Original Research by School Decision on Phoenix Alternative High School
Phoenix Alternative High School sits in Spalding, an unincorporated community at the junction of US Highway 2 and US 41 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, within Menominee County. It operates as an alternative high school serving grades nine through twelve under Carney-Nadeau Public Schools. The school is very small even by alternative-school standards, and its enrollment skews heavily toward the upper grades, with most of its students in twelfth grade. That pattern is consistent with what alternative schools often do: help students who have fallen behind, or who left the traditional path, complete the credits they need to finish.
The student body is predominantly white, with small representation from Hispanic, multiracial, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Black students. A substantial majority qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the working-class economic base of the surrounding area. Data on special education enrollment and English learner status was not available, so we cannot characterize those populations here.
State assessment results were not available, and no four-year graduation rate was reported. The neighbor comparison set, which positions this school relative to districts in Menominee County, could not place Phoenix on proficiency, graduation, or chronic absenteeism because those figures are missing. This is common for alternative schools, which often serve students outside the standard testing and accountability framework, and a missing result here should not be read as a poor one. A parent considering this school may want to ask directly how the school tracks student progress and what completion looks like for its students, since the public data does not answer that question.
No program offerings, course access, staffing, discipline, or attendance data were provided. The school's website was not listed in the data we received. Given that this is an alternative school in a very small rural district, a parent would likely need to contact Carney-Nadeau Public Schools directly to understand what instruction looks like day to day, what support services exist, and how the school helps students who are catching up on credits.
Spalding itself is a quiet rural place with minimal infrastructure. It began as a lumbering settlement tied to the Spalding Lumber Company, whose mill and logging camps along the Cedar River were the economic engine of the late nineteenth century. That industry is long gone, and no major current employers are documented for the community itself. Most residents who work likely commute to nearby Powers, Escanaba, or Menominee. The township has very low population density, and there is no traditional downtown, no sidewalk network, and no public transit. Daily life is car-dependent, organized around the highway corridor. Civic anchors include a post office, St. Joseph's Catholic Church, and the historical school site, while the township hall sits in neighboring Powers. The community has been experiencing a modest population decline, and no new housing developments or commercial projects are on record.
Housing in the area is affordable relative to state and national levels. The typical home value in the school's ZIP code sits well below the Michigan benchmark and far below the national one, and the price-to-income ratio suggests that homeownership is within reach for many local households compared with much of the country. Rental data was not available. For a family considering relocation to the area, the housing market is relatively accessible, though the tradeoff is distance from services, shopping, and employment centers.
Carney-Nadeau Public Schools, the parent district, had no parent-relevant changes or recent developments confirmed in the research we reviewed. A passing reference to a millage restoration appeared on the district's administration page, but the timing and scope could not be verified, so we left it out rather than guess.
What the picture amounts to is a very small alternative high school in a deeply rural Upper Peninsula community, serving students who are working toward completion outside the traditional high school path. The public data is thin: no test scores, no graduation rate, no staffing or program details. What is clear is that the school exists in a place where housing is affordable, the population is quietly declining, and daily life runs on highway miles rather than walkable blocks. A family interested in this school should treat the conversation with the district as the main source of information, because the available records do not go far enough to tell the full story.
See more original research from School Decision →