News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Board of Education President Gordon Snow addresses the board during its virtual meeting Monday.

ALPENA — The Alpena Public Schools Board of Education approved many previously discussed action items on Monday, including plans for its new transportation facility and two new courses for next year.

The board approved plans for the district’s new transportation facility, which would be located behind Alpena High School. The district is working with Grosse Pointe-based Vautgrand Holdings to build the new transportation facility in exchange for the property the current transportation facility is located on.

The current transportation facility property, located at 1357 M-32 West, would then be developed into an Aldi grocery store and once again become a taxable property.

Mary Lyon, associate superintendent for business and operations, said the site plans have been reviewed by Superintendent Dave Rabbideau, Building and Grounds Supervisor Kurt Konieczny, and the mechanics. She said all of them found the plans to be acceptable.

Trustee Tom Hilberg asked Lyon to clarify whether these were the final plans.

Lyon said the next step would be to make the blueprints and get the necessary approvals, such as an approval from the state, for the project to move forward.

“This is the conceptual floor plan — the way we would like to see it play out,” she said.

Two new courses will be offered to secondary students next year — a “woods” class for sixth grade students and an 11th grade Perspectives of Democracy project based learning course.

Meaghan Gauthier, assistant superintendent for K-12 curriculum, said elective classes are being opened up to sixth grade students at Thunder Bay Junior High School next year and woods teacher Robert Thomson believed it was important to offer students another “hands-on” elective option for kids.

“Basically this is an intro course that would involve projects that don’t require more advanced power tools like table saws,” she said of the woodworking class, noting there was a concern about maturity level around that kind of equipment. “And so this is an intro course, where they get into the more advanced projects in later grades.”

Gauthier said there are enough kids signed up to run the course, although she did not know how many sections of the course would be offered.

Alpena High School will be offering a new project based learning course — called Perspectives of Democracy — for 11th grade students. The course, which is being taught by Amy Brownridge and Bill Bright, will provide students with one English credit and one-half government credit.

The course, which was requested by students, is a continuation of the 9th grade “American Perspectives” class and the 10th grade “World Perspective” class. It will be offered next fall for students.

“I would note that the curriculum and technology committee had a consensus that the board should also be approving this course,” Board President Gordon Snow said.

Additionally, the board also approved Aug. 30, 2021 as the first day of school for the 2021-22 academic year.