Gros Cap Accepts Teacher Resignation; Begins Negotiations
By Paul Gingras

Special education teacher Jonas Halonen will retire from Gros Cap School this June.

Special education teacher Jonas Halonen will leave Gros Cap School this June, and the Moran Township Board of Education accepted his resignation at its Monday, March 17, meeting. Upcoming teacher contract negotiations, and a court case affecting Gros Cap and other area schools were other topics discussed.

"He certainly came to us with a lot of experience," Superintendent Bill Peltier said of Mr. Halonen, who had taught for 30 years, mostly with special needs students, prior to taking a position at Gros Cap in 2004. After retiring from Grosse Ile Township Schools in 1997, Mr. Halonen moved to the Upper Peninsula and offered his experience to Moran Township School.

Grosse Ile Schools, located on an island in the Detroit River, is also a small community.

"Working at Gros Cap was like coming home again," Mr. Halonen said.

Educating special needs students part time, and working part time with students who need a boost in reading and mathematics, Mr. Halonen has been a stabilizing influence at Gros Cap, Mr. Peltier said.

In his letter of resignation, Mr. Halonen said he considered working in the district a privilege and cited Mr. Peltier and Lead Teacher Monica Silet as forces that help the staff and students succeed, in what he termed a "high quality" district.

"I think my experiences at Gros Cap School in Moran Township was just wonderful," Mr. Halonen told The St. Ignace News. "I am going to miss it."

Gros Cap will look for a halftime special education teacher to fill Mr. Halonen's position by fall.

The district would like to install Smart Boards in all classrooms at the school, if it is approved for funding requested from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. The boards, which display teachers' computer screens to students and link students' and teachers' computers, are already used at the school for mathematics, word processing, and spreadsheets.

Forty-five percent of Gros Cap's students are Native American.

Contracts for the school's seven teachers expire in August, and the first stages of negotiations for new contracts have begun. The board discussed a letter from the Michigan Education Association announcing the local union's desire to prepare for negotiations.

Financial problems, including refunds to energy companies and alterations in taxes collectible by the district, create some uncertainty, he said.

Mr. Peltier hopes to receive documents from companies owed tax money by June, when he will make recommendations to the school board on financial matters.

A long-standing class-action lawsuit against the state by hundreds of school districts has been settled in favor of the school districts, the school board learned via a letter by Thrun Law Firm of Bloomfield Hills.

The suit deals with state requirements for school systems to shoulder record-keeping tasks formerly handled by the state, without providing funding to do so.

In 2000, 459 Michigan school districts, including Gros Cap, sued the State of Michigan for violating the Headlee Amendment, which states that the Michigan constitution prohibits the state from imposing "unfunded or under funded mandates on local units of government," Thrun reported.

This includes school districts, the company explained.

Michigan now requires all records to be filed with the state electronically, so school systems must file reports using the Internet, Mr. Peltier said. This has made record keeping easier in Lansing, but it has been costly for schools, which require Internet access, computers, computer training, and technical support to comply with the mandate.

Prior to the change, the state simply faxed forms to schools to fill out, and schools faxed them back, he said.

Mr. Peltier hopes the rule will help put state technology funding in place for schools.