The cool weather of the past few days may make it easier for all of our students returning to school. There is little longing for the beach, when the high temperature only reaches 60 degrees.

This will be a special return to school for many elementary students in the DeTour area. Most DeTour area students in kindergarten through sixth grade, along with several area home-schooled children and some Drummond Island students, will be participating in the new DeTour Arts and Technology Academy. The special focus offered by the new charter school will expand the core curriculum in different ways. The academy celebrated the opening with an ice-cream social and ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday evening, September 7. The charter school is opening in the former DeTour Elementary School.

The DeTour school will seem a little different this year with some familiar faces gone and others in new locations. Business manager Serena Forgrave and administrative assistant Sherry Postula are both enjoying retirement. Carole Hiney has assumed the administrative assistant position, while still retaining some of her former library duties. Both the business manager and technology positions are now being contracted to the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District. Terry Tominac’s smiling face will still be in the DeTour office as full-time secretary, and on Drummond Island, Joann Bailey, who also retired, will be returning to a three-hours-per-day secretary position.

Happy Apple Scarecrow Festival plans for Saturday, September 18, are going well. There will be a full schedule in next week’s issue of The St. Ignace News. Some of the special events include the pancake breakfast from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and the girls volleyball game at 10 a.m. at the school, where the Friends of the Library will have their used book sale, the Habitat For Humanity Flea Market, gold and silver buying, antiques and displays at the Village Hall at 10 a.m. The DeTour Homemakers Apple Pie and Apple Dessert contest will include entries accepted at the Village Hall from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and judging at 11:30 a.m., and the Homemakers Sloppy Joe dinner will begin at 4:30 p.m. with the auction to benefit the DeTour Passage Historical Museum beginning at 5 p.m. Everyone is pleased to see Ted Postula back in the auctioneer seat for this. The Farmers Market will begin at 9 a.m. and the games, contests, art, crafts, and other activities will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Chamber pavilion. Special events at the pavilion include the music of “No Strings Attached” from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. and a horseshoe tournament starting at 1 p.m. Those who would like to sell items at the pavilion or the hall can still find space. The museum is still accepting good, new, or gently used items for the auction, as well. Call me at (906) 297-3231 for arrangements.

If you have not yet decided what kind of scarecrow to build for the contest, just get creative, and a cash prize or the traveling trophy for business entries may be yours.

The Library Authors series featuring James Botting, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, is Wednesdasy, September 8, at 6:30 p.m. The next library event will be another oral history roundtable discussion on the “Old Businesses and Buildings” Wednesday, September 22, at 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room.

Expanded school year library hours are now in effect. The library will be open from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.