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Beaver Island Community School

Also Beaver Island Community School District · BICS

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

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Beaver Island

Summary

Beaver Island Community School is the public school on Beaver Island, Michigan, offering Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade at 37895 Kings Highway. Held Beaver Beacon coverage traces a public island school back through an October 1955 consolidation of the Peaine and St. James township school districts and a Catholic teaching order, the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, who staffed island classrooms from 1899. The school operated under several labels before “Beaver Island Community School” became consistent from at least 1971, expanded its building through bond campaigns in 1984–85 and 1991–92, and added special-education, arts, and interscholastic-sports programs across the 1970s and 1980s. The 2024–25 federal school directory lists it as open and regular under NCES School ID 260435004123.

History

Dominican Sisters from Grand Rapids had staffed Beaver Island’s schools since 1899, according to a Michigan historical marker for Holy Cross Catholic Church and a March 1972 Beaver Beacon correction, which attributes their recruitment to the island’s isolation and the difficulty of finding individual teachers willing to live there.12 In October 1955 a special election in Peaine Township voted 16 to 1 to consolidate its school district with the St. James School District. The Beacon reported that the two boards then met, Peaine transferred its records and assets, and the merged district would be known as the Beaver Isle Community School District, with architects expected on the island to review a site for a new school.3 Voters rejected a 22-mill levy for a new building at an April 1956 special election, 49 votes to 39.4 A February 1960 honor-roll notice in the Beacon lists students by grade under a plain “HONOR ROLL:” heading, with no institutional name given;5 a March 1960 honor-roll notice, by contrast, is headed “Beaver Island Grade and High School Honor Roll” — see Names.6

The name Beaver Island Community School was in use by September 7, 1971, when the school opened for a full day with 68 pupils — 18 in grades 1–4, 23 in grades 5–8, and 27 in grades 9–12 — under a board led by Philip Gregg.7 A Student Council organized that October, and the school ran adult-education classes in accounting, sewing, and typing under Principal Sister Rita Wenzlick through the following spring.8 The 1972–73 year opened with 37 elementary and 29 high-school pupils, an eight-member senior class, under Sister Wenzlick.9 In April 1974 the Dominican Sisters’ education committee in Grand Rapids warned that a shortage of Sisters might force their withdrawal from the island within two years.10 That September the school opened with 55 students, and by November its library was operating as a public winter reading room with Friday assistance hours.1112

By 1976 enrollment stood at 57. That September, Sister Dennis Marie Kirt succeeded Sister Nancy Malburg as principal after Malburg moved to the Dominican Sisters’ personnel office in Grand Rapids, over a faculty mixing Sisters and lay teachers, including Grant Hart and school librarian Mrs. David Gladish.13 The Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District had placed John Murphy, a recent Central Michigan University graduate, on the island that January as a certified Special Education teacher, who also taught Careers and physical education; a Music Department opened under student-teacher Joseph Moore, and Sister Dennis Marie Kirt appealed publicly that August for donated instruments.141315 The school’s May 1976 spring trip flew all 70 students to the mainland after rough weather grounded the ferry, and its May 28 commencement at Holy Cross Church graduated six seniors, three bound for North Central Michigan College, two for Central Michigan University, and one for Michigan State University; Charlevoix-Emmet ISD Superintendent Jim Shepard, described by the Beacon as also serving as the Community School’s superintendent, presented the diplomas with Malburg.16 A November 1976 tax report placed the school’s levy within the joint Peaine and St. James township millage.17

Barbara Rakowski became principal in August 1979, alongside new teacher Kathleen (Kitty) McNamara and new librarian Jacqueline VanHolder. The Beacon called Rakowski “the first lay principal in the 92 years since the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids have been teaching here” — a span that would place the Sisters’ arrival around 1887, roughly twelve years earlier than the 1899 date on the historical marker and in the 1972 correction; the discrepancy is not resolved here.18 The school played what a December 1980 report called its first competitive soccer game, a 7–4 loss to the Charlevoix Junior League; a separate 1984 report instead describes an athletic program, including soccer, starting that fall, when the school hosted its First Island Soccer Tournament and the board voted to join the Michigan High School Athletic Association. The two accounts are not reconciled here.1920 The board also approved a Gifted/Talented program through the Char-Em Intermediate District in August 1984.21

