News Photo by Crystal Nelson Alpena Public Schools Superintendent Dave Rabbideau addresses the Board of Education’s Property Committee last Monday.

ALPENA — Alpena Public Schools Superintendent Dave Rabbideau and Alternative Choices for Educational Success Academy Director Laura Stibitz will make a presentation to the district’s board of education Monday about the academy relocating to the Alpena High School campus this fall.

Rabbideau, during the board of education’s property and finance committee meetings last week, emphasized the district is not doing away with the ACES program, but is relocating it to the high school.

District officials plan to relocate the program into the high school robotics room and a couple of other nearby rooms that aren’t being used. Students would have their own entrance to the program, access to their own restrooms, and lunch will be brought to the classroom.

Rabbideau said it was made very clear to him from the beginning discussions that the ACES program needs to maintain its identity.

“Where we’ve got this new location in the building, you know, it is very physically separated from the high school,” he said. “If the students want to, they could come in and take an additional class in the high school. If they don’t want to have anything to do with the high school, they don’t have to.”

Rabbideau told the committees there is a lot of efficiency to be found in the plan. Students would have more teachers, counselors, and programs available to them and there wouldn’t be a commute for teachers who work at both the academy and the high school.

He said, historically, about 15 to 20 academy students also participate in one of the high school’s Career and Technical Education classes. Relocating the program means students will not have to worry about transportation to and from those classes, he said.

Academy students were also included in the discussions, Rabbideau said, and although they were not happy initially, they were able to agree that it was a good thing, and understand the vision for the program.

“Mrs. Stibitz has been over to the high school several times to design the program and lay out what it looks like, and they all came away confident that they can maintain that special thing they’ve got at ACES,” he said.

Rabbideau also told committee members the expense of running the program at its Pinecrest Street location is outpacing the revenue, and that enrollment in the program has shrunk to about a third of what it was in 2011.

He said the program is currently running at 13% capacity. Comparatively, Maple Ridge was at 43% capacity, Long Rapids was at 65% and Hubbard Lake was 74% capacity when they closed, he said.

The board meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. via the online streaming platform Zoom.us. Enter the meeting identification number 873 3475 8233 and the passcode apsboe to join.

Call 1-312-626-6799 and enter the above meeting ID and passcode 726313 to join the meeting by phone.