What is the Gogebic Ontonagon ISD?

 We are an educational service agency for Gogebic and Ontonagon County Schools. We support our local districts in the areas of Special Education Services, Career & Technical Education Services as well as General Education Services. In the area of Special Education, we provide itinerant staff for the local school districts. These services include but are not limited to Speech and Language evaluation / services, Psychological evaluation and assessments, Physical Therapy services, Educational Consulting and Behavioral Modification Planning, Autistic services, Social Work Services, Occupational Therapist Services, Teacher Consultant Services, Classroom Special Education Teachers, Early On Services and Administrative Consultation and Support.

Our local districts are provided professional development regarding the latest Federal and State Rules and Regulations regarding Special Education. As a consortium local district superintendents collaborate with each other and the ISD as to where and how special education revenue is expended through out Gogebic and Ontonagon County. Local millage dollars are applied to the consortium expenses annually and the remaining dollars are distributed back to local school districts to offset their individual Special Education expenses.

This reimbursement covers only a fraction of their district special education costs. We are seeking a Headlee Override ballot proposal for the May 2010 election as a means to help local districts with those remaining special education costs that they incur. As resources shrink the dollars that come into the GOISD cover less and less of the expenses associated with Special Education. Special Education Services are also supported by State and Federal Grants on a consortium basis. Marge Leaf is our Director of Special Education and Debra Zelinski is our Special Education Administrator.

Career and Technical Education is commonly referred to as Vocational Education through out the county. This branch is dedicated to offering courses to high school students in a variety of venues. We offer some programs in cooperation with Gogebic Community College on their campus. The college has been a long time partner in offering a number of programs. Some of those programs include: Computer Repair, Computer Programming, Computer Aided Drafting and Design, Graphic Arts, Residential Building Trades and Health Careers/Certified Nursing Assistant Programs. Some of these programs are offered online and some are offered on site. The GOISD financially supports programs in Ironwood High School in the areas of Welding and Business Services. In Ewen Trout Creek the ISD supports Business Services and Accounting programs. In Ontonagon the GOISD support Building Trades, Business Services,CNA and Welding. Some districts are able to take programs offered off site through the use of technology provided to each of the districts as a means for students to be able to take these courses even though they are not offered on site. CTE programming is also supported through local millage dollars and Federal and State Grants. Shawn Kolbus is our Career & Technical Education Director.

The GOISD also provides districts with Professional Development in the area of General Education. The ISD is involved in a consortium on a Upper Peninsula Basis that writes grants on behalf of our local school districts. The Upper Peninsula Center for Education Development has a board of directors comprised of administrators from: 7 Intermediate School Districts, Michigan Technological University, Northern Michigan University and Lake Superior University. On a consortium basis the GOISD and its' local districts have pooled resources to provide classroom teachers onsite Literacy Consulting Services as a means to enhance student performance in classrooms as a way to bring all students up to grade level reading utilizing a variety of teaching and assessing methods.

The GOISD also houses the office of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation. The ECIC branch is solely focused on the needs of each of the two counties in the areas of Early Childhood Education/Development and Parent Education and Support. Collaborative meetings are held at the GOISD with county partners involved in Human Services. Allison Liddle is the ECIC Director and Patti Witt is the Parent Liaison.

Administratively the GOISD coordinates monthly roundtable meetings with District Principals and District Superintendents. Collectively we support the administrative staffs in each of the local districts to help ensure state reporting as well as state and federal mandates are being implemented. The GOISD is also charged with Monitoring Responsibilities such as Truancy and Pupil Accounting Auditing. We have administrative offices located in Ironwood as well as Bergland. Bruce F. Mayle is the Gogebic Ontonagon ISD Superintendent.