By Travis Smola
The Schoolcraft Board of Education in a short October meeting learned the district will seek safety and mental health services grants, met a student group interested in forming a slot-racing club and heard a report about a successful alumni career fair.
Finance Director Kendra Drewyor in a short report of the district’s finances noted Schoolcraft’s pupil counts continue to look strong. “We continue to have good school of choice numbers. That’s a huge component of our enrollment numbers,” Drewyor said.
Drewyor also reported the state’s budget went into effect the prior Saturday, October 1. She said the district would be pursuing new safety grants and funding meant for mental health services. Drewyor noted they don’t have exact numbers on how much this funding would entail, but the once they’ve been approved, the district will essentially get per-pupil funding for these purposes in the next few months.
In his monthly report, Superintendent Rick Frens brought up a board policy, which essentially states that every time the district receives a gift over $500, the board must vote to accept it. In this case, the cross country team received a donation of new uniforms. The board approved the donation with some of its other regular business items.
High School Principal Matthew Dailey had a few news items to share in the meeting’s closing minutes. He briefly introduced a group of students who recently became interested in slot car racing after a visit to the Gilmore Car Museum. The students are still in the informal organization phase, but Dailey noted they will be looking to make it an official after school club in the future.
Dailey also highlighted a great turnout for the district’s first-ever alumni career fair. The number of graduates who came back to speak to current students about their career paths was more than they had expected. He said his email inbox was inundated with messages from around the county talking about how successful the event had been.
“It was really powerful to see alumni come back. It wasn’t just one or two alumni, we had upwards of 30 people come back as Schoolcraft graduates,” Dailey said. “The Eagle nation is out doing great things. It’s just great to have people come back and talk about those things.”