Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Houghton County Voters will decide on the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s $45 million bond proposal today. CCISD makes final appeal for millage proposal.

HANCOCK – As Houghton County voters head to the polls today, the Copper Country Intermediate School District (CCISD) offered a final appeal for 1.5 mills for a $45 million bond proposal aimed at modernizing educational spaces and significantly expand services for students and families throughout Houghton, Keweenaw and Baraga counties. It is one of four property tax proposals on the Houghton County ballot.

According to a May press release, the CCISD the proposal, if approved, would allow it to consolidate facilities, including erecting, remodeling, including security improvements to, erecting additions to, furnishing and refurnishing, and equipping and re-equipping school buildings and facilities; and equipping, developing, and improving playgrounds and sites.

To repay the proposed bonds, voters are asked to consider a debt millage projecting to be levied at 1.15 mills in the first year, with an average millage over the life of the bond of 1.0 mill. For example, if a home has an assessed value of $200,000, the estimated taxable value is $100,000 and first year annual cost would be about $115 per year; approximately $9.50 a month. The life of the bond is expected to be 25 years.

CCISD Superintendent Jim Rautiola said the funding will cover special education, early childhood education and professional development for the 6,500 students and educators within the 15 local school districts in Houghton, Keweenaw, and Baraga counties.

The districts are the constituent members of the CCISD, which provides support services to educators and acts as a liaison between the districts and the Michigan Dept. of Education.

Rautiola said the infrastructure will have a direct impact on the students and staff. He said the proposal is essential for moving education forward.”It will provide the toolbox and the toolkit for our staff to provide that professional development for the educational staff across the ISD,” he said, “whether you’re a bus driver, a teacher, or whether it’s asbestos training – it gives us a venue to be able to do that across our area.”Additionally, said Rautiola, he believes that few people know that in order for educators to retain their professional licenses, they are required by law to undergo ongoing professional development or take additional college courses.

The proposal, if approved, he added, will setting up the education community with a facility that will launch education forward for the next 50 years. But the building in which the CCISD operates dates back to the 1950s, when it was constructed as a Catholic school.”Our staff has done an amazing job as far as keeping the building and its bones good,” Rautiola said, “but I mean, it’s time to update the boilers. It’s time to update the plumbing system, electrical system, lights – the windows and the roof are from the 1950s.”The property on which the ISD building stands, on Hecla Street, comprises 15 acres, Rautiola said, and the aim is to is consolidate the professional development center, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) center and other ISD facilities in one location.”So, bringing the staff members and students here on a central campus makes sense,” Rautiola said.Keeping the CTE services and facility in a central place is essential because students from the Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw (CLK) districts, and Houghton’s and the surrounding districts, can reach a central location within 10 to 15 minutes. Currently the CTE program consists of 13 programs that serve some 390 students.

“Those students are in Houghton and Keweenaw counties,” Rautiola said, “and 90 are students in Baraga County. It represents almost 50% of the all the juniors and seniors of all the school districts.”The CTE program, Rautiola said, increasingly attracts students. For example, a female student in the Auto Tech program recentlyrepresented the state of Michigan in in national auto tech competitions, after she had won in the regional competitions.

Rautiola said the importance of CTE to an isolated, rural community such as the western Upper Peninsula, is significant.

“Because, in a lot of instances,” he said, “if kids want to go to college, and they want to go into a profession, they have to move hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles away and leave their homes. In the Copper Country, the population is declining because of this. With a CTE certificate, they cans stay right here.”

That, said Rautiola, is what makes CTE important, particularly in the U.P.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. The Daily Mining Gazette will have complete election coverage in our Thursday edition.