Shari Hogue succeeded Rakowski as principal in July 1984.22 That December the board proposed a $245,000, 44-by-88-foot addition — classrooms, a multipurpose room, and meeting, restroom, and storage space — financed by a bond put to a December 17 election; the board authorized the bond the following January and sold it on March 25, 1985, alongside a proposed busing levy.232425 By November 1985 an editorial noted that the addition had displaced the island’s old tennis court, indirect evidence the building existed by then.26 Students that May reported an exchange trip to Washington Island, Wisconsin, with stops at Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum.27

The school received a $10,000 Michigan Council for the Arts grant in early 1986, funding visual-arts instruction under Pat Wogan and music under newly hired Sylvia Einhardt, along with a two-week residency by visiting sculptor Catherine Shinnick; the school held its First Annual Science Fair that March 7.2829 An EMT training class met twice weekly in the school’s rooms that winter, though the school did not run it.30 That spring a Good Morning America crew filmed Erma Bombeck visiting the school — its principal, teachers, seniors, and elementary choirs — for a segment broadcast June 2 on Channel 8, and in October Kathleen “Kitty” McNamara, the 1979 teaching hire, was promoted to principal for 1986–87 after graduate study at the University of Galway.3132 A girls’ volleyball team completed its first season in spring 1987, and a basketball team played its first-ever game at Mackinac Island in December 1988, the same season the school held its annual Open House with about sixty students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, a new gymnasium, and Spanish instruction from third grade up.333435 In April 1988 the Charlevoix County District Health Department presented an AIDS-prevention program to Community School children, with an evening session for the wider community and for students of the island’s Lighthouse alternative school.36

By July 1991 the board had hired Kevin James as administrator of what the Beacon called an “80 student K-12 district,” from 25 applicants, along with two combination-class teachers, Terry Boyle and Michael Myers, from nearly 100 applications.37 Days later, in mid-July 1991, Sisters Marie Eugene Charbonneau and Mary Alvesteffer left the island, ending 92 years of Dominican teaching that the Beacon traced to a 1899 petition by the Rev. Alexander Francis Zugelder to Bishop Henry J. Richter and the arrival of Sisters Clementine Coyle, Genevieve Gauthier, Hildegard Gauthier, and Gabriel O’Malley — a fourth account of the founding roster that agrees with none of the other three cited above. About 200 people attended a farewell picnic, and the school moved to an all-lay teaching staff for the first time.38 That October the school proposed a roughly $900,000, fifteen-year bond for three classrooms and a full gymnasium, sized for 120 students. The December 3 election tied 101 to 101, and the board voted to place the same proposition before voters again at the June 1992 annual school election.39 With the outcome still pending, the March 1992 Beacon reported that anticipated kindergarten enrollment would force the school to move its 1985 computer room into the library. No source held here records the June 1992 result.40

In November 2006 the nonprofit Beaver Island Cultural Arts Association and the Beaver Island Music Fund together presented $3,627 to school counselor Beth Croswhite for the string program.41 Needing more room for its growing audience, the Association began moving Baroque on Beaver Festival performances into the school gymnasium in 2015, and received a county grant the following year toward orchestral risers for those performances.42

Names

The held record shows at least one earlier label for the island’s public school before “Beaver Island Community School” became consistent: the October 1955 consolidation report names the merged district the Beaver Isle Community School District. A February 1960 honor-roll notice carries a plain “HONOR ROLL:” heading with no school name,5 while a separate March 1960 honor-roll notice — the source cited by the companion article Beaver Island Grade and High School — is headed “Beaver Island Grade and High School Honor Roll,” a label independently confirmed here.6 No source establishes that the entities these labels name are the same legal institution as one another or as the present school; that continuity is not documented here. By September 1971 the name Beaver Island Community School appears consistently in Beacon coverage, and by 1983 the school is abbreviated “BICS” in the newspaper’s own reporting.743

Evidence and limits

Nearly all of this record comes from monthly reporting in the Beaver Beacon — school notices, student accounts, and board-meeting summaries — rather than from official board minute books, contracts, or audited financial statements. Enrollment counts, mill rates, and bond figures are as reported by the newspaper and are not independently verified against a district record. No source read establishes that voters approved the December 1984 bond outright; its passage is inferred only from the board’s subsequent bond sale and construction, and from the November 1985 evidence that an addition existed. The outcome of the June 1992 revote of the roughly $900,000 bond, after the December 1991 tie, is not established by any source read. The chain of institutional names from 1955 through 1971 is documented as a sequence of newspaper labels, not as a single confirmed legal entity, and the 1980 and 1984 accounts of the athletic program’s origin are not reconciled. Current institutional sources establish the school’s 2024–25 PK–12 status and Kings Highway address; they say nothing about historical staffing, enrollment, or governance. An earlier version of this article reported that a citation in the companion article Beaver Island Grade and High School did not check out — that its claimed “Beaver Island Grade and High School” honor-roll heading was not in the February 1960 Beacon. That finding compared the claim to the wrong issue: the companion article cites the March 4, 1960 Beacon, not the February one, and the March issue does carry that exact heading, confirmed directly against the held text. The claim stands; see Names.

