New Teachers Help Increase Island School Enrollment
Their Children are Only Second-Graders

Above left photograph: New science teacher Jeffrey Ferguson and his son, Macade, and family at the school’s play center. Daughter Sadie, who is in kindergarten, waits take her turn on the slide, while older sister, Keely, in second grade, heads down. Meggan Ferguson is due to give birth to a boy in October. Above right photograph: Enjoying the school’s playground equipment are Andrea McClintock’s children. Her daughter, Octavia, is in the second grade and son, Xaviar, is in kindergarten. Ms. Mac, as her students call her, is the Island’s new special education teacher.

Mackinac Island Public School would have no second grade this year, if it weren’t for the Island’s two newest teachers. Jeffrey Ferguson, the new science teacher, and Andrea McClintock, the new special education teacher, each have a second grader. Before their arrival, the school had none.

Mr. Ferguson, who is from Birmingham and was graduated from Western Michigan University, originally was looking for a teaching position in the Kalamazoo area, but the Island position was an opportunity for an adventure he and his family wanted to take.

He and his wife, Meggan, have three children, Keely 9, Sadie 6, and Macade 2, and are expecting a baby boy next month. Meggan is a message therapist and would like to get a job at one of the Island spas.

The couple has been on the Island only two weeks and is still getting used to the idea they are not on vacation.

“We love it,” Mr. Ferguson said. “I think this will be a fantastic place to raise a family.

“I’m anxious to see what life is like on the Island in the wintertime,” he added. “It’s really a neat opportunity to teach at a school like this.”

He also said that the small school will allow him to form a positive relationship with his students. He will teach five different science subjects here, including cell biology, ecology, life science, chemistry, and earth science, where at most schools, he noted, he probably would teach only two.

Andrea McClintock is the other new teacher, and to make her name easier for her students, she is letting them call her Ms. Mac, a name that also fits the area well.

The single mother of two children is originally from Missouri and is a doctoral student in special education. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New Mexico Highlands University. Her expertise is in special education and psychology and she has worked with emotionally impaired youth in Oklahoma.

By way of introduction, she has decorated two closet doors in her classroom with photographs of herself, family, and friends, including one of her and friends dressed up for the opera in Santa Fe. Being new on the Island, she knows her students will want to know who she is and the photo collage, entitled “All About Ms. Mac,” will help them, she said.

“As a teacher, I want all kids to experience the same quality of education.”

Ms. McClintock and her children, Octavia 9 and Xaviar 6, who she calls X and O, have been on the Island less than a week, but she said she has been welcomed and has even received offers of warm clothing. She is impressed by the amount of physical exercise one receives just getting around on foot or by bicycle.

“One of the reasons I came to the Island is the community,” she said. “As a single parent, I want to provide a family atmosphere for my children, and I see that here. I’m also a small town girl.”