ST. IGNACE: Preparing to board the bus after finishing their first day at St. Ignace Elementary School Tuesday, September 7, kindergardeners (from left) Kordell Killscrow, Jeremiah Green, Jax Lipnitz, Colin Kinjorski, Joseph LaVake, and Ben Neering pose for a photograph together on school grounds. (More school photographs, page 5) The newly formed DeTour Arts and Technology Academy opened its doors Tuesday, September 7, in the former DeTour Elementary School building, a transition from public school to charter school to save money and capture new state funding.

DeTour Area Schools Superintendent Angela Reed devoted an entire summer to promoting the formation of the school, but will now relinquish the administration of it to a new school board.

“This is a separate district than ours,” she said of the new charter school. “We need to be sure there is a clear division between the two districts, even though we will be doing what we can to share resources,” Mrs. Reed said.

CEDARVILLE: Students Chase Fisher (from left), Eden Preston, Jarron Masuga, Isabella Cason, Caroline Freel, and Rachael Rye get the go-ahead to walk from the cafeteria to their respective classes after waiting for the school day to begin. (More school photographs, page 5) The new board will hire an administrator.

The old elementary school was closed by DeTour Area Schools last spring when the school board acknowledged it could no longer afford to operate the two elementary schools in its district, Drummond Island, with 48 students, and DeTour Elementary, with 49 students.

The May 10 decision was made following two public hearings, April 20 and April 27, at which the new program was explained. The idea of reopening DeTour Elementary as a charter school began as an innovative plan to keep the school district financially solvent.

“More schools are going to be in this situation, and this may be a viable option for them to explore,” Mrs. Reed said. “If there's any way school officials can work with the community in these financially difficult times, rather than alienating them, it should be pursued.”

To facilitate this process for those school districts who may be considering it, Mrs. Reed hopes to post a step-by-step guide online detailing what the DeTour school district did to make the change.

“This has generated a lot of questions in the education community,” she said.

The charter school's enrollment is 55 or 56 students, slightly larger than that of the closed elementary school. It has a class for sixth grade and combines kindergarten and first grade classes, second and third grade classes, and fourth and fifth grade classes, instructed by Sara Galarowic, Stacy Wilkie, Karrie Cloudman, and Bridget Heuer, respectively.

Seven members were appointed by public school board to the new charter school board.

“We had seven applications,” Mrs. Reed said. “All seven applying were appointed to the board. Every one of them was well qualified to serve.”

The president of the new board is Janelle Dudeck, a DeTour Fine Arts Council member who was one of the first to approach the school district with the suggestion that the council should be a partnering organization. John Orr, whose opinion has been sought by the DeTour school board for building and maintenance concerns, is the charter school board's vice president. Other board members are Olive Warner, Becky Farrell, Ron Green, Jean Bloom, and Ron Papin.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony and ice cream social were held at the academy Tuesday, August 7, to invite the community to learn more about what to expect.

The new school has an emphasis on the arts, Mrs. Reed said.

“It is a little bit more specialized than schools in the area,” she said. “We have a small class size and an arts-themed curriculum. There are plenty of opportunities to work the arts into the traditional curriculum. Teachers can incorporate arts and drama into social studies courses, or the science of movement and the body into science classes. Community members who have been trained in dance can be brought in as part of the physical education curriculum.”