Significance

Beaver Island Community School has been the island’s sole documented public school since the 1955 consolidation, funded jointly by Peaine and St. James townships, which together comprise the entire island. Coverage in the Beacon — openings, staffing and principal changes, arts and athletics programs, and two building-bond campaigns — forms one of the longer continuous newspaper records of any island institution across the second half of the twentieth century. The school has also served as a venue beyond its own enrollment: its library opened to the public in 1974, its rooms hosted an EMT training class in 1986 and an AIDS-prevention program in 1988, and from 2015 its gymnasium has hosted Baroque on Beaver Festival performances.

Open questions

  • No held source gives the formal legal instrument — articles of consolidation, board minutes, or district records — for the 1955 merger of the Peaine and St. James school districts.
  • The 1979 Beacon account places the Dominican Sisters’ arrival at “92 years” before Rakowski’s appointment, or about 1887, a date inconsistent with the 1899 arrival on the Michigan historical marker and in the 1972 Beacon correction. The discrepancy is unresolved here.
  • Did the athletic program begin with the October 1980 soccer game, or with the fall 1984 program the school itself described as new? The two Beacon accounts are not reconciled.
  • Did voters approve the roughly $900,000 bond at the rescheduled June 1992 election, and was the proposed gymnasium built?
  • Three sources name the first Dominican Sisters differently: a 1991 Beacon retrospective names four (Clementine Coyle, Genevieve Gauthier, Hildegard Gauthier, Gabriel O’Malley), and two 1972 family letters cited in a related article each name three, disagreeing with each other on the third (Eleanor versus Gabriel). No source read reconciles the three accounts.
  • Did the school’s Michigan High School Athletic Association membership date to the September 1984 board motion, the June 1991 board resolution recorded in School Board Briefs that August, or both? Not reconciled here.
  • What enrollment, staffing, and building history connects the early 1990s record to the school’s present PK–12 status in the 2024–25 NCES directory?

See also

Footnotes

  1. Michigan Historical Marker, “Holy Cross Catholic Church,” marker L2251. ↩

  2. “Dedicated Sisters,” Beaver Beacon, March 1972. ↩

  3. Beaver Beacon, October 1955, “Special Election” and school-district report. ↩

  4. Beaver Beacon, May 1956, “School Question.” ↩

  5. Beaver Beacon, February 1960, “Honor Roll.” ↩ ↩2

  6. Beaver Beacon, March 4, 1960, “Beaver Island Grade and High School Honor Roll.” ↩ ↩2

  7. Beaver Beacon, August–September 1971, “For Immediate Release” and “School Board.” ↩ ↩2

  8. Beaver Beacon, November 1971, “School News by Pam McDonough.” ↩

  9. Beaver Beacon, September 1972, “School News.” ↩

  10. Beaver Beacon, April 1974, “Beaver Island School Dilemma.” ↩

  11. Beaver Beacon, September–October 1974, “School News.” ↩

  12. Beaver Beacon, November 1974, “Library.” ↩

  13. Beaver Beacon, September 1976, “School News” and “Library Notes.” ↩ ↩2

  14. Beaver Beacon, February 1976, “New Faculty Member.” ↩

  15. Beaver Beacon, August 1976, “S.O.S. – Wanted.” ↩

  16. Beaver Beacon, May–June 1976, “School Trips” and “Every One! Beaver Island Seniors Prepare for College.” ↩

  17. Beaver Beacon, November 1976, township and school tax-levy explanation. ↩

  18. Beaver Beacon, Summer 1979, “School News.” ↩

  19. Beaver Beacon, December 1980, “Beaver Island Community School News.” ↩

  20. Beaver Island School Board minutes, Beaver Beacon, October 1984. ↩

  21. Beaver Island School Board minutes, Beaver Beacon, September 1984. ↩

  22. Fran Martin, Petoskey News-Review article reprinted in Beaver Beacon, August 1984. ↩

  23. Beaver Island Community School building-project fact sheet, Beaver Beacon, December 1984. ↩

  24. Beaver Island School Board bond resolution, Beaver Beacon, February 1985. ↩

  25. Beaver Island School Board building and busing proposal, Beaver Beacon, April 1985. ↩

  26. Editorial, Beaver Beacon, November 1985. ↩

  27. “A Trip into the Past” and “From One Rock to Another,” Beaver Beacon, June 1985. ↩

