MASSP News Center

Iron Mountain High School is located in the city of Iron Mountain in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; 300 miles north of Chicago, Illinois, and 500 miles north of Detroit, Michigan. Iron Mountain High School, a class B school, has an enrollment of approximately 430 students, and is proud to be the home of the first Academic Booster Club in the state of Michigan. Founded in 1996, the Academic Booster Club was the idea of four visionary women in the community who were concerned about the condition of the high school library. The outdated books and the hard uninviting furniture needed attention, but the school district did not have the money in the budget to dedicate to such improvements. The community, rallying behind the leadership visionaries, formed the Iron Mountain High School Academic Booster Club, the first of its kind in the State of Michigan. The founding purpose was:

“To promote, foster and facilitate academic achievement for all students at IMHS and to support the faculty and administration who inspire it. Our objective is to facilitate academic achievement by helping provide classroom and library needs that are greater than the school budget can handle. The Academic Booster Club is the vehicle between the school and the community.”

The money raised by the booster club was invested immediately into the high school library. They purchased comfortable, inviting furnishings and created attractive reading areas. New shelving and displays have also been added. The transformation of the Library into a Media Center has made this one of the most popular rooms in the school. And the greatest benefit of all has been that the circulation numbers have shot through the roof.

The Academic Booster Club is a 501c3 non-profit organization. They have raised funds through a variety of methods including a dinner auction, bake sales and simply asking for donations. The community has continued to support the club and following the Ednowment Guidelines and Investment Policies adopted by the club, the dream of reaching $200,000 fund equity that will be self-funding is close to becoming a reality.

The Booster Club supports every department in the High School and has very generously provided the following items for our students and teachers in the past few years:
Academic pins and letters, a digital camera for the yearbook, a spot light for the auditorium, electronic balances for the science department, ceiling mounted LCD projectors with the goal of equipping every classroom with ceiling mounted projectors by the end of next school year, dictionaries for the English and Spanish classrooms, novels for the English and History classrooms, electronics for the Industrial Arts department and a kiln for the Art department.

The support that the Academic Booster Club provides to the students, staff and administration of Iron Mountain High School is invaluable. We are very fortunate to live in a community that places such a high value on educating our students and providing them with the extras that the school district alone could not provide.