RC Schools ready to begin classes September 5

At the moment, the halls of the Rogers City Area Schools (RCAS) are empty except for the occasional sounds of teachers organizing classrooms, or an anxious student hoping to locate his/her locker for the new school year; however, the silence won?t last much longer as teachers, administrators, students, and parents gear up for the opening day of classes on Tuesday, September 5. Superintendent Paul Mancine said the student count for RCAS is holding steady, which is good news due to the fact that the number of students determines the amount of state aid received.

?THE STUDENT count is in the low 600?s, which is stable,? said Mancine. ?We?ll know more when feet actually begin to hit the hallways.? Mancine said the first days for the staff of Rogers City schools are August 29 through August 31. ?We have three days of professional development planned, where teachers focus on everything from bloodborne pathogens to curriculum alignment,? said Mancine. ?The students will then report on September 5, and we have a normal schedule planned for the remainder of the month.? The school day is from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for RCAS, and because teacher contracts are not yet settled, school schedules will be determined on a month-to-month basis. ?We are starting the year without a contract, which is becoming increasingly normal due to the economic downfalls around the state,? said Mancine. ?We have been involved with negotiations, which have been amiable.? The school system is also coming back after undergoing a series of teacher lay-offs and callbacks. An $18,000 cut in Title I funds for the district might force RCAS to replace a full-time Title I teaching position as part time. Due to the constant changes in staffing throughout the summer months, RCAS principal Deb Jones has been busy rearranging the staff list — deciding what teacher is qualified to teach what subject.

?DEB (JONES) has been working hard all summer on staffing,? said Mancine. ?I believe she is working on the twelfth draft now ? she is doing a great job.? Besides organizing the teaching schedules, Jones also has been busy overseeing the set up process of the new and improved computer lab located in the high school library. ?We have 32 new hp flat-screen computers that are all Internet ready,? said Jones. ?We needed a lab where every student in a class can be on a computer, and the school board agreed.? Jones said the purchase was approved on Monday, the computers were ordered Tuesday, and delivered on Wednesday. Students also will be able to use the new Calcite Learning Lab, which was made possible by donated funds from Calcite Credit Union. ?There are five new computers equipped with headphones for students to utilize when taking online courses, such as a language course,? said Jones. Mancine said the new learning lab is another way RCAS are stepping up to offer its students as many educational resources as possible.

?The students will be able to use the lab to take Internet courses. Because they are not courses offered by the school, the school then pays for the tuition,? said Mancine. ?I really hope the students take advantage of this opportunity.? Many online resources offer courses taught by certified teachers, including Michigan Virtual High School and University, which for example, offers 13 different types of French courses. AMONG OTHER changes at RCAS is the change in the elementary lunch period. Students in grades K-2 will eat lunch at 11:40 a.m., while students in grades 3-5 will begin at 11:50 a.m. The staggering lunch periods will allow the students more time to eat, without missing valuable classroom time. Middle school lunch period begins at 11:00 a.m., while high school students eat lunch at noon. Rogers City High School students are able to leave the school grounds during their lunch hour. Mancine said the middle school section of the high school building has been undergoing some much-needed renovations, in order to keep with the philosophy of keeping the middle school students as a

separate entity. ?We are just finishing up with adding a girls? restroom to the middle school hall,? said Mancine. ?Before, female middle school students had to walk to the other side of the school in order to use the bathrooms, and now they won?t need to.? The girls? restroom is located next to the boys? restroom in the middle school hallway. The girls? restroom off of the commons area is also receiving some attention. ?That restroom did not have barrier-free access for visitors or students who may have special needs,? said Mancine. ?We are taking care of that, and there should not be any problems in the future.?

Lastly, the school is ?experimenting? with orange and black paint in a courtyard area of the school. Mancine said the exterior of the school was painted blue several years ago, and is in need of attention. He said the school decided to try orange and black paint, and is hoping to obtain some positive feedback from the community before continuing the project to the entire exterior. ?We are just doing a little experiment, and if it looks good and people like it, we?ll continue the repainting on the outside of the entire building,? said Mancine. ?We are inviting comments from everyone ? tell us what you think.?

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