The Copper Country Intermediate School District Board of Education held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019

Deb Bradford from Rukkila, Negro and Associates, CPAs, PC, presented the CCISD board with its annual audit. Bradford informed the board that they had a clean audit and all is well.

In Superintendent George Stockero’s report to the board, he discussed the recent Michigan Legislative supplemental agreements. Stockero stated that there were three very important agreements that are all helpful to our local schools. First was the restoration of funding for isolated or rural districts. Many of the local Copper Country Schools receive money through this appropriation because of the large area they cover to transport students to and from school.

The second appropriation was for Literacy Coaches. Currently, the CCISD has one coach, of which the state pays a portion and the ISD pays a portion. In the new agreement, the state will now totally fund Literacy coaches. Stockero added that the CCISD applied for and was granted a second Literacy coach. The CCISD will post for this new position in the spring and plans to have the second Literacy coach on board by the summer.

Lastly, Stockero informed the board that the Legislature added language that states lawmakers will need to pass and present appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year to the Governor by July. Stockero said this will help all our local schools with their budgeting. During this last year, schools did not know their per-pupil funding until the end of September.

CTE Director Shawn Kolbus shared with the board details from the annual Non-Traditional Day at the CTE Center. 89 sophomore girls from the eight local high schools came to the CTE center for the day. They all spent an hour each in the auto tech class, the construction class, the welding class and new this year an engineering class. Typically, between 50 and 60 girls attend this Non-Traditional day, but as CTE continues to grow, more and more students are taking advantage of their opportunities.

In other action, the Board:

• Accepted 2018-19 Audit Report

• January Board Meeting Date Change from Jan. 21 to Jan. 30, 2020.

• Accepted Resignation of Mary Kaipio, REMC1 Secretary/Meeting Coordinator

• Approved Hire of Mariah Powell, REMC1 Secretary/Meeting Coordinator

• Approved Hire of David Waye, REMC1 System Engineer

• Approved Hire of Dale Verran, Permanent Instructional Aide

• Approved Hire of Heather L’Esperance, Permanent Instructional Aide

• Approved Purchase of Fortinet Unified Threat Management Appliance for REMC1

• Approved Emergency Response Guide