Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District (TBAISD) announced on Wednesday a rebranding initiative that will phase out the TBAISD name in favor of a new moniker: Northwest Education Services, or “North Ed” for short.

The rebrand is part of a broader strategic planning process that has been in progress at TBAISD since 2018. That process – which involved engagement from students, staff, parents, community leaders, local school districts, and other stakeholders – touched everything from financial policy to relationships with local districts. Throughout the planning process, TBAISD Superintendent Dr. Nick Ceglarek says there was one piece of feedback that kept recurring.

“What we heard loud and clear from our constituents is that there was some confusion around what we are and what we do,” Ceglarek tells The Ticker. “There was some brand or identity confusion within the community. So we set a very succinct strategic plan goal that we were going to establish a common understanding of our brand and our identity.”

The criticisms of the current brand, Ceglarek says, were numerous. Many community members either didn’t know TBAISD existed or weren’t sure what function an intermediate school district served in the educational community. Others cited branding confusion between TBAISD and TBA Credit Union, or criticized the name for specifying the “Traverse Bay Area” when TBAISD serves 22,000 students in 16 public school districts throughout five counties.

TBAISD intends for the Northwest Education Services rebrand to accomplish a few things: first, to be more encompassing of the broad geographic radius the district serves; second, to eliminate the six-letter initialism that many stakeholders found confusing; and third, to give the district a chance to reintroduce itself to the community and re-communicate its role in local education.

“What we do will remain the same,” Ceglarek says. “We will still provide tech education services for our local districts [via the Career-Tech Center]. We will still provide special ed services for our local districts. On the outside, [this rebrand] might just look like a name change. But we believe this is a great opportunity to really explain what we are and what we do for our local schools. We are not a school district in competition with [other local districts]. We are here to provide the services that our local districts can’t. If you think about a student that might have a significant disability that would need intense support, maybe Mancelona only has one of those students, and Kalkaska might only have two. We exist so that we can bring those resources together and offer a comprehensive program that all of our local school districts can bring their students to, so that we can serve them appropriately.”

Locals will likely start seeing the rebrand to Northwest Education Services reflected in district communications starting immediately, with a full transition to the name to take effect by the start of next school year.