The school board was met with an interested and engaged audience at its October meeting, held in Grand Portage, attended by residents from as far away as the end of the Gunflint Trail and as near as the Grand Portage neighborhood.
Grand Portage residents discussed several issues with the school board that they thought were pertinent to their kids. With ISD 166 considering the possibility of moving some sports out of the school’s purview and into community hands, one resident said, they are concerned that participation could become harder for Grand Portage students, particularly because of transportation and scheduling issues. This resident advocated for keeping things like volleyball, basketball, and football in the schools because they are more accessible to Grand Portage students that way.
Another resident said her granddaughter learned a lot about Native culture, dance, and language in elementary school in Grand Portage, but when she got to Cook County Middle School, none of those topics were part of the curriculum. She also wondered what kinds of cultural awareness curriculum the district offered its elementary students at Sawtooth in Grand Marais.
Currently, an Ojibwe language class is offered at the high school level.
ISD 166 Superintendent Beth Schwarz said the school is thinking about whether it should be offering Ojibwe language classes to middle school students as well. They are also wondering if Cook County Community Education could offer after-school courses in Native American culture up in Grand Portage.
Grand Portage Band Director of Education Haley Brickner said attending classes outside of school can be hard for kids who have been in school all day, participated in after-school sports, and taken a long bus ride back up to Grand Portage. She suggested offering culture classes during school hours. She noted that counting Ojibwe language classes as social studies credits rather than just elective credits would be helpful.
Eighty-eight out of ISD 166’s student population of just over 400 is Native American. Has the district tried to hire Native American teachers? one grandparent asked. “Oh, we’ve tried so hard,” said Superintendent Schwarz. She said finding teachers of any color has been very difficult.
One issue the district is trying to address is the math and reading achievement gap in standardized testing between American Indian students and the rest of the student population. That gap has narrowed in the last couple of years, but one Grand Portage resident wondered what the district is going to do to close that gap. Superintendent Schwarz said they offer extra help to students who need it and started up The Journey program for middle school students, in which kids went camping together, building self-confidence and a sense of belonging.
Schwarz said she is working with Grand Portage Band Director of Education Brickner to look at how teachers are interacting with Native American students.
“I think we should focus more on American Indian students,” said one Grand Portage community member. Schwarz said she needs help from the Native American community to know how to make things better. “It is a hard, hard question,” she said. “We need to work together on it.”
Toward that end, an education committee comprised of Oshki Ogimaag parents and staff submitted recommendations to the school board on how ISD 166 could better meet the needs of its Native American students. The school board will discuss this at a special meeting on November 11.
“This is exciting,” said school board member Mary Sanders. “We’ve started down a new path, I think. A new path of working together.”
Cook County High School Ojibwe language teacher Tom Jack thinks they have a long way to go on that path. “We’re still teaching the ‘Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue’ thing,” he said, “and that has to change.”
Guidance counselor position
School Counselor Bryan Hackbarth updated the ISD 166 school board on his position after the board decided last year to keep the position in place full-time while considering other administrative cuts. “My position has evolved considerably over the last four to five years,” he said. He works with the faculty and administrative team to meet student needs for services. “We’re not just doing one or two or three or four things in a given day,” he said.
With a new data coordinator to oversee standardized testing, Hackbarth will be able to focus more of his time on dealing with day-to-day student issues, post-secondary planning with high schoolers, and services to elementary students.
“There was a need for more elementary presence,” Hackbarth told the board.
While Hackbarth said his job is not to provide mental health counseling, in addition to his other duties he has never failed to address mental health issues that come up with students.
“It’s extra important for you to clarify what’s important and what you want me to focus on in this school district,” he said to the school board.
In other news:
. The Alternative Choice Education (A.C.E.) program will be continuing this year but in a different format from previous years. Students will have a teacher onsite to help them but will also work with an online teacher to catch up on missed credits.
. Deb Waage will be retiring midyear, and other teacher assignments will shift around as a result. Some of the teachers affected are John Muus, Pam Taylor, Kathryn Ramberg, and Scott Steinbach.
. The Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation donated $8,500 for sound absorption boards to be installed in the elementary gym
. Also discussed at the school board’s November 11 special meeting will be the possibility of reducing the district’s superintendent position in light of declining enrollment and uncertain funding. At the October 18 meeting, they decided to postpone the decision they had been planning to make.
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