Tuesday, October 18, marks 100 years since the venerable railroad ferry Chief Wawatam first landed at St. Ignace and Mackinaw City, a new, powerful, steel icebreaker slated to replace the smaller, woodhulled St. Ignace, built in 1888. Her arrival drew dignitaries, school children, and other community members to see the awesome coal-fired steamer, which, at the time, was “the largest, […]
State Releases Top To Bottom List, St. Ignace Elementary At Bottom of ISD
ISD, State and School Agree There Is More Than One Way To Measure Student Growth And AchievementSchools throughout Michigan received a ranking from the Michigan Department of Education, with schools from the Eastern U.P. ranging from the 97th percentile to the 15th. Drummond Island Elementary School was the highest ranked in the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD) and St. Ignace Elementary the lowest. The “Top-to-Bottom” list released by the state ranks each school based […]
New Student Proficiency Measures Passed By The State
The Michigan State Board of Education voted six to one, with one member abstaining, that students will now have to answer two-thirds of questions correct on standardized tests to be considered proficient in a subject. Students previously only had to get one-third of questions correct on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program and the Michigan Merit Exam. One member of the […]
Mackinaw Historical Society Will Celebrate Chief Wawatam
The Mackinaw Area Historical Society will conduct its annual meeting at the at the Mackinaw Area Public School on Central Avenue at 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 17, using the occasion to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Chief Wawatam, last of the Straits’ great train ferries. The event will take place in the multipurpose room of the school, where the […]
Michigan Politics
Mother Earth’s Legions of Northern AlliesFor more than a century, northern Michigan has provided some of the state’s most vocal and effective leaders in conservation and, more recently, environmental protection. Republican Chase S. Osborn of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan’s only governor (1911-12) from the Upper Peninsula, previously was a staunch conservationist as the state game and fish warden. As Michigan’s longest-serving governor (1969-82), Republican William […]