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Looking ahead

Marquette school district finishes strategic plan

A later start time at Marquette Senior High School is one of the things being considered in its strategic plan for 2018-21. Current hours are 7:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — Security, increasing energy efficiency and fostering a healthy classroom environment are part of the 2018-2021 strategic plan for Marquette Area Public Schools.

Superintendent Bill Saunders said the MAPS Board of Education recently passed the plan, with goals discussed in a work session. Committees focused on seven areas: community relations, professional development, student achievement, facilities/learning environment, business/finance, technology and wellness.

“All of it was derived from our surveys,” Saunders said, with about 600 responses received from three surveys involving the community, MAPS staff and graduating seniors.

The strategic planning teams looked at the data to create the goals, said Saunders, who was co-chairman of the facilities/learning environment team.

“Certainly, we want to have a focus on security for our buildings,” Saunders said, particularly in the current climate. “We’re always looking for ways to address and provide for a safer school environment.”

The district also has been involved in creating better energy efficiency, he said, and will continue on that path.

That goal states the district will work within its own resources and with outside agencies to identify, evaluate and recommend ways to increase potential areas of energy efficiency within MAPS facilities.

Saunders said that as Marquette Board of Light and Power rates, as well as others, go up, the district needs to look at green initiatives.

Prior to the 2018-21 strategic plan cycle, he said the district had implemented new lighting programs, removing outdated lighting and converting them to LED lighting.

“We also use a lot of motion sensors for a lot of those lights now,” Saunders said.

Those, he noted, kick on when they detect motion — maybe in a gymnasium — and kick off when nobody’s there, thereby saving on energy costs.

“I can’t say specifically what the next round of energy efficiencies will look like for the next three years, but that’s a goal for that strategic planning team,” Saunders said.

The business/finance part of the strategic plan has several goals, which include creating opportunities to educate the public on how to understand basic district financial information, improving efficiency for business office procedures and establishing a fund equity policy for committing a contingency fund.

The strategic planning team recommended a 10 percent contingency to be committed with a total of 15 percent equity to expenditures to be considered by the board.

“They’re always looking at new and creative ways to engage the community in district finances, to make those, certainly, understandable to the community, so we can be as transparent as possible when we have issues or don’t have issues what those finances look like,” Saunders said.

Areas new in this strategic plan cycle is the wellness team, with Saunders calling those goals notable.

One of those is to implement a district-wide classroom celebration/reward policy that encourages healthy snacks and/or non-food alternatives for birthdays, holidays and other classroom-focused events, communicating this policy clearly with families at the start of every school year.

“This would eliminate cupcakes and all the sweets, and really look to provide healthy alternatives to those classroom celebrations,” said Saunders, who pointed out this policy already is underway at several schools. However, the goal is to make it a district-wide policy.

Another goal is to have “share tables” at Graveraet, Superior Hills, Cherry Creek and Sandy Knoll elementary schools as well as Bothwell Middle School. Those tables would provide healthy snacks for students who don’t have them, he said.

To receive federal funding for the hot lunch program, foods must be doled out in portions, and Saunders noted the district’s food service doesn’t have an issue with that.

“For instance, say we put an apple on your tray, and that kid doesn’t want to eat his apple,” Saunders said. “That’s one of those things that through our own lunch program, it used to just get thrown away.”

That means as many as 300 apples could be in the garbage.

“This is a way to say, you know what? If you don’t want your apple, that’s one of those things that we could put on that share table,” Saunders said.

Those shared snacks also could be items like cheese sticks, he said.

What also will be looked at is a later start time for students at Marquette Senior High School, with the intent of making a decision by the start of the 2019-20 school year.

Research shows that getting those students a little bit more sleep will be beneficial for them for overall health as well as mental health, Saunders said.

Hours at MSHS, which is the focus of the potential policy, are 7:30 a.m. to 2:20 p.m.

By comparison, the hours are Bothwell Middle School are 8 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. while the hours at the elementary schools are 9 a.m. to 3:50 p.m.

A few students like the current high school hours.

“I like getting out early at 2:20 instead of later like at middle school,” said MSHS senior Tanner Phillips.

Senior Destinee Bratonia said the schedule fits in with her having to start work at 3 p.m.

“I wouldn’t want to be here late,” Bratonia said.

However, sophomore Erin Kyle indicated she would prefer a later start.

“I can sleep in,” Kyle said.

With profesional development, the plan is to create a professional development system to assure maximum staff and student growth.

The technology goal is to support students’ abilities to thrive in a “technology-infused” world, which involves providing and maintaining the appropriate infrastructure for teachers, staff and students.

Part of the community relations arena involves encouraging MAPS to be active in the Instagram app, Saunders said.

He said the district already communicates with the community via Facebook and its web page at mapsnet.org, plus it sends emails to parents.

“They want us to investigate and look at ways, like Instagram and Snapchat and those types of things,” Saunders said.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.

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