Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By P.J. GLISSON
Ewen — The Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District, based in Ewen, has a new way of informing the public.
Its podcast, called “The Chalkboard,” is part of what Alan Tulppo calls the district’s “multifaceted means of sharing news.”
As superintendent of GOISD, Tulppo explained the approach in a Feb. 16 interview with The Globe.
“We, as the ISD, felt that we’re providing a lot of services and classes that we wanted to raise awareness of with parents and the public,” he said. “We’re using it to raise awareness of what’s available. We hope that we’re reaching members of the public who wonder what the GOISD is and what we do.”
Tulppo said that the podcast will supplement the district’s already established other means of communicating, such as by traditional media, social media and a newsletter.
“It’s just another way to reach people,” he said of the audio reports that people can listen to while driving, relaxing or working around the house.
“We try to share an episode at least once a month,” said Tulppo of the podcast that just began at the end of last year. “We’re starting out small, picking some key areas.”
Each podcast is about 15 minutes and, so far, topics have included the ISD’s mental health specialists, its reading and literacy consultants, and representatives of its Early On Program.
The latter is an outgrowth of the Michigan Early On Program, designed to support infants and toddlers who have developmental delays or disabilities.
Tulppo serves as the show’s host, and he invites two or three members of the ISD’s wide variety of staff members to accompany him on each episode.
“We try to make them very conversational,” he said, adding that district officials would like, eventually, to include some students in the experience.
“We just recorded a new episode on career and technical education,” said the superintendent, who said it would be available this week. “Our long-term goal is to have at least two episodes per month.”
Persons wishing to view the podcasts can find them on the GOISD website at goisd.org and also can subscribe there to the related YouTube site. The totality of ISD programming also is shared on the website.
School districts under the wing of GOISD include Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield-Marenisco, Ewen-Trout Creek, Ontonagon and Watersmeet.
Since 2022, the GOISD also has operated an Early Childhood Center called “Little Learners,” located at the former All Saints Catholic Academy within Our Lady of Peace Parish of Ironwood.
That center runs year-round from Monday through Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Its programming includes before- and after-school care, infant care, toddler care and preschool programming.
As of next year, Tulppo said that early childhood education also will be added.
The GOISD also once ran the Lake Superior Academy, an online educational venue, but it no longer exists.
“We only ran that during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Tulppo, who added that interest dropped when society normalized, at which point “it just wasn’t feasible for us to continue.”
He added, however, that foreign language learning still occurs online at some schools.
