ALPENA — The Rogers City Area Schools board said they are happy with positive changes the board and administration have enacted.

Those changes were discussed at the regular school board meeting on Monday.

“You’re off to a good start this year and look ahead to the future of this school system,” said former school board President John Krajenta.

Board President Ivy Cook agreed.

“I agree there’s been a lot of positive change and it’s good for people to see that,” she said.

During the meeting, the board approved donations from different people and groups. Among them was $2,800 from the United Dairy Industry of Michigan for the food service department toward grab-and-go breakfast carts, a $1,100 grant from the United Dairy Association of Michigan for milk coolers for the football program and an $837 donation from sports boosters for helmets.

Superintendent Nick Hein also updated the board on several topics during the meeting as well.

He said the schools have not yet received their official M-STEP results from the state.

“That’s disappointing, because they’re supposed to be here before the school year starts,” Hein said. “The whole purpose of putting the test online is so that the results are supposed to be up quickly. I heard it’s (results) on the internet, but I haven’t received anything from the state, yet.”

He noted enrollment stands at 349 for grades six through 12 and 184 for kindergarten through fifth grade.

“This puts us seven down from our original budget,” he said. “The elementary is down 16 students, but the high school has gone up so it kind of fluxes that way.”

He added the yearly audit of the school system is still incomplete.

Hein said when the auditor is back from vacation, he’s going to find out why it isn’t done.

“To my knowledge, in the month of May, every account is reconciled,” Hein said.

Jordan Spence can be reached at jspence@thealpenanews.com or 989-358-5687.