Resuming discussions on how to best meet the long term financial needs of both school districts, policy committees from St. Ignace Area Schools and Moran Township's Gros Cap School met Wednesday, August 25. Ideas proposed at the meeting included the possibility of sharing staff, but the previously considered proposal of discontinuing seventh and eighth grades at Gros Cap to draw more students to St. Ignace has been turned down by Gros Cap administration, with the superintendent saying cutting two grades from the school could jeopardize its funding, which lies in the hands of voters. The boards will meet again to continue talks, in January.

Gros Cap is paying St. Ignace an additional $20,000 to continue allowing Gros Cap junior high students to participate in band and athletics at the St. Ignace district.

Many school districts are competing with each other for funding instead of cooperating, Gros Cap Superintendent Bill Peltier noted, pointing out that the public's intent can sometimes be overlooked in the process. Moving forward, he hopes the two districts will continue to collaborate.

“I think the public wants the school districts to cooperate the best they can,” he said. “There could be some cooperations that could take place to share expenses.”

St. Ignace Superintendent Mike Springsteen agreed, saying that looking for solutions that benefit both districts should be the intent of the discussions.

“My thoughts are that the purpose is not on St. Ignace or Moran Township, but to keep the focus on the kids,” he said. “We have two separate school districts, but what can we do for all kids, because they're all going to be [at St. Ignace] at this point.”

One solution that might be considered down the road, Mr. Peltier said, is sharing staff to reduce expenses, suggesting that the districts might consider consolidating their band programs. Right now, the two districts share social workers hired by the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District, he pointed out, which has been mutually beneficial.

If St. Ignace isn't able to fund a full-time band teacher in the future, the two districts might be able to jointly hire a part-time band teacher to work for both districts, he said.

Mr. Springsteen said the two districts have discussed the idea of sharing a special education teacher, but that it didn't work out because of logistics and scheduling concerns.

Currently, band director Jason Byma teaches Gros Cap students three times a week at St. Ignace, and travels to Gros Cap on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Raising one of his concerns with the policy, Mr. Peltier said that while Mr. Byma traveled to Gros Cap 22 times during the first semester last year, he only visited 10 times during the second. Gros Cap pays Mr. Byma $4,500 for the program.

“That was the schedule that we agreed to,” Mr. Peltier said. “He wasn't coming down to our school, but our kids still went up there three days a week.”

No explanation was offered by Mr. Springsteen for why Mr. Byma was absent on those days. At a later date, he told The St. Ignace News he and Mr. Byma will discuss the issue and talk about it with Mr. Peltier.

Mr. Peltier also pointed out that St. Ignace acquires per-pupil funding for Gros Cap students attending its band program, while Gros Cap, on the other hand, receives its funding exclusively from nonhomestead property taxes, and is not compensated for the number of times Mr. Byma visits.

Mr. Peltier said while St. Ignace benefits financially from Gros Cap students, that district receives less funding if students elect to come to Gros Cap. Moreover, if the Gros Cap school receives additional students, it doesn't acquire more funding and, in consequence, might not be able to hire additional staff.

“You could probably absorb 100 kids, provided they're all over the place, and we couldn't do it,” he said, addressing the St. Ignace group.

Mr. Springsteen pointed out that, during the last joint policy committee meeting, the idea of Gros Cap discontinuing seventh and eighth grades in the future was proposed as a way to attract more students to St. Ignace to receive more per-pupil funding.

Responding, Mr. Peltier said that his goal is to keep the school open at all costs, and that the board has no intention of discontinuing those grades. He pointed out that, if the district was in financial jeopardy, eliminating seventh and eighth grades might be considered as a last resort, but that both the school board and public wants to keep Gros Cap a K-8 school. Because the community votes to support Gros Cap with non-homestead property taxes, Mr. Peltier said, if it were to become a K-6 school he is concerned the electorate might vote for the school's closure.

The two committees will meet again at St. Ignace Middle School Wednesday, January 19, at 3:30 p.m. to further discuss long term goals.