Shared superintendent community forums conducted this week in Posen and Rogers City

Members of the Rogers City Area Schools Board of Education have scheduled a special meeting tonight (Thursday) to receive input on the proposed shared superintendent concept with the Posen Consolidated Schools at a community forum. After a joint meeting by the two school boards in Posen a couple of weeks ago school board members agreed to proceed with the forums. ?They made it clear that the next step in the process will be talking to staff, as well as inviting people of the community to come to these forums to simply ask questions and make comments about the shared superintendent,? said Paul Mancine, Rogers City?s interim superintendent. ?Truly, the boards want to know how the public feels about this issue.? Both districts are without fulltime superintendents. Mike Murch is serving as interim superintendent in Posen. The community forum in Posen was Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the new gym.

THE COMMUNITY forum in Rogers City begins shortly after the meeting opens at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Grambau Center and will be facilitated by Mary Vratanina, Cheboygan-Otsego-Presque Isle Educational Service District superintendent and Paul Ellinger, Cheboygan Area Schools superintendent. Before turning the meeting over to the facilitators, there will be opening remarks from board president Mike Marx and Mancine. Copies of a questionnaire will be given to all participants. After remarks from the facilitators the floor will be opened up to the audience for questions. The board will be seated as a panel and field questions as directed by the board president. Legal or technical questions will be directed to Mancine.

?I think the one thing that they (the board) did learn what was important to all parties is that the process is probably as important or equal to the results here, so they really wanted to involve everyone in this and make sure that they take the pulse of the

community because the board represents the community,? said Mancine.

AS PART of the forum agenda, there will be further comments from the audience if time permits. In addition to responding with a hard copy questionnaire participants also will be asked to respond to questions electronically via remote tallying devices. ?I did interview probably 80 percent of the staff and some people in the community,? said Mancine. ?Basically, the vast majority of staff said ?sure, but? they had some reservations about how things will be handled in cases of emergency. I think the vast majority of staff believes we should try it.

?The general populace out there that I bumped into in the community said ?sure why not, just do it.? If it saves us some money and puts money back into the classroom, that type of thing.?

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