Wanted: Teacher on remote Michigan island. Can’t leave in winter without plane

• School starts in tiny Bois Blanc Island next month, but there’s still no teacher for its four students
• The district is the smallest in the state, but 24 others have 50 students or fewer
• Teacher shortages are not unique to the island, but locals acknowledge it’s remote location makes hiring especially hard

BOIS BLANC ISLAND — School starts in a month. The kids are ready. The building is clean. Just one problem: This island's four-student school doesn't have a teacher.

They may not get one, leaving the future of the about 90-year-old schoolhouse in doubt.  

School districts in Michigan and across the country have struggled to find and retain teachers in recent years. The problem is far more acute on Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron: Applicants not only have to find affordable and weatherproof housing but endure harsh winters in which you can only leave by plane.

“I tell everybody, ‘We are remote Alaska without the mountains,’” said Christine Hasbrouck, a grandparent and teacher aide who is wondering if the Bois Blanc Pines School District will find someone to educate her 11-year-old grandson this year.

“That is what we are here. ​​And a lot of people don't understand that we're not like Mackinac Island. Our ferries don't run three-quarters of the year or all year long.”

Bois Blanc, accessible in summer by car ferry from Cheboygan at the tip of the Lower Peninsula, is 34 square-miles, dwarfing its nearby and far more commercial cousin, Mackinac Island. The island is home to 100 people and Michigan’s smallest school district. In the past 10 years, the K-8 school has never had more than five students at a time and its enrollment fell to two in 2019, state records show.

It’s a relic from a bygone era: At one time, Michigan had some 7,000 one-room, multi-grade schoolhouses. But only eight to 12 remain open, with most in the Thumb, said Rochelle Balkam, chair of the Michigan One Room Schoolhouse Association.

On Bois Blanc (whose school technically has two rooms), year-round residents stock up on groceries before the ferry stops and then coordinate with each other to buy plane tickets in the winter months when they need to go into town.  

Locals praised the school’s last teacher, who left for personal reasons, and say there are many challenges to finding a replacement: Living on an island isn’t for everyone, teachers are hard to come by and the job demands flexibility to teach students who range in age from 5 to 14. 

“Our challenge now…not only because of the island, but just because (of) the way that the teachers in this world are now, there's such a lack of,” school board president Cindy Riker told Bridge Michigan. 

“Getting a seasoned teacher is probably out of the question.”

As of Thursday afternoon, Superintendent Angie McArthur said the district was in discussions with a candidate. 

But that candidate was not a certified teacher, meaning the district would need to apply for a long-term substitute permit from the state. And if hired, she would need to enroll in a teacher preparation program to continue in the school beyond a year. 

Responding to broader teacher shortages, Michigan lawmakers have in recent years agreed to fund grow-your-own programs and other initiatives to help increase the number of people willing to teach in the state. 

Teacher, principal, all in one

As the only school employee, Bois Blanc’s teacher needs to not only be an educator, but also a counselor, principal and purchasing agent, said Riker, the school board president.

Students receive individualized instruction and the teacher can customize lesson plans to slow down or speed up depending how quickly a student grasps the concept. 

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School board member Amanda Beugly told Bridge she wants the island to be her family’s forever home, but she won’t send her two children back to the schoolhouse if it doesn’t have an experienced teacher. 

“I do think it’s such a challenging position that you do need to have that experience…because you don't have the same support structure in a one-room schoolhouse that you would have in a regular school where you have other teachers you could run to for help,” Beugly said.

She has a fifth-grade son and a seventh-grade daughter. The daughter, Andrea, told Bridge she doesn’t want to leave the island. She and her brother attended a virtual school last year, but her mother doesn’t view that as a long-term option.

That provides some challenges with Andrea just two years away from high school. Her options are limited: She could fly off the island every day, but that gets expensive quickly. Chartering a flight to Cheboygan costs $222 (which covers a three-seat minimum.)

Or the family could move away for several years while the kids finish high school.

Hasbrouck, who worked as a classroom aide last year, told Bridge the school’s last teacher was “phenomenal.” The former teacher, Susan Rowell, described the teaching experience the same way and called the winter on the island “magical.” 

Gym class was typically held at the nearby multipurpose room in the township building down the road. Students visited a creek to observe sucker fish for a science lesson. Hasbrouck said she sometimes brings in crockpot meals so the students can have a hot lunch. 

The district works with the intermediate school district based in Sault Ste. Marie  to provide physical and occupational therapy to Hasbrouck’s grandson. Sometimes, if the township community room is in use, that instruction happens at the airport.

Way of life slipping away

Growing up on the island full-time could be hard, acknowledged parent Meghan Drouare, “but I feel like a year or two would just give the kids some perspective and … a different opportunity.” 

Drouare grew up going to the island but this school year will be the first time her children are attending the school. They plan to evaluate later this fall whether they want to stay or go back to East Lansing, where her husband and 13-year-old son plan to stay. 

If the Drouare family leave and the Beugly family don’t return, Hasbrouck’s grandson could be the only student left.

“I would love nothing more than (to) have 10 families with 25 kids move to this island — and have that be our problem,” Hasbrouck said.

That’s unlikely. Economics and consolidation are pushing tiny schools toward extinction. Bois Blanc’s budget is $245,000, meaning it spends $61,000 per student, almost three times as much as in Detroit.

Over the years, Michigan has offered financial incentives for schools to consolidate, said Tom McKee, former administrator for Bois Blanc school and current superintendent at Rudyard Area Schools.

Statewide, 13 districts now have 20 or fewer students, while 25 total have 50 or fewer.

“There are other advantages of having a small school but the main catalyst for the consolidation movement that has been going on for a long time … is to get broader and better services,” said David Arsen, a Michigan State University researcher who has studied rural schools in Michigan.

McKee said it’s hard for leaders of small schools to know if they will be open from one year to the next, because populations are transient and Michigan allows parents to homeschool their children at any point. 

McKee said some form of homeschool legislation could help schools better plan for enrollment. Or, he said, the state could modify policies that allow flexibility where schools offer four-day a week instruction rather than five days. 

Until then, these are anxious days on Bois Blanc. 

If the job candidate doesn’t work out, the district may turn to a certified teacher who works remotely and instructs students online, leaving a classroom aide to help students in person, said McArthur, who doubles as superintendent of both the island district and Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District.

That arrangement is “absolutely not ideal,” McArthur said.

Despite the challenges, Bois Blanc residents say they love island life. They hope the district can find a teacher who feels the same way. 

“The year we lived up here, I got a snowmobile so I could snowmobile to school,” Drouare said. “You don't get to do that anywhere else.” 

If the school can’t survive, Hasbrouck said she would try to personally teach her grandson at home. But that’s not a choice she wants to make. 

“That structure is part of what is important,” she said of school. “They're learning more than just the academics. You're learning a routine, you're learning that this is the way life works.”