MARQUETTE — Looking for ways to save money for students and their families, the Marquette Area Public Schools board of education discussed changes in athletic family fee caps and Bay Cliff camp costs at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday.

Additionally, Marquette resident and intellectual property attorney Margaret Brumm spoke during public comment.

Superintendent Zack Sedgwick sparked a conversation with the board concerning the lowering of the overall family cap for athletics — this is the maximum amount of money families have to pay regardless of the number of student athletes and their level of participation.

The current cap, $800, would be lowered to $500, resulting in savings for many families who have multiple students involved in sports.

“Every little bit, for a family, helps,” said board member Jennifer Ray, who was supported by her colleague Jason Zdunek.

Fellow board member Jennifer Klipp agreed and suggested the fee cap could be translated to more extracurricular activities than just athletics.

The board additionally discussed the student fee required for attendance at the annual Bay Cliff Health Camp trip held for fifth- and seventh-graders. It costs $75 for fifth graders and $150 for seventh graders but multiple fundraising options are available.

But board president Kristen Cambensy described parents as “captive donors” when it comes to fundraising that money.

“It would be nice if we could come up with something that affects all of our students, fifth- and seventh-graders, to offset some of those costs so we don’t feel like we’re constantly out there with our hand out,” she said.

Cambensy also shared the board’s process for picking MSHS’s new logo. While none have been revealed to the public, about 20 to 30 designs were received during the submission period. On Wednesday, administration will meet with students to receive input on the designs.

Using both student feedback and the original designs, a professional will be hired to make a finished product for the school.

During public comment, Brumm made note that her recall petitions filed for Ray and Klipp have been denied due to not being “specific enough,” similar to the first recall attempt made by another area resident. Brumm said she would appeal the decision made by the Marquette County Election Commission due to the not having any guidance about how to make the petition more specific.

She further said board members should expect a “regular series” of Freedom of Information Act requests concerning MAPS invoices and emails.

To fund the FOIA requests, Brumm said she would continue selling Marquette Sentinels T-shirts along with Marquette Redmen T-shirts and a brand new “Red Brumms” T-shirt.

The Red Brumms nickname and accompanying design is from an anonymously created website called margaretbrumm.com satirizing Brumm’s efforts to stop the rebranding.

The website features a cartoon version of Brumm with a crown of cigarette butts and text reading “Marquette Red Brumms.” It also has an artificial intelligence-powered chat box that allows users to ask questions to a “Margaret Brumm” bot and a list of six phases concerning the effort to rename the MSHS mascot to the “Marquette Red Brumms.”

As of Wednesday, there does not appear to be a federal trademark application for the Marquette Red Brumms nickname to be used on T-shirts or clothing.

While wearing one of her newest Marquette Red Brumms shirt, Brumm said, “I’m not just somebody who comes here to tell you I’m concerned about what you’ve done, I’m a taxpayer and I can see you stumbling into another bad situation, so I’m just going to give you a heads-up that I would give to anyone: before you release your logo, you need to file a copyright application and file a trademark application.”