About 45 school administrators, board members, and business staff from schools in the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (ISD) gather in a music room at Rudyard Area Schools Thursday evening, April 9. Pete Everson (left), ISD superintendent, led the session of school leaders considering the possibility of sharing some of their resources. Faced with declining enrollments and rising costs, and struggling to maintain quality programs for students, school leaders in the Eastern Upper Peninsula are breaking down the invisible walls that separate their districts to share ideas and talk about combining some resources. The first in a series of meetings was held Thursday, April 9, when administrators, staff, and school board members met at Rudyard Area Schools to explore ideas. Their first assignment: To consider the advantages and disadvantages of combining districts in the same county. Regarded by some as an extreme measure, the 45 participants said the move has to be considered.

Other ideas to be explored include sharing teachers, bus maintenance services, and technology, partnering on purchases for larger price breaks, purchasing computers for all students by pooling textbook budgets and equipping the computers with digital textbooks, and combining business services and health coverage plans.

The two-hour meeting was organized by Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (ISD) Superintendent Pete Everson. The ISD includes 13 school districts and two charter schools. Representatives from 11 districts attended the meeting; Mackinac Island Public School, Whitefish Township Community Schools at Paradise, and the charter schools were absent.

Over the last 13 years from 1995 to 2008, the region has lost more than 1,500 students, or 16.2% of the student population. The period covers the voter-approved Proposal A School Finance Reform, which since 1995 has funded schools on a per-pupil basis.

In the last year alone, the ISD is down by 149 students, which accounts for 1.87% of the student population.

Considering that area schools receive, at the low end, about $7,300 per student, said Mr. Everson, the region has lost significant financial support through the years, and the downward trend continues.

"It's a pretty staggering number on an annual basis for revenue that doesn't come to this three-county area for doing all kinds of things, not just teaching kids, that subsequently goes into our communities for buying groceries and gasoline and paying mortgages, et cetera," said Mr. Everson.

Collectively in Chippewa, Mackinac, and Luce counties, school districts spend about $80 million a year.

The student population continues to decline, which impacts state revenue for most of the districts in the EUP. Those districts represent 80% of the student body.

Upper Peninsula schools face the additional challenges of rural environments, large distances between schools, and a migration of families to areas that offer better employment opportunities.

Of the 57 ISDs in the state, the EUP is the largest, geographically, although the smallest in per-pupil revenue. This is most evident with the cost of special education services, said Mr. Everson, which many regions cover entirely. Upper Peninsula students comprise less than 1% of all students in the state. That number is reflected in the U.P. population, which as a whole totals less than 4% of the state's population.

Statewide, Upper Peninsula schools have to fight to be heard, said Mr. Everson.

"Our influence," he said, "is pretty small."

He encouraged participants to contact state legislators to get the voice of the U.P. schools heard in Lansing.

The ISD anticipates no cuts in school funding for the 2009/2010 year as proposed by Governor Jennifer Granholm in the state's budget, said Mr. Everson, rather the funding will be covered by federal stimulus money. The funds, however, will come with restrictions requiring new programs to be put in place, which may not help school budgets overall.

"The reason I bring this up," he said, "is we had hoped this would bring some relief to our budgets. We don't anticipate it at this point."

Strings are attached to the money for Title One funding, which is for schools with a high percentage of low-income students. The funds are to be used for new, innovative programs, said Mr. Everson, and not for programs already in place, unless a district has documented proof it has had success with its programs. Once funding is approved for a district, it will receive half of the funds and must show successful use of them, before the remaining funds are released.

The stimulus money will help schools this year, he said, although it will likely only serve as a delay in a state aid cut for the coming years. Right now, he said, the state is grappling with a loss of between $57 million and $100 million per month and future cuts are likely to overcome the deficit spending.

In general, across the U.P., Title One funding already has been cut by 10%, compounded per year for the last six years. St. Ignace is losing about $15,000 per year, said Superintendent Mike Springsteen. Sault Ste. Marie schools, which had been getting about $900,000, now receive about $450,000, said Superintendent Dan Reattoir.

Use of federal funds also is restricted for special education programs, requiring that they cannot be used for programs already funded by other means.

"The term supplement, and not supplant, is real clear within the federal guidelines in using federal money," said Mr. Everson. "In other words, you cannot spend the money on something you are using other dollars for already. You've got to do new programs with it."

"What might actually happen is we aren't going to be able to spend all of the money."

Some schools in the U.P. already have consolidated services to help reduce costs, including Les Cheneaux and DeTour, which are sharing a superintendent. Both Moran Township and Brimley schools have a part-time superintendent, and each district is employing fewer administrative staff. About five years ago, St. Ignace and Moran Township began a shared bus service, saving more than $40,000 annually.

Sault Ste. Marie Area Schools employs mechanics and has a bus maintenance garage, said Superintendent Reattoir, who suggested his school district would be interested in taking on work from other schools. It already is working on buses from Cedarville, DeTour, and Pickford. Tahquamenon Area Schools, said Superintendent Alice Walker, has privatized its bus service to save money.

Eric Feldhusen, director of technology at Rudyard, said he has talked to schools in Arizona that have eliminated textbooks, which now are available to students on computers. The downside to replacing textbooks with computers is keeping the technology up-to-date. The group discussed pooling textbook funds to purchase computers for all students. Textbooks would be on the computers.

The ISD contracts some business services and has established a technology consortium, which includes providing a computer file server and maintenance for the districts. It also has partnered with two other ISDs to access more computer storage capacity at a lower cost.

Participants discussed sharing some teachers, like those who teach advanced mathematics classes, physics, or a language. The courses could be offered like college classes, two or three days per week in different schools, or they could be offered by the semester. The plan, participants agreed, would help with some programs in the higher level classes.

"At the secondary level, because of the diversity of the programs that we want kids to go into," said Mr. Springsteen, "we're really struggling trying to keep those programs going for the kids."

Consolidating health care coverage would reduce costs, said Mr. Everson. One idea would have the schools participating in the state's health care plan.

"Can we do that?" he asked. "I think we can. Are we willing to do it?"

Another way districts could save money is to combine districts, offered Mr. Everson, and he asked participants to consider the advantages and disadvantages of combining districts by county. The combined district, he suggested, could include one school board with committees. The implications of millages and taxes would need to be considered.

Schools in the ISD include Bay Mills Ojibwe Charter School, Bois Blanc Pines School District, Brimley Area Schools, DeTour Area Schools, Engadine Consolidated Schools, Joseph K. Lumsden, Bahweting School, Les Cheneaux Community Schools, Mackinac Island Public School, Moran Township School District, Pickford Public Schools, Rudyard Area Schools, Sault Ste. Marie Area Public Schools, St. Ignace Area Schools, Tahquamenon Area Schools, and Whitefish Township Community Schools.

The group agreed to meet once a month for several months to continue discussing ways to save money, consolidate services, and provide desired programs for students. The next meeting will be Thursday, May 14, at 6 p.m. at Rudyard Area Schools. Meetings are open to the public.