illustration courtesy of CCISD If the proposed CCISD bond proposal is approved, the current CTE facility will be repurposed for an Early Childhood Center. The CTE program would be consolidated into one building on Hecla Street.

HANCOCK – The Copper Country Intermediate School District announced last week it is seeking a bond proposal that will appear on the Aug. 5 ballot. The ISD is proposing a $45 million dollar investment it says would modernize its learning environments.

According to the bond proposal details, the CCISD’s facilities are currently spread across multiple outdated buildings, limiting the ISD’s ability to deliver flexible, centralized, and accessible education, the proposal release states. Increasing enrollment in Career & Technical Education (CTE), rising demand for Special Education and Early Childhood Education services, and the lack of a regional professional development hub underscore the critical need for updated, centralized spaces.

“I think why this is important, is this is really preparing our students for the future of education?” said Dave Sim, public engagement specialist at the CCISD.

Sim said the bond proposal would include updating the CTE facility and bringing it to the Hecla Street campus and ensuring they have the proper materials in one place.

Currently, CTE programs are taught at various sites throughout the three-county area. For example, the main center, on Quincy Street, serves students in Automotive Technology and Information Technology, while nursing assistant and health careers programs are conducted in newly remodeled classrooms in the Houghton County Medical Facility, Canal View.

The CTE program also includes business entrepreneurship, construction technology, welding and manufacturing, education, culinary, mechatronics and graphic marketing and design.

CCISD Superintendent Jim Rautiola said if the proposal passes, the current CTE building, in the former Lindrus Motors in downtown Hancock, would be completely renovated and repurposed to become an Early Childhood Development Center, with an enclosed outdoor play area.

If approved, the bond proposal would also provide updates to Special Education, said Sim, which is often times underfunded and under supported.

“For those students, they need a place that suits their needs, that protects them, and helps them learn to the best of their ability,” he said.

The big thing for this, said Sim is the Hecla Street facility is more than 70 years old. “For the special education students, the special education world has changed,” Sim said, “and their needs have changed along with it.”

To view the millage proposal page on the CCISD website, visit https://www.copperisd.org/page/millage