DOWAGIAC — Members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club learned new information on a local school district in the area during their weekly meeting Thursday.

Brent Holcomb, Karen Thornburg and John Townsley from the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District visited the Rotary Club during the lunch meeting. During their visit, they presented to the club who they are, the importance of the school district and the services they provide.

The Cass Lewis Intermediate School District provides services that the local districts —  Cassopolis, Dowagiac, Edwardsburg and Marcellus —  find too costly to operate for themselves. The district coordinates school improvement services as well as support services such as education for the disabled, career technical education, gifted and talented and general education.

“We’re an agency that provides service and support. The big area that we are responsible for is in the area of special education disabilities. We have our North Pointe Learning Center and our Brookside Learning Center. North Pointe is kind of like our high school and Brookside is like our elementary school. We have 139 students that we serve directly,” said Brent Holcomb, superintendent of the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District.

With the new third grade literacy law in the state, if students in third grade do not achieve a certain benchmark, they will be retained. Karen Thornburg, instructional specialist and early literacy coach, helps students with literacy and presented to the club some of the work that she does to help students.

“The state of Michigan has been declining in the past 12 years, as every other state has been increasing. As we talk about literacy, 68 percent of Michigan students are not at or above percent of reading in fourth grade, and 66 percent of eighth grade is not at or above proficient in reading,” Thornburg said. “Michigan is aware of the need to increase our literacy capacity for our students and they came up with the Maple Plan for literacy education. They’re not just talking about being able to sit down and read a book but they’re talking about writing skills, listening and speaking skills.”

With the Maple Plan there are three goals that the state has in mind:

• Align policies, funding and resources to make sure they are increasing greater literacy achievement

• Develop statewide networks for literacy leaders

• Support the instructional literacy skills

“As a county, we have instructional plans for literacy. We are working with the teachers in the county, and we are doing whatever is possible to help the organization, the system, the classrooms and the students to have them reflect on what is happening in the classroom, and doing research to see if those practices align with what the state is giving us to use and let’s make a plan to grow,” Thornburg said. “We have an amazing partnership with United Way of Southwest Michigan, Chemical Bank and the ISD. They have provided resources and professional learning that has affected our county, and they have provided libraries for our K through 12 classrooms.”

For more information on Lewis Cass Intermediate School District, email Superintendent Brent Holcomb at bholcomb@lewiscassisd.org.