  28. “Michigan Council for the Arts; New Faces,” Beaver Beacon, January 1986; “School News — Arts Grant,” Beaver Beacon, April 1986. ↩

  29. Science Fair, Beaver Beacon, April 1986. ↩

  30. EMT, Beaver Beacon, February 1986. ↩

  31. Erma Bombeck Came to Town, Beaver Beacon, June 1986. ↩

  32. Beaver Island promotes teacher to principal, Beaver Beacon, October 1986. ↩

  33. “Islanders Are Winners!!!,” Beaver Beacon, March 1987. ↩

  34. “School News,” Beaver Beacon, December 1988. ↩

  35. “School is exciting…,” Beaver Beacon, May 1988. ↩

  36. “AIDS,” Beaver Beacon, May 1988. ↩

  37. Beaver Beacon, July 1991, “BEAVER ISLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL HIRES THREE STAFF MEMBERS.” ↩

  38. Beaver Beacon, August 1991, “After Ninety-Two Years, Sisters Leave Beaver Island.” ↩

  39. Beaver Beacon, October and December 1991, “Beaver Island Community School Bond Issue Election” and “BOND ISSUE TO PUT FORTH AGAIN.” ↩

  40. Beaver Beacon, March 1992, “SCHOOL MUST DISMANTLE COMPUTER ROOM.” ↩

  41. “The BICAA Helps Out,” Beaver Beacon, November 2006. ↩

  42. “Grant funds to help purchase orchestral risers for annual event on Beaver Island,” Charlevoix Courier, December 2016. ↩

  43. Beaver Beacon, September 1983, “School Opens.” ↩

The dated record

559 dated events · 1955–2025 · peak 34 in 2015These years on the timeline →

The page

Rendered from the held scan.

Beaver Island Community School — p. 1
Held scanBeaver Island Community School, “Islanders Athletic Shirts For Sale,” Beaver Island Forum, January 20, 2020, topic 14956.Open the page image · Download this page

