∫ The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education will consider approving the contract for the district’s instructional assistants during its board of education 5:30 p.m. Monday. The district’s instructional assistants ratified the contract on Wednesday, according to interim superintendent Susan Wooden. The previous contract expired on June 30.

In the meantime, district officials continue to negotiate a contract for the district’s bus drivers, whose contract also expired on june 30.

The board’s finance committee recently learned money from the district’s long range maintenance fund could be used to renovate the track at Thunder Bay Junior High School, according to Wooden. The cost of the renovation would be offset by grants and other monies from the Besser Foundation, Community Foundation of Northeast Michigan, and Alpena County’s youth and recreation millage.

The board of education is expected to award bids for the project on Monday.

∫ The Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District will pay Beaverton-based Quality Environmental Services $7,320 for asbestos abatement at Pied Piper School. AMA ESD Superintendent Scott Reynolds said school officials know there is asbestos in the school’s window sills and caulk around the windows.

The asbestos has to be removed safely in order for the school’s renovation to continue. The project includes the replacement of the roof, windows, old ceiling tiles, and lighting, the lowering of the ceiling in the school’s woodshop, the installation of a new public address system, and more.

“It’s quite a small job in terms of the scope and we don’t foresee any complications that will interfere with the larger project there,” he said.

The AMA ESD approved a $20,000 contract with Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency for truancy support services. Reynolds said it is the fourth year partnering with NEMCSA, whose school success workers assist the ESD.

Reynolds said the school success workers let parents know when their kids have accumulated a set number of absences and talks with parents if they are concerned with a student’s attendance or unexcused absenteeism.