Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The north side of A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer faces Iron Street. A district committee is studying the possibility of closing Washington Elementary School and moving those kids to ADJ. To accommodate the influx of students, the committee is eyeing the possible expansion of ADJ to Iron Street.
BESSEMER -The Bessemer Area Schools District and its planning committee are developing plans to renovate and expand A.D. Johnston High School and close Washington Elementary School, meaning all the district's students would be in one building.
Planning committee chairman Todd Johnson said tentative plans call for expanding the ADJ to the north, including closing West Iron Street, which is adjacent to the Gogebic County Courthouse and Sheriff's Department.
Plans also call for moving and adding walls for classrooms in the existing ADJ structure. Johnson said there will be new classrooms, a new gymnasium with a possible walking track, and potentially a new band room.
Johnson said plans are still tentative. He said the community would be welcome to use the walking track.
The committee is discussing the road closing with the city officials, and plans to meet with the planning commission, the sheriff and other county officials, and eventually the city council.
The school's committee was formed shortly after the district's request to consolidate with Wakefield-Marenisco was rejected by the W-M school board in December. The committee consists of alumni and parents of current and former students.
In January, the Ironwood Area School district sent a letter requesting to consolidate with Bessemer. With the committee's guidance, the Bessemer school board rejected that idea in March.
On Wednesday, Johnson said they rejected Ironwood's offer primarily because they looked at the impact it would have on the city if it lost it's school. He said the committee also turned down consolidation because it didn't want to take on the Ironwood school district's debt.
"If we're going to take on debt, it would be within our own community," he said.
From an academic standpoint, Johnson said the district is "doing very well."
"The trend for us in Bessemer has been high scores," he said. "We have great students and great teachers."
Johnson said the planning committee and the school district doesn't want to consider consolidating "any more."
"The decision has been made and we want to move forward," he said.
Johnson said the committee decided it was in the best interest of the community to renovate and expand A.D. Johnston High School.
"We're going to improve the building we have," he said.
Johnson said renovating and adding to the high school will and make lives easier for the staff because they won't have to travel to and from both schools.
He said merging the two schools will also save the district money and enhance its budget by saving on utilities and maintenance.
Superintendent David Radovich said the resulting savings will allow for improved curriculum.
Business Manager Chris Bergquist said the ADJ junior and senior high school has 404 students enrolled as of May and Washington Elementary School had 214 students.
"We are anticipating the number of students will remain steady," she said.