Sources

  1. BICS announced Islanders shirt order forms through the school office, with a January 28 deadline, no shipping, and a school contact for questions. This is a first-party merchandise-order notice, not a complete design, price, supplier, fulfillment, or sales record.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 14 · t014956
  2. The junior class sought a community volunteer with floral-design experience to create table centerpieces for the school's May 18, 2007 Banquet, described as the students' version of prom. Replies identify possible local contacts but do not establish who helped, the final program, or attendance.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000834
  3. A forum notice says the Beaver Island Community School National Honor Society was running a Birthday Campaign to help others through bacresearch.org. The referenced flyer is not preserved in the archive, so this source establishes only the announcement and not its dates, beneficiary, or outcome.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 18 · t018367
  4. The school announced a lighting request for proposals and directed readers to the school website for the proposal. The archived forum post does not preserve the scope, deadline, bids, award, funding, installation, or completion.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 14 · t014008
  5. A community request sought one or two truckloads of donated wood chips for the school garden during an island clean-up. It documents a planned garden-support need, not the garden’s completion, ownership, or educational program.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 00 · t000352
  6. The school published bid requests for gym ceiling and flooring work. The held forum record preserves the announcement and external links, not the specifications, award, funding, construction, or completion.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 17 · t017936
  7. The school announced an exterior-cleaning and power-washing RFP and linked to an external Google document. The held forum record does not include the RFP, specifications, deadline, bids, award, work, or completion.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 18 · t018249
  8. The school announced a fencing-project RFP and linked to an external Google document. The held forum record does not include the scope, specifications, deadline, bids, award, funding, construction, or completion.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 18 · t018273
  9. The school announced a flooring-replacement bid and linked to an external Google document. The held forum record does not include the scope, specifications, deadline, bids, award, funding, installation, or completion.
    forum · www.beaverislandforum.com · 18 · t018421
  10. OSM node 2711310648 names Beaver Island Community School at -85.5230302, 45.7455726. The point agrees with the current school address in the school website and NCES sources; it is a map label point, not a surveyed building centroid.
    osm · amenities
  11. Current school statement identifies Beaver Island Community School as Pre-K through 12th grade and gives the 37895 Kings Hwy address. It does not provide a founding date, legal history, enrollment series, staffing roster, or evidence that present programs existed in earlier periods.
  12. Federal directory lists the school as open and regular, with PK–12 grade span, the same physical address, and NCES School ID 260435004123. Directory status and aggregate data describe 2024–25 only; they do not establish historical enrollment, curriculum, or institutional continuity.
  13. States that Dominican Sisters taught on Beaver Island from 1899 to 1991. It does not itself name the school or provide a school-district history.
    state · michigan · historical_markers
  14. Read directly. Says Dominican Sisters from Grand Rapids had staffed island schools since 1899, attributing their recruitment to the island''s isolation and the difficulty of finding qualified individual teachers willing to live there.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1972-03_Beaver-Beacon
  15. Read directly. Reports a Peaine Township special election that voted 16–1 for consolidation with the St. James School District, a subsequent transfer of Peaine''''''''s records and assets to St. James, the resulting name Beaver Isle Community School District, and an expected architectural review of a new-school site. It does not give the election date, official returns, a legal instrument, or proof that the later school was legally continuous with the present district. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1955-10_Beaver-Beacon
  16. Reports that taxpayers voted 49 to 39 against a proposed 22-mill levy for a new school building at an April 16, 1956 special election. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1956-05_Beaver-Beacon
  17. Read directly. The issue prints a plain “HONOR ROLL:” heading with a grade-by-grade list of names; it does NOT label the school “Beaver Island Grade and High School” anywhere in the text. A separate, later issue does carry that heading — see the March 1960 citation below — so this February notice and that one are two distinct honor-roll notices, not one misdated claim.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1960-02_Beaver-Beacon
  18. Read directly. The issue prints the heading "Beaver Island Grade and High School Honor Roll:" over a grade-by-grade list of names. This confirms the label cited by organization/beaver-island-grade-and-high-school-1960, which sources it to this March issue, not the February one above; an earlier version of this article compared that claim to the wrong month and wrongly reported it as unverified.
    beaver_beacon · 1960-03_Beaver-Beacon
  19. Reports the September 7, 1971 opening of Beaver Island Community School with 68 pupils — 18 in grades 1–4, 23 in grades 5–8, and 27 in grades 9–12 — names the teaching staff, and gives the school-board roster with Philip Gregg as president.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-08_Beaver-Beacon
  20. Read directly. Reports the October 13, 1971 Student Council election of Audrey Wogan, Karen McCafferty, and Richard Gillespie, and a fall Adult Education program under Principal Sister Rita Wenzlick with 7 enrolled in accounting, 8 in sewing, and 4 in typing, continuing to April.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1971-11_Beaver-Beacon
