Superintendent Communiqué Midland Public Schools

February was National Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month, and to highlight the CTE programs available at MPS, students from CTE classes spoke about their experiences at our Parent Information Committee meeting on March 8th! Click on the button below to view the recording of the meeting and learn more about CTE classes offered at MPS.

For our final week of featuring MPS CTE Programs, we highlight the Health Care Technology Program

MPS courses offered in Health Care Technology:

• Health Care & Technology
• Anatomy & Physiology

Featured Students:

Amber Curry (Senior), DHS; Wilson Shinske (Senior), MHS

When asked how the Health Care Tech program has made an impact on their education, Amber and Wilson responded:

“I’ve learned so much from the program, I honestly think that it gave me the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do as far as healthcare goes. And that I actually wanted to go into the field. I took most of the skills that I learned with me into the classroom as a co-op job. I work in medical oncology and I get to apply that every day. I plan on going into nursing at SVSU as of right now, but I’m currently at Delta getting my CNA. I highly recommend going into the Health Tech program. If there’s a class that people aren’t confident about going into, and they have a little niche or interest in healthcare maybe, I would just do Health Care Tech instead. It doesn’t matter what you want to go into, it just gives you a good starting point. And if you find that you don’t like the healthcare field, then you’re not diving into it headfirst. You will probably know by the end of this class whether you want to do it or if you don’t.”- Amber Curry

“I’ve learned a lot. The class you take to get there, Health Care Tech 1 teaches you a little bit about it and the different career choices. But really getting into the Health Care Tech 2, which I’m in now you learn a lot - you take a CPR class, you get basic life support, and then you get to work with nurse aides, doctors, surgeons, every type of profession, and seeing them all work together and how it's a team effort. It helps you mature and shows you how to work in a professional environment. Working a summer job is great and all, you get some experience, but you’re mostly working with people your age. These are professionals that have been through a lot of school already.”- Wilson Shinske

Thanks, Amber, Wilson, and all of our CTE students and keep up the great work!

For more information about the Health Care Tech program, contact instructors Marnie Williams - DHS (williamsma@midlandps.org), Michael Donovan - MHS (donovanmc@midlandps.org) or your assigned high school counselor.

MPS CTE Students Win Awards in Multiple Competitions!

On Thursday, March 16th, 40 welding students attended the Delta College Student Technical Solutions - Welding Competition (Group Photo). Congratulations to MHS/GMCA student Andrue Thompson who received the 2nd place award for Arc Welding II! Great job Andrue! (Above right: Andrue Thompson, pictured with instructor Mr. Wall, above left.)

Congratulations to all of our Automotive Technology students who competed at the Delta College Student Technical Solutions Competition on Thursday, March 16th.

The automotive portion of the STS competition takes place in the Delta College Automotive Technology Lab. It is a regional-level competition and we typically compete against mostly vocational tech centers within a 1.5-hour radius. There are usually anywhere from 4 to 6 high schools that participate. Each school will have 6-8 students or 3-4 teams of two. MPS took 6 students. There are stations set up throughout the shop and teams consist of pairs that rotate through the timed stations. They work together and answer questions and perform hands-on tasks such as underhood component identification, control module, sensor, and ABS component identification, diagnostic equipment usage, precision measurement equipment usage, electrical diagnostics, and general automotive knowledge including safety.

All teams from all schools rotate through the same stations and are graded based on points for the number of correctly answered questions. Congratulations to Daniel Charters and Gavin Painter who took 1st place overall, and Erin Crichton and Ashton Trites who took 2nd place overall. There are only 3 placements for the entire competition and MPS took the top two, 1st and 2nd, two years in a row! Great job!

On March 23, 2023, many Muslims will begin the month-long fast of Ramadan. As MPS continues to learn about diversity and inclusivity, please allow us to share some information with you about the very special celebration for our Muslim neighbors-Ramadan.

• Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is widely considered the month in which the Qur’an (Koran), the Islamic holy book, was first revealed.
• Ramadan is widely regarded as a month of spiritual growth.
• Practicing Muslims who are able to do so are expected to abstain from eating, drinking (including water) from dawn to sunset each day of the month. Many Muslims will also perform various prayers and acts of devotion, especially at night, sometimes past midnight.
• The end of Ramadan is marked by the Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr (“the festival of the breaking of the fast”).

The Islamic Center of Midland and its members are kind and generous community partners to Midland Public Schools' students, staff and programs. It is our district's honor to recognize this month-long time of fasting and prayer for our Muslim students, families, community members, and the 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide who celebrate Ramadan. For more information regarding Ramadan, click on the button below:

Jefferson Huskies Place 3rd in MathCounts State Competition!

After placing 1st as a team at the Great Lakes Bay Chapter Competition in February, the Jefferson MathCounts team qualified for the MathCounts State Competition. The State competition was held in Warren on March 11th and Jefferson took 3rd place as a team! The team members included Katie Cai, Vettel Xu, Raymond Chai, and David Han. This is the highest finish ever for Jefferson.

Individually at the State competition Katie Cai placed 6th, Vettel Xu placed 11th, Raymond Chai placed 17th, David Han placed 35th and Alvin Chen placed 80th. The Jefferson MathCounts team is coached by Andrew Zimmer.

Congratulations to these Husky Mathletes on a great season!

Tim Kipfmiller, Science Teacher at Northeast Middle School, decided to conduct a sound test for his light and sound unit. He invited substitute teacher Mr. Dan Belleville, a graduate of Berklee School of Music, to come and help out. Mr. Belleville brought in his guitar and Marshall half stack to help the students conduct a sound test while they documented decibels using sound meters. Sounds great!