Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette The Copper Country Intermediate School Districts Board of Education met this week and heard an update on the efforts of the Superintendent to inform the public regarding the August millage election.

HANCOCK — The Copper Country Intermediate School District (CCISD) Board of Education met Tuesday evening to hear an update regarding the August ballot and the requested millage from the CCISD. The millage request is to fund infrastructure updates to its current facility and to move the Career and Technical Program (CTE) Center to the campus on Hecla Street. Superintendent James Rautiola told the board he has been doing presentations on the millage request and the programs the CCISD offers to students at various public meetings throughout Copper Country.

More presentations are planned, at locations including as Baraga, Calumet and Ahmeek. Rautiola said CCISD will wrap up its public presentations at the CCISD building at the end of July.

“So I will do whatever it takes and get in front of as many people and groups as want to listen,” Rautiola said. “It’s tiring. It’s grueling, but I feel like we’ve made a lot of pathways that had a lot of conversations and a lot of relationships formed off of the work that we’re doing.”

Rautiola said he has no regrets at this point for the work CCISD is doing as an ISD because he believes it its the right work.

“It needs to continue to be the right work as we elevate education across the Copper Country from here, Baraga and Keweenaw Counties,” he said.

In other action, the board accepted a property donation from the City of Hancock. The property is Lot 23 on Oakland Drive and Spruce Haven and it will be used for students in the CTE program to construct another house. Work on the house should begin in September.

The board approved a 2025-2026 salary increase for administration and non-union staff. Rautiola said some positions had an increase in responsibilities and those changes in pay were to reflect that. He also said he looked at other ISDs along with a recent study to try and stay competitive. “As far as competitiveness, we still have some growth to do, but you can’t make up all of the growth in one year. Recognizing that, then there are some that I would say were on the upper end of their step scale, if you look at the MARESA or other ISDs,” Rautiola said.

The board also approved the 2024-2025 revised budget and adopted the 2025-2026 budget resolution. Parent Advisory Committee member Michelle Anderson was reappointed to another three year term for special education representing Dollar Bay Tamarack Area Schools.