  21. Read directly. Reports the September 5, 1972 opening for 1972–73 with 37 elementary and 29 high-school pupils (an eight-student senior class), and names Sister Rita Wenzlick as principal and high-school teacher.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1972-09_Beaver-Beacon
  22. Reports that the Dominican Sisters'' Education Committee in Grand Rapids warned the island the Sisters might be withdrawn within two years for lack of available Sisters. It records a warning, not a final decision.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-04_Beaver-Beacon
  23. Read directly. Reports the September 3, 1974 opening for 1974–75 with 55 students — 12 in grades 1–4, 19 in grades 5–8, and 24 in high school — and names the teaching staff, including new hires Mrs. David Gladish (librarian/part-time teacher) and Grant Hart. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-09_Beaver-Beacon
  24. Describes the Beaver Island Community School Library as open to the public, with Friday assistance hours and recently acquired books.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1974-11_Beaver-Beacon
  25. Read directly. Reports John Murphy, a recent Central Michigan University graduate from Petoskey, joining the school faculty as a Special Education teacher immediately after New Year's. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-02_Beaver-Beacon
  26. Read directly. Reports the realized May 5–8 spring trip that flew all 70 students off the island by charter plane, and the May 28, 1976 commencement at Holy Cross Church, naming six graduates (Gerald Connaghan, Mary Green, Mark LaFreniere, Thomas McDonough, Jody Wagner, and Diane Wojan) and Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District Superintendent Jim Shepard, described as also serving as the Community School''s superintendent, presenting diplomas alongside Principal Sister Nancy Malburg. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-05_Beaver-Beacon
  27. Read directly. Sister Dennis Marie Kirt, O.P., appeals for donated instruments, stating that music would be part of the curriculum that fall. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-08_Beaver-Beacon
  28. Read directly. Reports the September 1 opening with enrollment of 57; Sister Nancy Malburg leaving the principalship after three years to become Director of Personnel Services for the Dominican Sisters in Grand Rapids, succeeded by Sister Dennis Marie Kirt; the teaching staff (Sister Lynne Hansen, grades 1–4; Grant Hart, grades 5–8; Sister Frederica Knieper, part-time language arts; Sister Agatha Artman and Mrs. David Gladish, librarian, at the high-school level); a new Special Education department organized through the Intermediate School District with John T. Murphy, who also taught Careers and physical education; a new Music Department under student-teacher Joseph Moore; and Philip Gregg''s resignation as School Board president, succeeded by Jewell Gillespie. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-09_Beaver-Beacon
  29. Explains the December 1, 1976 tax billing and prints Peaine and St. James millage totals, including the Beaver Island Community School''s levy, funding the school jointly across both townships. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1976-11_Beaver-Beacon
  30. Read directly. Reports the August 19, 1979 opening with three new staff: Barbara Rakowski, named principal and quoted as “the first lay principal in the 92 years since the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids have been teaching here”; Kathleen (Kitty) McNamara, a new teacher; and Jacqueline VanHolder, a new librarian and teacher.' The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1979-06_Beaver-Beacon
  31. Reports the school''s first competitive soccer game, a 7–4 loss to the Charlevoix Junior League on October 24, 1980, in a student newspaper report. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1980-12_Beaver-Beacon
  32. Reports Shari Ann Hogue's appointment as principal, succeeding Barbara Rakowski. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-08_Beaver-Beacon
  33. Read directly. Reports the August 13, 1984 board meeting approving the Gifted/Talented program through the Char-Em Intermediate District at a cost of $424.50, and approving a sports program plan involving Mackinac Island and other schools. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-09_Beaver-Beacon
  34. Read directly. Reports the school starting an athletic program in fall 1984 (cross country and soccer) and hosting the First Island Soccer Tournament on October 13, 1984, against Mackinac Island, Washington Island, and St. Joseph Island, Ontario. Separately reports the September 10, 1984 board meeting: a $2,000 athletic budget and a motion to join the Michigan High School Athletic Association. This account of the athletic program''''s start is not reconciled here with the December 1980 report of an earlier soccer game.' The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-10_Beaver-Beacon
  35. Describes a proposed 44-by-88-foot addition — classrooms, a multipurpose room, meeting space, restrooms, and storage — financed by a $245,000 bond put to a December 17, 1984 special election. A proposal, not a bond result. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1984-12_Beaver-Beacon
  36. Reports the January 14, 1985 School Board resolution formally authorizing $245,000 in negotiable bonds for the addition. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-02_Beaver-Beacon
  37. Reports a proposed 1.5-mill, fifteen-year busing levy with an estimated $21,771 annual cost, and the March 25, 1985 sale of the building bond. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-04_Beaver-Beacon
  38. Student accounts of a May 1985 exchange trip to Washington Island, Wisconsin, with stops at Lansing, Dearborn, Greenfield Village, and the Henry Ford Museum, including host-family stays and sports. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-06_Beaver-Beacon
  39. States that the island's old tennis court “disappeared with the school addition,” indirect evidence that the 1984–85 addition existed by November 1985. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1985-11_Beaver-Beacon
  40. Reports the school receiving a Michigan Council for the Arts grant and hiring Sylvia Einhardt part-time for grades 1–8 music. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-01_Beaver-Beacon
