Posen Board votes to keep exploring cooperation with Rogers City Area Schools

The Posen Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to continue looking at ways to share administrative costs with the Rogers City schools. The board agreed to pay its share of the legal expenses related to contracts and other documents that would have to be created in order for the two districts to share administrative costs as well as combining some educational programs that would otherwise have to be cancelled due to funding cuts at the state level. Board President Ken Wozniak distributed a resolution authorizing the exploration and anticipation of the establishment of a dual superintendent position between Posen and Rogers City.

“This all came about from the discussions we have been having in the last couple months. I met with Mike Marx, president of the RCAS Board, one-on-one to make sure that it is something that both sides want to pursue,” Wozniak said.

“THE NEXT STEP is to talk to an attorney with the experience to prepare the agreements necessary to bring this about,” he continued. The cost of the legal work is estimated at about $8,500 per school district to do all the legal paperwork as well as issuing guidelines to avoid any problems down the road. “Passing these resolutions as we go along does not mean we have to go through with the deal if we don’t want to do so,” Wozniak continued.

“I still feel quite strongly that is something we need to pursue,” he said. “I thought the meetings went quite well. We discussed the positives and negatives, we discussed potential cost savings for each district. We looked at what was good and not so good and where we can work together,” Wozniak said. The legal paperwork is important to ensure that each school district maintains its own identity and flexibility. In other words, either party would always have the option to go back to doing things as before or to seek agreements with other districts, according to Wozniak.

IN OTHER BUSINESS the board accepted, with regret, a letter of resignation submitted by Patrick Kowalski as a high school science teacher. The board thanked Kowalski for his 30 years

of service and his excellent job of teaching science to many Posen students. Mr. Kelly pointed out to the board that Kowalski would be continuing as the baseball coach after retiring from teaching.

The board voted to continue the probationary status of high school English instructor Mary Misiak for a third year. Probation status is customary for four years prior to being offered a tenured position with the school. The board voted to grant tenure to two teachers, Patricia Ryan-Stone and Julie McLennan. The board also approved a family leave request of teacher Glen Budnick for the remainder of the academic year.

The board approved raising the driver education fees have been raised from $160 to $175 per student. The school received a thank you letter from the Red Cross for the donation of $110.25 from the class of Mary Misiak to be used for disaster relief The board has rescheduled the next meeting from May 16 to May 23 to accommodate the local school election process.

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