School district creating new group just for alumni

ISHPEMING TWP. — Other than the annual softball tournament, alumni of NICE Community Schools don’t really have a way to stay connected. School officials are working to change that.

Superintendent Bryan DeAugustine says an alumni association is in the works. Anyone interested in joining the alumni association is asked to e–mail the school district.

The idea for the new group actually came about from a number of alumni who wanted a better way to stay connected with each other.

“Here at NICE Community Schools we have very active and proud alumni, but we don’t really have a formalized structure for them to report to or organize their activities. Each class is all on their own,” said DeAugustine.

“We just want to make sure that we have a good structure for them to organize their activities and stay connected with our school. “Scholarships are a big part of it,” added DeAugustine. “Our alumni donate a lot of money to our students when they go off to college or the different trade schools they attend. They would just like a more centralized ability to do that.”

Also in the works at NICE is a new way for the school district to communicate with students, staff and their families. Officials are installing a system called ‘Skylerts’ that will notify everyone that registers their cell phone number with the system by a text message.

“Skylerts is part of our student data system so it seemed like a natural fit,” said DeAugustine. “We will announce our snow days through that system in addition to continuing with the TV stations and news organizations. We also use Facebook pretty exclusively and we do realize that not everyone has a Facebook page and follow social media as closely as maybe our students do, so it’s just one more layer to make sure that our community is informed and up to speed on what’s happening,” he added.

DeAugustine hopes to have the Skylerts system fully up and running as soon as possible. To join the alumni association, send an e-mail to this address: alumni@nice.k12.mi.us