Ken Drenth Ken Drenth of Cedarville was selected to be inducted into the Upper Peninsula Region I Hall of Fame for the Michigan Association of School Administrators (MASA). Mr. Drenth was recognized for his contributions to the EUP Intermediate School District (ISD) and education in the state in the areas of school funding, Internet education, and cooperative purchasing for school districts, as well as his service at Les Cheneaux Community Schools.

The Intermediate School District announced Mr. Drenth's selection Thursday, April 30.

Another local educator previously inducted is Web Morrison of Pickford.

Mr. Drenth grew up on a farm in the small community of Ellsworth, where he picked everything from apples to zucchini to make money for school, he said. His post-high school education included two years at Grand Rapids Junior College and then two years at Central Michigan University, where he was graduated with a Bachelor's of Art teaching degree in music and psychology. He later obtained a doctorate degree from Western Michigan University.

He taught instrumental music in Johannesburg for three years and then returned to Central Michigan University for a master's degree in guidance and counseling.

For the next 18 years, Mr. Drenth worked for the EUP Intermediate School District. While with the ISD, he worked to bring two ideas to the fore in Michigan. The first was the concept of cooperative purchasing for local districts. He organized the first group purchase of school buses in Michigan for all of the schools in the Eastern U.P. The second was the concept of teaching interactively via television, working with both the legislature and Michigan Department of Education to develop and fund the concept.

Mr. Drenth then spent 13 years from 1987 to 2000 as superintendent of Les Cheneaux Community Schools in Cedarville. During his tenure there, he contributed to beginning a pilot project in the Upper Peninsula to offer Advanced Placement programs via the Internet. He served as chairperson of MASA Region 1, and worked to help pass a bond issue to add on to Les Cheneaux Community Schools.

When Mr. Drenth foresaw the conflict associated with school funding under Proposal A with declining student enrollments even though it did not, at the time, affect his district, he developed enrollment and other financial data for all of the Region 1 schools, and took his concerns to the legislature.

Mr. Drenth also helped initiate a Community Foundation in Cedarville and Hessel.

He was the recipient of a Champion in Education Award from Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association in 2007.

After retirement, he continued his work for Region 1 by keeping enrollment and other financial data for each district for several years. He also worked with the ISD to put together the data to help save five of the smallest schools in the state (four of which are in the Upper Peninsula), where consolidation and/or cooperation, due to distance, was not feasible.

Mr. Drenth is chair of the Mackinac County Planning Commission, serves on the Community Foundation for the Upper Peninsula Board, and put together a financial package that resulted in building a 20-unit assisted living facility in Cedarville. He also obtained his Great Lakes Captain's license.

Mr. Drenth and his wife, Sue, have spent part of each winter volunteering in Arkansas at Heifer International, a world hunger relief project. He and his wife work as farm hands fixing fences and caring for cows, sheep, and goats. He has also been active in his church, serving on the church board and teaching adult Sunday school classes.

The couple enjoys traveling, and spent three weeks this past winter in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008, they were at both the North Pole and the South Pole, visiting Alaska and Antarctica.

Mr. and Mrs. Drenth have two grown sons, Ben and Andrew.