Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Bessemer — It appears the possible consolidation of the Ironwood and Bessemer school districts won’t be moving forward, at least for the time being.
The committee Bessemer formed to examine the future of the district is expected to recommend against consolidation with Ironwood at the district’s next board meeting.
“This Monday at our board meeting, the committee for the future of Bessemer schools — which is made up of parents in our area and business members ... as well as a few board members — will make a recommendation not to consolidate,” A.D. Johnston Principal Dan VanderVelden told the Daily Globe Thursday.
Todd Johnson, who chairs the committee, said the recommendation was based on the feeling the district was strong enough that consolidation wasn’t necessary at this time.
“Our student counts at this time, you know, look, in the future at least, quite decent,” Johnson said Friday. “Our enrollment has actually gone up since the beginning of the year ... so we are not losing numbers, we’re actually gaining, at times. We do have a lot of school-of-choice kids that come over from Ironwood, as well.
“The district itself seems strong and we’ve got a lot of great teachers and staff at the school — both schools,” Johnson said.
He added some committee members felt there was a benefit to a community keeping its school.
“Most of (the committee) are parents of kids and we realize the benefit of a town keeping their school. There’s a benefit to that,” Johnson said. “When a town loses a school, who knows what’s going to happen afterwards?”
While he didn’t rule out the possibility of consolidating in the future, Johnson said his primary focus at this point was improving the district’s infrastructure.
“We have a building that needs some attention ... this high school building. No matter if it closes or not, down the road it’s a building we need to tend to, things need fixing,” he said. “We hope down the road if we go propose a bond to the voters they realize the importance of this school to the town and we put some improvements into it.”
He said the committee would continue to work to find a way to help the district chart its path forward.
The committee was formed in January as a way to explore what direction the district should take, following the Wakefield-Marenisco board’s Dec. 21 decision to reject Bessemer’s proposal to merge the Wakefield-Marenisco and Bessemer districts.
“The bottom line is, we need to know what the community wants,” Bessemer Superintendent Dave Radovich said at the January board meeting, where the committee was proposed. “Do we want to build a brand new school? Do we want to keep the same configuration? The floor is open.”
Ironwood Superintendent Tim Kolesar sent a letter to Bessemer on Jan. 28 proposing representatives from both districts meet to discuss the feasibility of a potential consolidation.
The Ironwood board went on record at its Feb. 22 meeting in support of exploring the possible merger.
“Let’s just talk,” said board member John Lorenson at the Feb. 22 meeting prior to making the motion affirming the school board’s support.
Kolesar expressed disappointment at Bessemer’s apparent reluctance to explore the possibility of consolidating.
“Just talking doesn’t tie anyone to anything,” Kolesar told the Daily Globe Thursday, “talking just gives us options.”
Kolesar said he had initially envisioned a first step consisting of a tour of each district school to develop a vision for how a possible consolidation could work before any concrete discussions took place, but the process never got that far.
According to information presented at Ironwood’s Feb. 22 meeting, if the two districts did consolidate, the average grade size would range from 72 to 106 students, with the high school comprised of roughly 351 students.
