News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alternative Choices for Educational Success Academy, Alpena Public Schools’ alternative school, is pictured on Wednesday on Pinecrest Street.

ALPENA — Alpena Public Schools officials are looking for ways to consolidate operations to account for the district’s declining enrollment.

Superintendent Dave Rabbideau told the Board of Education’s Property Committee on Monday district officials are conducting an inventory of district-owned property and are considering the marketability of the Central Office building and Alternative Choices for Educational Success Academy, the district’s alternative high school.

“These are not things that are going to happen in the next week or two or even this school year, but we recognize that we do have two properties that are serving a small number of people and we want to work towards the goal of right sizing the district,” Rabbideau said.

Rabbideau said Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency has rented a portion of Central Office for many years, but the agency notified district officials it will not be renewing its lease with the district this September.

Without income coming in from NEMCSA’s lease, Rabbideau said the building becomes much more expensive for the district to maintain for such a small staff.

District officials are also looking at redefining and reimagining its program at ACES Academy and would like to relocate the academy to the high school while maintaining the academy’s identity.

Rabbideau said district officials believe the academy’s property is more marketable because of its proximity to a number of medical offices and residential units.

“We did get partial appraisals of both buildings and they seem to be valuable to some degree and so we’d probably be putting those out to the real estate market in the near future — a couple months out or so — as we close out the year and look to the future.” he said.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.