  41. Read directly. Gives the grant amount as $10,000, names Pat Wogan''''''''s visual-arts instruction, and describes visiting sculptor Catherine Shinnick''''s two-week residency teaching sculpting to schoolchildren and community adults, with some resulting work displayed at the March 7 Science Fair. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-04_Beaver-Beacon
  42. Read directly. Reports the school''s First Annual Science Fair, held March 7, 1986, with K–12 participation and named student winners by grade band. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-04_Beaver-Beacon
  43. Read directly. An EMT training class thanks its instructors and reports using “the Beaver Island Community School rooms” twice weekly for its 80-hour course; the class was not run by the school. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-02_Beaver-Beacon
  44. Reports Erma Bombeck and a Good Morning America crew filming at the Community School — principal, teachers, seniors, and elementary choirs — for a segment broadcast June 2 on Channel 8. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-06_Beaver-Beacon
  45. Reports Kathleen “Kitty” McNamara's promotion from teacher to principal for 1986–87, returning from graduate study at the University of Galway. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1986-10_Beaver-Beacon
  46. Read directly. Reports the Beaver Island High School girls'' first-year volleyball team''s matches against Mancelona and East Jordan and a third-place finish at the Newberry Junior Varsity Invitational. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1987-03_Beaver-Beacon
  47. Read directly. Reports the volleyball and basketball teams'' first games at Mackinac Island on December 2–3, 1988, calling it “the first game ever played by the Beaver Island Basketball team.” The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1988-12_Beaver-Beacon
  48. Read directly. Describes the February 4, 1988 annual Open House: open classrooms, about sixty students in grades K–12, a new gymnasium, Spanish taught grades 3–12, and new staff Jim and Donna Stambaugh.' The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1988-05_Beaver-Beacon
  49. Read directly. Reports an April 28, 1988 AIDS-prevention program presented by Charlevoix County District Health Department #3 to Community School children in the classroom, with an evening program for the community and for students from the Lighthouse alternative school at the island''s south end.' The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1988-05_Beaver-Beacon
  50. Reports Kevin James''''s selection as administrator from 25 applicants, and Terry Boyle and Michael Myers''s selection as combination-class teachers from nearly 100 applications, for 1991–92. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1991-07_Beaver-Beacon
  51. Read directly. Reports that the Rev. Alexander Francis Zugelder petitioned Bishop Henry J. Richter in 1899 for Dominican Sisters to teach on the island; names the first four Sisters as Clementine Coyle, Genevieve Gauthier, Hildegard Gauthier, and Gabriel O''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Malley; states 84 Sisters served through 1991; and reports Sisters Marie Eugene Charbonneau and Mary Alvesteffer''''''''''''''''s mid-July 1991 departure, a roughly 200-person farewell picnic, and the school''''''''s move to an all-lay teaching staff for the first time. This four-Sister founding roster does not match either of the two other accounts cited above (the historical marker and the March 1972 correction do not themselves name individuals). The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1991-08_Beaver-Beacon
  52. Announces a December 3, 1991 election for a roughly $900,000, fifteen-year bond for three classrooms and a full gymnasium, sized for 120 students. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1991-10_Beaver-Beacon
  53. Reports the December 3, 1991 election result as a 101–101 tie, and the board''''s December 17 vote to place the same bond proposition before voters again at the June 1992 annual school election. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1991-12_Beaver-Beacon
  54. Reports that anticipated kindergarten enrollment would require moving computers from the 1985 computer room into the school library, pending the bond''s outcome. No source held here records the June 1992 result. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1992-03_Beaver-Beacon
  55. “The BICAA Helps Out,” Beaver Beacon, November 2006.
    Read directly. Reports the Beaver Island Cultural Arts Association presenting $2,500 and the Beaver Island Music Fund presenting a $1,127 balance, both to school counselor Beth Croswhite for the school's string program. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 2006-11_Beaver-Beacon
  56. “Grant funds to help purchase orchestral risers for annual event on Beaver Island,” Charlevoix Courier, December 2016.
    Read directly. Reports a $7,500 Charlevoix County Community Foundation grant to the Beaver Island Cultural Arts Association for orchestral risers, and states the Association began moving Baroque on Beaver Festival performances into the Beaver Island Community School gymnasium in 2015 to accommodate growing attendance. No public copy of this file is known; the archive holds one and can provide it on request. The page reader on this article shows page 899 of the 946-page bound annual volume; it is an extract, renumbered from one, not the whole volume.
    charlevoix · Charlevoix-Courier-2016
  57. Read directly. Reports: "BICS opened its doors August 26th for the 1983-84 school year," confirming BICS as a contemporary abbreviation for Beaver Island Community School.' The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.
    data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1983-09_Beaver-Beacon

Added 2 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Community School”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/organizations/beaver-island-community-school/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Island Community School, “Islanders Athletic Shirts For Sale,” Beaver Island Forum, January 20, 2020, topic 14956. (and 56 further sources listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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