area Schools. He explained that he respects Tahquamenon Schools, but owing to declining enrollment in the district, Curtis Elementary is likely to close, and chartering the school would be a good way to retain a "nice, local school that does an excellent job of educating students."

Going to school close to home is positive for students, and it enables parents to be involved in their chil- dren's education, he said. Although not a Three Lakes Committee member, Mr. Ferris said he has been involved with the issue for a long time. After talking to parents, he has concluded that most want to keep the school open.

"Almost everybody that has a child in Curtis wants to keep their child in Curtis," he said.

Echoing Mrs. Witt's sentiment, he said the school is important to the community in general, and schools are frequently the core of rural communities like Curtis. Keeping Curtis Elementary open will minimize the time students have to spend riding buses, he added, noting that some students already take long bus rides, and parents do not want them to travel even farther to other districts.

Colleen Clock, whose son finished elementary school at Curtis last year, is a member of Three Lakes Committee who said she prefers the small-school atmosphere at Curtis Elementary. Owing to small class sizes, teachers have the opportunity to be more involved with their students than their counterparts in larger districts, she said.

She said many parents support chartering Curtis Elementary School, owing to the distance their children would have to travel to another school.

Mrs. Clock lives about three miles from the school. If Curtis Elementary had not been available, her son would have had to choose from three other schools, in Manistique, about 36 miles away, in Newberry, about 25 miles away, or in Engadine, about 25 miles away.

Long bus rides are hard on children, especially young ones, she said.

While agreeing with others that other area school districts do a good job of educating students, Mrs. Clock said small classes at Curtis Elementary offer the opportunity for more parent involvement.

"It was a tremendous benefit to me to live three miles from the school," she said, explaining that local parents volunteer at the school and feel connected to their children's education.

Most students come to Curtis from a 10-mile radius, and "we have the student population to support the school," she said.

Three Lakes Committee member Jennifer Wing has a second grade student at Curtis Elementary and home-schools her sixth grade child. She intends to push to make the facility a charter school, even if Tahquamenon does not close Curtis Elementary, because it will offer variety from the standard curriculum.

Part of applying for charter school status is having a special purpose for the school, Mrs. Witt said. After consulting with experts who noted the forests and natural resources of the area, the group decided to focus its curriculum on environmental education, with a secondary focus on technology.

For students, this would mean an academic emphasis on environmental science and hands-on learning in natural areas around the community, partly through collaboration with organizations such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service at Seney Wildlife Refuge, and the National Park Service at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, she said.

Three Lakes is researching a state-based environmental curriculum as well as private curriculums that focus on environmental science.

The school would remain responsible for teaching standard elementary-school skills, she pointed out, but charter-school status would allow the school more freedom in choosing how it meets state and federal benchmarks.

"I think [charter school status] will give my children more opportunities," Mrs. Wing said.

At first, Three Lakes formed to simply keep the school open, but over time, the group has become dedicated to its environmental curriculum mission, Mrs. Witt said.

In response to questions by residents, she said that keeping Curtis Elementary open would be a benefit to children and parents as well as to the local economy.

There are four full-time teachers at Curtis Elementary, and the school employs a cook and a part-time janitor. The school's gymnasium, music, computer, and library instructors work at other schools and teach at Curtis once a week.

If the school closes, layoffs will follow, Mrs. Witt said, but if Three Lakes secures a charter, it will be able to hire teachers and staff. The group plans to expand the number of classes, which would bring more jobs to the area.

Three Lakes seeks to add to the services offered by Curtis Elementary, which was reduced to a kindergarten-through-fourth-grade facility this year, when Tahquamenon moved its fifth grade classroom to Newberry Elementary School.

The group plans to institute three after-school programs. One would be a tutorial and homework program, monitored by retired teachers who have already offered their services, Mrs. Witt said. The second would be to restore academic enrichment projects, such as the 4-H program that lapsed several years ago. The third would be to establish a part of the facility to serve as a supervised place for kids to go after school hours. When classes end, some students go home to empty houses until their parents return from work, Mrs. Witt said.

The group hopes to provide these services free, and to do so, it would rely on support from volunteers.

Three Lakes has sent out hundreds of surveys to determine how area residents feel about their charter school endeavor, and the group has been promised support by approximately 70 residents.

Even now, Curtis Elementary is receiving passionate community support to compensate for staffing cuts. The school's fifth grade classroom was eliminated this year and reinstated at Newberry Elementary. It lost a teacher when grades three and four were combined, and its janitorial position was reduced from full-time to part time. Outside help has significantly assisted the school, which lacks a secretary and a fulltime principal. The lead teacher has assumed administrative responsibilities four days a week. Administrative help from Newberry is provided one day a week.

Currently, there are 15 adult mentors and 40 parent volunteers at the school building.

"There are adults all over the school," Mrs. Witt told The St. Ignace News.

Mentors work in classrooms, doing tasks that vary from filing papers to helping individual children with their studies. Some mentors, who once spent one or two hours a week at Curtis Elementary, are now putting in full days. Parents have scheduled a hall monitoring system, which covers the entire school during all hours of operation, Mrs. Witt said.

Three Lakes does not necessarily need the Curtis Elementary building to start a charter school in the village, but if it can obtain the facility, it would reduce start-up costs, she said.

If Tahquamenon closes the school, the group may gain possession of the building because ownership may revert to the township, and the municipal government has backed the Three Lakes' charterschool project.

Research by residents and township officials has not been able to turn up any documents proving who owns the building. Three Lakes has written a letter asking the opinion of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.

If Curtis Elementary is closed, ownership of the building will be decided by the 11th Circuit Court, Mrs. Witt said.

Determining ownership of the building is the group's last priority, she said, because if Three Lakes were to wait to determine who owns the building, and the school closed, the group would have wasted critical time needed to set it up for charter school status. If Tahquamenon closes the school, it could sell or rent the building to the charter school, eliminating costly upkeep.

Universities have been the main agents to authorize charter schools. Three Lakes will apply for a charter through Central Michigan University, Bay Mills Community College, Oakland University, Tahquamenon Area Schools, and Grand Valley State University.

If it receives authorization, Three Lakes will apply for a state grant to help charter schools get up and running. Michigan provides three years of funding for upcoming charter schools, in addition to standard per-pupil funding.