BRUCE

By CHRISTIE MASTRIC

Journal Staff Writer

GWINN — The Gwinn Area Community Schools Board of Education on Monday decided to continue the search for an interim superintendent on its way to finding a permanent replacement.

Superintendent Brandon Bruce will resign effective Friday to return to downstate Hart Public Schools in the fall.

According to a Facebook post, Bruce will become principal of Spitler Elementary School for the 2023-24 school year.

Gwinn Middle and High School Principal Brad Pfluger was named to fill in for Bruce in the short term earlier this month.

The board decided to involve the Michigan Association of School Boards to help in the search.

Further discussion on the search for a permanent full-time superintendent was tabled until the board’s next meeting, which is scheduled for July 17 at the high school.

Pfluger will receive $100 per day during his time as a short-term interim superintendent, with the goal of having a long-term interim superintendent in place by Aug. 1.

GACS Board of Education President John Waldo said the goal for having a long-term permanent superintendent is July 1, 2024.

“It gives us a lot of time to find the right person as opposed as to just accepting what we may get,” Waldo said.

Central campus steering committee

Several members of the special steering committee that was formed to look into the possibility of a central K-12 campus — the “one school, one community” concept — expressed concern on Monday that the group was disbanded.

The special steering committee had been looking into the possibility of closing K.I. Sawyer and Gilbert elementary schools and adding a K-5 grade school wing to the current Gwinn High/Middle School building. The buildings, Bruce said at a town hall at Sawyer Elementary School on May 31, are aging and need to be updated and maintained.

Bruce had recommended the proposal, estimated at $45 million, be on the November ballot.

“I feel like we’ve been stopped, and I don’t think that that’s going to do what we need to do for November, and that’s concerning,” committee member Leesa Misterly said.

She said the committee worked hard to come up with its findings, and many people in the community are not in favor of the central K-12 campus.

“We’ve got a lot of legwork to do,” Misterly said.

Waldo invited the steering committee — which he said successfully completed its task to determine the scope of the project — to stay involved.

“Going forward, that doesn’t mean you have to stop supporting or trying to answer the questions for it,” Waldo said.

He also said the steering committee can join a new citizens advisory committee on the project.

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.