By Sterling McGinn
The Tahquamenon Area Schools (TAS) Board of Education accepted the retirement of K-6 grade principal Kendra Feldhusen and approved several new hires to the district at the July regular meeting.
The meeting took place at 6 p.m. in the board of education room on Monday, July 21. This was the first meeting with new TAS superintendent Shawn Tebo.
Feldhusen’s retirement will take effect on November 1, 2025. Tebo said that there are two or three applicants for that position.
The board voted to hire Jack Hetrick as the new K-6 counselor. He will begin at the start of the 2025/2026 school year.
Howard Bliss was hired as the district transportation director that night. That position had previously held by former Superintendent Stacy Price, who retired from both roles on June 30.
In other news, the board voted to sell the old Beaulieu Furniture Store furniture depot on the corner of Parmalee and East John Street near the post office. The building had been donated to the district years ago by the Beaulieu family and had been used by former wood shop teachers for supply storage. The school rented the building to a former shop teacher for a number of years until he recently vacated it.
With no need to keep the building, the school decided to accept bids on the property, with a minimum bid of $7,000.
The board received two bids and voted to sell the building to Michael and Julia Terry, who plan to use the structure for a business. The building sold for $9, 635.
The board also discussed selling a piece of property that the district owns in Curtis. The building, on Davis Street, is a former church that hasn’t been active in a couple of years.
“That building is out of our range for caretaking—it’s a vacant building and it begs for bad intentions,” said Trustee Veronica Edwards. The building and grounds were left to the school district in the event it was no longer in use as a church.
The board voted to list the Curtis property for $50,000
During her administrative report, Superintendent Tebo said that all the class composite photos that once hung in the old high school have been moved into the board of education room for the time being. Because the building will not be heated this winter, Tebo is making sure that important pieces of the old high school are saved. That includes the Abraham Lincoln statue from the auditorium and other artifacts.
The fate of the old high school, which was constructed from 1926-1927 has not yet been determined due to the district not having funds to retore or demolish the structure.
“My concern is that if we don’t do something with this school, it is going to start deteriorating and crumbling,” said Tebo. “I have talked to many people and there has been both sides to it—its memories, tear it down or redo it—and there have been ideas of apartments, trades schools, and all kinds of opportunities for the school. We need to move on it because the power will be shut off at the end of this month, and when it starts to get cold it will get bad.”
