School Districts Statewide to Better Serve Students, Save Money with $101M in Grants

Funding Consolidates Technology Services

LANSING – More than $101 million in grants will help school districts around the state to consolidate technology services, allowing schools and districts to more efficiently use their resources to educate Michigan children.

The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) announced today that it will make the consolidation incentive awards to five intermediate school districts (ISDs) that will aim to centralize services.

Three of the grants will centralize specific services for all Michigan intermediate school districts and the 800-plus local districts and charter schools that are within the ISDs.

“Centralizing services to more efficiently spend our limited school funding benefits every public school and every public school child in Michigan,” said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice. “It helps us meet every one of the eight goals in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan – from improving early literacy achievement to improving the health, safety, and wellness of all learners.”

The $101.6 million in state funding comes from Section 12c school consolidation and infrastructure dollars in the 2023-24 school aid act approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Consolidation grants were awarded through a competitive process to:

• Shiawassee Regional Education Service District, $49,853,722.
  
  Funding is for connecting to the Michigan State Education Network traditional public school districts and charter schools that do not already have high-speed internet access, to meet the goal of having 100% of public schools in the state connected. The network provides capacity needed to deliver modern digital learning of content to classrooms, to ensure that every student can access educational resources, engage in interactive learning experiences, and develop digital literacy skills. Currently 20% of school districts are unconnected to high-speed internet or under-connected at lower speeds or with limited bandwidth. This condition hinders the ability of districts, educators, and students to maximize the use of technology for teaching, learning, and security measures.
  
  “Shiawassee RESD is excited to work with the Michigan State Educational Network (MiSEN) to connect underserved and unconnected schools, districts and ISDs,” said Superintendent Mr. David Schulte. “We appreciate and value the support of Dr. Rice and the MDE team. This project will leverage past investments and federal matching funds to ensure students' ability to access educational resources, to engage in interactive learning experiences, and to develop the vital digital literacy skills needed to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world, guaranteeing equitable access.”

• Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, $31,669,361.
  
  Funding is to centralize hosting school data by the cloud, the global network of servers that stores and manages data over the internet. Centralized cloud hosting would provide a unified and secure cloud solution for all of Michigan’s local school districts through the MiCloud initiative. The effort would enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and provide all public schools with equitable access to the latest technology.

• Copper Country Intermediate School District, $13,532,690.
  
  Funding is to centralize data storage, management, and analytics for all Michigan ISDs and their member districts through the MiGreat Data Lake, which will foster a more data-driven approach to education. MiGreat Data Lake will improve operational efficiency and decision-making and support personalized learning strategies for students in schools statewide.
  
  “This transformative initiative will streamline and centralize the collection, analysis, and sharing of data related to students' academic, social, emotional, and behavioral well-being to better support the holistic development of every child,” said Superintendent Mr. James D. Rautiola of Copper Country ISD in Houghton County.
  
  Copper Country will contract with the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators to manage and operate MiGreat Data Lake as a statewide service.
  
  “The Data Lake will enhance data reliability and usability for ISDs and local public schools, fostering greater collaboration and empowering informed data-driven decisions that benefit all children across the state, “said Dr. John Severson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators. “Integrating data from various public agencies will also allow for better coordination and early intervention.”

• Ottawa Area Intermediate School District, $4,611,227.
  
  Funding is to consolidate chief information security officer services and security operation services for the Ottawa Area ISD, its local public schools, and Oakridge Public Schools in neighboring Muskegon County. The schools are expected to save more than $3.7 million by combining the services.

• Wexford Missaukee Intermediate School District, $1,933,000.
  
  Funding is to combine existing network operations center services to increase the effectiveness of network access and provide equitable network access for five ISDs and 27 school districts. The five ISDs are COOR (Crawford, Oscoda, Ogemaw, and Roscommon counties) ISD, Clare-Godwin Regional Education Service District, Manistee ISD, Wexford-Missaukee ISD, and West Shore Educational Service District in Mason County.

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