By Travis Smola
The Schoolcraft school board approved the hiring of several new teachers at its July meeting.
Those hired included Hanna Adamas, 3rd grade; Sheryl Peterson, 5th grade; Talor Cope, 4th grade; Tara Allgor, 2nd grade; Aaron Beery, middle school special education; Amy Lawrence, social studies and math, middle school; Chris Kato, high school special education and Alyssa McCoy, elementary school special education.
Superintendent Rusty Stitt said the district is still looking for a part-time physical education teacher at the middle school, a math teacher for the high school and a Spanish teacher.
High School Principal Ric Seager gave a short end-of-the-year presentation to the board going over highlights from the school year. “2014-2015 was quite a dynamic year at Schoolcraft high school for a number of reasons.”
He noted that over $500,000 in scholarships were awarded this year. There were 13 seniors with a perfect 4.0 GPA. In other interesting numbers, 72 percent of students participated in athletics, with 51 percent participating in two or more sports. Seager said 95 per cent of students, responding to a survey, said they have at least one adult in the building they can talk to if they need to.
He cited the school’s culture and variety of school activities as big reasons for the positive experiences of most students. In 2015, 91 percent of students were involved in school activities. “That’s why we have the culture we have. They’re involved,” Seager said. He said the next goal was to reach the remaining nine percent.
In the last part of the presentation, Seager noted that a survey of 78 of the 89 graduates revealed 94 percent of the graduates said they had a positive experience at Schoolcraft high school. Almost 84% of these students are pursuing further education beyond high school. Seager credited the culture of the school and the staff’s hard work with the high numbers. “We have strong relationships in our building with students and our staff,” Seager said.
The high school’s goals for 2015 include growing the middle college degree program to help some students earn an associate’s degree while still in high school. They also look to increase the amount of students taking at least one college advanced placement class.