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A meeting slated for Friday figured to bring more discussion, more details and perhaps some movement on a recommendation that local ambulance service go back under the umbrella of Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital.
A working group convened by the hospital met for the first time at EBCH, bringing hospital representatives together with local government officials and those involved with ambulance services in Ely, Babbitt and Tower.
The meeting, set for the hospital’s conference room, was also to include representatives of SafeTech Solutions, the firm that recommended earlier this year that ambulance service return to hospital ownership.
SafeTech was engaged by the hospital and made its presentation at a June meeting, but a subsequent session in Ely in late-August, yielded both support and skepticism about the proposal.
That led to the formation of the working group as part of an effort led by EBCH.
EBCH’s Northeast Regional Ambulance initiative came about and the hospital has asked directors of each area ambulance service, representatives of area units of government and a designee from the Ely Area Ambulance Service board to attend.
SafeTech Solutions was engaged to facilitate the discussion.
“This is just the first step of a long process,” said city clerk-treasurer Harold Langowski, who briefed council members about the meeting this week.
Al Forsman, who represents Ely on the ambulance joint powers board, as well as Paul Kess, who council members asked to be appointed to the non-profit board, were slated to attend.
In its recommendation unveiled earlier this year, SafeTech suggested that EBCH’s standing as a critical access hospital would help the ambulance service capture a much larger share for home-school decisions, but Oelke said “it’s not just for religious purposes anymore.”
“There are a variety of reasons,” she said. “For some, there are too many mandates and assessments that we are required to do. I think there’s a big wide variety of families that are not choosing to do a traditional public school.”
The current number is expected to rise, given that the Ely district “lost a couple more out of elementary already” this year to homeschool options.
While home-school numbers remain higher than they were prior to the pandemic, the totals are nowhere near as high as they once were.
As recently as 2009, 44 children were receiving instruction at home within the Ely district.
Once considered a big factor in a decline in student enrollment, home-schooling in Ely now isn’t as prevalent.
Off and on through the years, the district has reached out to home-school families in an effort to attract more children to the district and boost enrollment, which is linked to state funding.
The board has also traditionally had a member serve as a liaison to home-school families, but there has been little formal activity on that front.
Parents who choose to home-school their children are required by law to report to the school district where they live.
The statistics are limited to Ely School District boundaries only and would not include any children home-schooled in Fall Lake Township, which is part of the Two Harbors-based Lake Superior School District.
