By Carol Stiffler
The Tahquamenon Area Schools Board of Education held a marathon meeting on Monday, August 17, in preparation for the upcoming school year.
School starts on September 1.
Notably, the board voted to close the district’s athletic field, home to football, track, and practice fields, following damage and vandalism on the turf and in the press box. Athletic Director Dan Hardenbrook said he had football Coach Zach Clickner spent hours cleaning up the press box in preparation for a football scrimmage this Thursday.
“We were in there for two hours,” Hardenbrook said. “There’s two broken windows. The locks are broken off. You don’t want to know some of the stuff that we cleaned up out of the press box.”
On the football field, people have left divots from chip shots with golf clubs, and others have used metal detectors on the practice field. That damages the grounds, obviously, and makes them less safe for student athletes.
The field will be unlocked for school sporting events and other events as scheduled, but at all other times, it will be closed even to well-meaning citizens who walk laps on the track. A hole in the fence will be repaired for better protection.
A similar discussion regarding closing off the school playground was tabled. Superintendent Shawn Tebo said unmentionable things have been found on the playground – previously reported to include items like knives, vapes, condoms, and feces.
Board members Bruce Klusmeyer and Veronica Edwards prefer to add lighting to the playground, post signs stating it is closed after sunset, and request patrolling by village deputy Zach Kitzman.
Edwards noted the community fundraised and built the new playground.
“It was really called a community playground because the community raised the money for it,” she said. “The school didn’t have to put up the money for this playground. The community came together and volunteered time, energy, and workforce to do this, to tear down Timbertown, get rid of it, and put this up. And as such, it was the expectation was that this would be a community playground.”
Klusmeyer wants to see other measures taken before closing off the playground.
“It was put in as a community playground,” he said. “I think we should exhaust every avenue we can to prevent the vandals and the stupid stuff. If that means putting up four street lights or something like that, I think we should exhaust every avenue we can before we lock the place up.”
The board first heard presentations from two organizations with proposals for new emergency communication products. The first, Centegix, sells a wireless system that would provide badges for each district employee. The simple badge has two functions: three squeezes on the left side of the badge will alert the district that the employee needs help – perhaps a medical event – and share the employee’s location. Eight presses on the right side of the Centegix badge is the equivalent of pushing a panic button and initiates an all-school lockdown. Wireless lights, installed in each room and down every hall, will flash red to signal the lockdown.
A second presentation followed, this one given by Stryker, which purchased Vocera in 2022. Vocera is a communication product used by many hospitals and allows staff to directly contact another employee in an instant, and also comes with a panic button. These devices would be used in lieu of two-way radios, which teachers have said can be very disruptive. The Vocera product leads to a quieter classroom, the representative said.
The board questioned the price of both products – $72,000 for Centegix and $73,000 for Vocera – and said they wanted feedback from teachers and staff. They will revisit the discussion at a special meeting scheduled for Monday, August 24. If the board contracts with one of these companies, funds to cover the cost will come from the district’s 31aa At Risk grant funds.
Near the end of the 3.5-hour meeting, the board also voted to formally allow God’s Country Community Ministries (GCCM) to use the district’s old bus garage. The board also approved spending $1014 on paint for the garage, which GCCM personnel will use to repaint the old garage.
The board will revisit several topics, including the course catalog, student and parent handbooks, and improving security at the playground, at Mondays’ special meeting.
