Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Bergland — The six districts in the Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District will be starting school earlier next year after the state approved the district’s early-start waiver Tuesday.
“(The waivers) were approved for a three-year period,” GOISD Superintendent Bruce Mayle said. “All the districts are planning to take advantage of that.”
A state law passed in 2005 mandates districts start school after Labor Day, but allows a waiver for certain conditions.
One of the exceptions can be for districts that have certain programs with their local colleges to allow the academic calendars to sync up.
The GOISD participates in an early middle college program in Career Technical Education.
The program allows “students entering their junior year of high school (to) have the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, a significant number of college credits and possibly an associate degree over three years,” Mayle wrote in the Daily Globe’s 2016 Education Progress section.
The exact first day for next year hasn’t been decided yet, but Mayle said it is expected to fall sometime in the last week of August. He expects the date to be set in the coming weeks.
The GOISD is made up of the Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield-Marenisco, Watersmeet, Ewen-Trout Creek and Ontonagon school districts.
Labor Day is Sept. 2 this year.
