Vanessa Dietz/Daily Mining Gazette L'Anse Area School Board Vice-President Jim Fedie, and members Eva Marie Hatfield, Joan Bugni and Christine Collins are pictured from the left at Monday's meeting, the last for Hatfield.

L’ANSE – L’Anse Area Schools said goodbye to a retiring board member and hello to several grants supporting a student robotics team.

Fellow board members expressed their appreciation for the service and perspective of Eva Marie Hatfield, who did not seek re-election to the school board, which will welcome new member Ed Gransell in January.

“I’ve learned so much from being on this board,” said Hatfield, who joined the board six years ago with 22 years experience in early childhood education. She and her three children graduated from L’Anse Area Schools. “My kids are gone and it’s still hard for me to leave.”

Hatfield and other members heard about a promising program the district recently became part of.

Superintendent Susan Tollefson updated the board on the new robotics team, which will build a robot in a competition with other Michigan schools in 2017.

“It should be pretty exciting to see what they can do,” Tollefson said in her report to the board. “This is an expensive program so the grant funding will definitely all be used this year, and will allow for carryover to next year. The six-week building season starts in early January and culminates with two competitions in March,” Tollefson said, noting those will be in Escanaba and Sault Ste. Marie.

FIRST Robotics funded a recent trip to Saginaw to workshop some basics with school teams new to the program. The nonprofit organizes the annual competition to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, fostering self-confidence, communication and leadership.

“They went on a chartered bus with students from Watersmeet, Houghton, Baraga and Carney-Nadeau,” Tollefson said, adding five other schools also took part in the workshop.

The program is funded by grants from the Michigan Department of Education Robotics for $9,000, Michigan Economic Development Coalition for $5,000 and FIRST Robotics for a $6,000 Rookie Grant.

The program also has the support of one local business, so far.

“I am grateful to L’Anse Manufacturing for agreeing to be a community partner in this,” Tollefson said, adding more businesses are welcome to help support the team.

“It’s possible we could get a corporate sponsor,” an optimistic Tollefson said. “Some businesses are looking for those tax-deductible donations.”