Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE ELECTION OF school board officers took place at the Wakefield-Marenisco School Board meeting Monday night. Pictured are the board trustee members taking the oath of office, from left, Stacie Rooni, Brandon Yuckasz, President Brad Dalbec and Marsha Vestich. Trustee Dan Obradovich not pictured.
WAKEFIELD - The Wakefield-Mareisco School Board welcomed some new faces as well as seasoned members onto the 2015 board Monday night.
Back on the board this year is Brad Dalbec as president, Micki Sorensen as vice president, Margaret Lynott as secretary and Masha Vestich as treasurer. Returning as trustees are Dan Obradovich and Brandon Yuchazs and new this year is Stacie Rooni.
Superintendent Cathy Shamion told the board the district has almost used up the allotted time off for snow/cold days. However, the school calendar this year has built in extra hours, so at this point there is no need for added days.
Shamion also reported that next week is exams week for grades 7-12 and six out of 14 seniors are exempt from taking their exams. They received B's or higher in all their classes and therefore are excused as a way to keep "senioritis" at bay for as long as possible.
The board discussed putting a bond proposal for the purchase of new buses on the May ballot. The proposal was for $400,000 for the purchase of four new buses over the next four years. It would be a levy of about 0.6 mil per year.
If the bond is not approved, the purchase of new buses will then directly come from the school's general fund. New buses will be purchased either way.
There was a fire pre-inspection by the Wakefield Fire Chief last week. It was a walk-through to see if there were any problems that could be a fire safety issue.
January is designated Board Appreciation month and Shamion thanked the board members for their hard work. She said they make difficult decisions, represent our community and maintain the freedom of local control, of which is constantly being eroded.
"That particular board responsibility gets tougher and tougher each year because Lansing and Washington are determined to make every school cookie-cutter copies of each other," she said.
In honor of the board's "direct defiance of the state and federal efforts to make us a cookie-cutter school" Shamion presented the board members cookies.
