By R. R. Branstrom

rbranstrom@dailypress.net

GLADSTONE — Gladstone Area Schools Superintendent Jay Kulbertis brought a report to Monday’s Board of Education meeting after attending the recent Legislative Breakfast, which was organized with the Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency (MARESA) and hosted some lawmakers and government officials to discuss school needs with educators.

“It’s good to hear from legislators that really seem to understand there’s a bit of a difference between rural issues and urban-suburban,” Kulbertis said, noting that school of choice works differently in other parts of the state.

In places with denser populations, urban residents benefit from school of choice because they can have their pick of sending their children to suburban schools with different opportunities, maybe better testing performance, and perceived higher quality in various ways.

“The suburban schools like that, because then they compete with each other with millage elections and facilities improvements and all the programming. So it’s really kind of competition-based more or less,” Kulbertis explained. “School of choice in the rural areas is not exactly that.”

Gladstone has historically been one of the school of choice winners in the county for a couple different reasons, the superintendent said. Notably, it seems to hit a “sweet spot” as far as size and location. It’s large enough to offer things the small schools don’t, and for many parents in rural areas who commute to Escanaba for work, Gladstone is on the way, which makes sense for transporting their kids to school in the morning.

However, with people choosing schools outside of their nearest district while the Upper Peninsula population is declining, enrollments at those small rural schools can fall dangerously low.

Legislators are aware of the situation and taking factors into consideration.

“Legislature is looking at what they can do to make better sense of it, whether it’s a number of districts — how long is too long on a school bus? What is the importance of the school district in terms of community identity? — All of those conversations that (were had) in the ’60s and ’70s, when we had that last big push for consolidation, which resulted in all of our hyphenated schools in the U.P.,” Kulbertis said. “That’s probably going to be revisited. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another push for talks of incentivizing consolidation.”

Overall, Kulbertis seemed optimistic about school-related decisions coming out of Lansing now and in the near future.

A member of the Michigan House Appropriations Committee who was at the MARESA meeting “does seem to feel that there’s a level of commitment and an understanding of the importance of getting at least a state school aid budget to us in June,” Kulbertis said.

Governor Whitmer released her budget, which was in line with what Gladstone had been expecting.

“She was back to increasing the foundation allowance and targeting the specific categoricals, which are also important to us: special education, at-risk, CTE … preschool … continuing to fully fund school lunch,” Kulbertis said.

In other business at the school board meeting of Feb. 17:

– Carlton Isaacson was hired as the middle school science teacher. Isaacson, a veteran, has been serving as a long-term sub in the position. The previous science teacher, Roni Mayville, passed away in December.

– The board accepted a letter of intent to retire in 2026 from Dan Bjorkquist.

– Hiring of Schedule B coaches was approved for Scott Heriou, varsity softball, and Sarah Shufflin, JV softball.

– Teamster employee Cole Peacock was hired as a custodian.

– The board accepted a letter of resignation from Teamster employee Steve O’Driscoll.