News Photo by Reagan Voetberg KingScott President Rob Atkins and Project Director Laura Casai presented two master plan scenarios for the use of Alpena Public Schools facilities in the future to the board of education on Monday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools board of education is reimagining the future use of APS facilities.

At their workshop meeting on Monday, the board of education listened to a presentation by KingScott president Rob Atkins and project director Laura Casai about the facility study they conducted over the past six months. KingScott is an architecture, engineering, and interior design firm.

The two master plan scenarios that Casai and Atkins developed for the future of APS facilities were the highlight of the presentation.

Prior to the presentation, Superintendent Dave Rabbideau relayed some of the facts that led to the district hiring KingScott for the study.

Enrollment at APS has been declining since 1973, when the district had approximately 9,286 enrollments. Now, the district has approximately 3,646 enrollments. The decline has stabilized some in the past few years.

Since 1973, the district has closed 13 buildings, Rabbideau said. The most modern building in the district is 25 years old.

The district transports about 1600 students a day across 604 square miles, Rabbideau said.

Atkins said the district has a fleet of 21 buses. The earliest route in the morning picks up at 5:10 a.m. and the longest route is nearly two hours.

Strategically, Atkins said he saw a lot of value in the country elementaries–Hinks, Sanborn, and Wilson–due to their geographic locations in the district.

Casai and Atkins discussed other statistics about the district, including square footage of each of the buildings, how that space is being used, and the ratio of student population to square footage in each building.

MASTER PLAN SCENARIO ONE

In the first master plan scenario that Casai and Atkins presented, they suggested making Sanborn and Wilson K-6 schools. Besser and Ella White would be K-4 schools. The Thunder Bay Junior High Building would be repurposed as a 5-6 grades intermediate school. Seventh and eighth grade students would move to F house in the Alpena High School building, and grades 9-12 would remain at the high school.

Lincoln elementary would house the Wildcat Clinic, the APS central office, and the NEMSCA pre-K program.

Hinks elementary would house district wide pre-K and great start readiness programs (GSRP), early childhood special education program (ECSE), and the family partnership program.

In this scenario, Sunset school and the current APS central office on Gordon Road would go out of use.

The opportunities presented with this plan include secondary busing population reduction, limit transitions to new buildings for some students, and a choice of an intermediate school for students at the country elementaries.

Drawbacks to the first scenario include figuring out how to effectively separate 7th and 8th graders from their high school peers, and longer bus routes for elementary students.

MASTER PLAN SCENARIO TWO

In the second master plan scenario presented by Atkins and Casai, Wilson and Sanborn would both house pre-K through fifth grade students. Ella White would become a lower elementary school for K-2 and Besser would become an upper elementary for 3-5.

Hinks would become a junior high magnet school for grades 6-8. TBJH would remain as is for grades 6-8.

Lincoln would be used for the Wildcat Clinic, district wide pre-K and GSRP, the family partnership program, and ECSE.

AHS would be used for grades 9-12 and house the APS central office in the F house.

Sunset and the current central office building would go unused in this scenario as well.

Opportunities with this scenario include focusing services by grade level and giving middle school students an option.

Obstacles include keeping central office and high school students separated and transportation changes.

Members of the board asked Casai and Atkins questions, and expressed their ideas about the two master plans. One board member liked the idea of keeping sixth graders in the country schools. The question was raised of whether there would be enough interest in a magnet middle school.

The community has an opportunity to participate in the discussion on the future of APS facilities at 5:30 p.m. today in the Wildcat Den.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.