History Of School

The First Republic School was K-12, and was built in 1873 on Mirror Lake, which is now called School Lake [for obvious reasons]. Because of the large number of students, one side wing was added in 1877, and another wing was added to the school in 1883

The First Public School in Michigamme was built sometime in the 1870's. It was also a K-12 school, but unfortunately it burned down in 1914.

In 1907, the Republic School was overloaded and very crowded, so they built the Republic Central High School. In 1915 the school had an enrollment of 550 students. The 1920's and 1930's brought many new extracurricular activities to the school, such as band, chorus, new sports, and drama. In 1928 the Republic Mine closed, the school began having financial difficulties and enrollment decreased rapidly. In 1937 the Central High added a new gymnasium to their ensemble. This School lasted until 1963.

From 1954-1964, the Board of Education and the Marquette Iron Mining Company became increasingly aware that future operations at the Republic Mine would eventually make it unwise to continue operation of the educational program for our community at the old school building. The Board of Education then attempted to proceed with various plans for a building program. After being unsuccessful in these attempts, the Marquette Iron Mining Company and the Board of Education came to an agreement concerning the construction of new school facilities for the Republic School District.

The agreement provided that the Marquette Iron Mining Company would pay $220,000 for the purchase of the old school building and would further donate a twenty-six acre plot for a new school site. Also, the Company agreed to purchase the $800,000 bond issue at 2.5%. In addition, it would guarantee that enough specific ore tax money would be derived from the Republic Mine to cover the annual operating budget of the Republic Central School District and would not be less per pupil than other schools in Marquette County during the life of the bond issue, or until July 1, 1991.

The Michigamme Public High School was built in 1915. Twelve seniors graduated in 1916, the first year for the school to be opened. The Imperial Heights Mine opened in 1920, which brought an increased enrollment to the school. The Mine closed and the school lost students rapidly. The school closed in 1965, at which point they consolidated with Republic.

The current school building was built in 1964. It was first called Republic Central School, but was renamed Republic-Michigamme Schools when it joined with the Michigamme District in 1965.

Republic-Michigamme Schools is a Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade school. It has an enrollment of approximately 150 students and 23 staff members. It has extra-curricular activities consisting of Junior High, Junior Varsity, and Varsity Basketball for boys and girls as well as Junior Varsity and High School Football and Track which is a cooperative program with Ishpeming High School. Choir, High School Bowl and Band are also offered.

With declining enrollment and only about 150 students in the 2005/2006 school year, the future of our school is uncertain. On a positive note, the financial picture of the school is looking up, with fund equity growing again after many years of decline. One thing that we have done is move to a four day school week so that we can cut costs by spending fewer days in the building, which cuts down on energy consumption, employee costs, maintenance costs, and more. Another thing that the school has decided to do is group certain grades together. For example, the 2nd and 3rd graders are being taught by one teacher and the 4th and 5th graders are being taught by another teacher.

Overall, the outlook for our school is good. Employment opportunities in the area are on the increase, and could increase greatly should the proposed new mine open in northern Michigamme Township.