Bordered by shaded streets and in the center of a quiet neighborhood, it would seem that Vandenboom Elementary School in Marquette Township is the ideal neighborhood school. With light traffic and many students living within walking distance, it could be on any street corner in small town America.
So, when the Marquette school board made the recent decision to stop using the Vandenboom building for Kindergarten through Grade3 education after the coming school year, many community members were disappointed. Residents of the Marquette Area Public Schools, in a number of neighborhoods, have been getting this type of news for years.
Vandenboom is the latest addition to the list of closed elementary schools in the MAPS district. Parkview, Whitman and Silver Creek schools all were closed within the last ten years and all for the same reasons—declining enrollment and budget problems.
Brooke Swajanen, eleven, of Marquette is a former Vandenboom student. She is upset that after this year, her old elementary school will no longer be used.
“I went there for four years and it’s a good school,” she said. “They had a lot of activities and they would take care of you if you were sick or something.”
Faith Martin, eleven, of Marquette, another former Vandenboom student, also feels that Vandenboom should remain an elementary school.
“I had a wonderful time there and my teacher was awesome and I think they should keep it as an elementary school,” she said.
The school was built as a Marquette Township school in 1950 and underwent major renovations in 1956, 1967 and 1993. In 1983, the school was annexed by the Marquette Area Public Schools.
Before making a final decision in June, board members listened to comments from community members and reviewed feedback from a survey sent out by Marquette Township. Township supervisor Ray Adamini, who is strongly opposed to ending elementary education at Vandenboom, said more than 1,700 mailings were sent to residents in the community about the school’s future. Of the 1,700 sent out, they received eighty-seven responses and passed them along to the school board members to review.
“I spent an hour or two and read them all—all eighty-seven of them,” trustee Scott Brogan said. “Of the eighty-seven, I think eight of those were in favor of what the administration is recommending. When we look at the concerns that are raised in those comments, I think there are some real and valid concerns. Over and over we’re taking about loss of neighborhood, loss of community.”
Before the six-to-one vote was cast (with Brogan casting the lone dissenting vote), board members were presented with several alternatives. One option that received the most discussion was keeping Vandenboom open and expanding it to a K-5 building. Another related option was expanding not only Vandenboom to a K-5 school but all the K-3 elementary schools in the district and designating the Graveraet Intermediate School, which currently houses fourth and fifth graders, for other uses.
Brogan suggested Graveraet could be used to house central administrative staff, for community education programs, alternative education and special education programs . . .

––8-18 Media

Editor’s Note: This story was written by Megan Maas, 15, with contributions by Danielle Jahnke, 11 and GlenEllen Lehmberg, 10.