Dow High School The Charge Robotics Team Adopt-a-Street. (Photo provided)

Dow High School The Charge Robotics Team Adopt-a-Street. (Photo provided)

Dow High School The Charge Robotics Team Adopt-a-Street. (Photo provided)

Dow High School The Charge Robotics Team Adopt-a-Street. (Photo provided)

Community Connections:Midland Public Schools reflects on a memorable school year

With our world, nation, state and community consumed by COVID-19 these days, Midland Public Schools would like to take a step back to celebrate and honor our students, staff and district's incredible accomplishments during the 2019-20 school year.

Our in-building school year may have had to end a few months early, however, the honors and accolades we celebrate in this month's Community Connections speak volumes about the quality, dedication, hard work and support of our students, staff and families. While the following successes are lengthy, please know there are so many more!

MPS named one of the Best 20 School Districts in the State by Niche in 2019 (out of 556 districts), putting MPS in the top 4% of public school districts in the State of Michigan.

25% of the 2020 Michigan winners in the annual Aspirations Award from the National Center for Women in Information Technology were from MPS High Schools (8 MPS students were Aspirations in Computing winners; 2 received Rising Star Awards; 6 received Honorable Mention).

58 MPS 2019 graduates and current seniors earned the Michigan Seal of Biliteracy for demonstrating proficiency in English and at least one other world language before they graduated.

44 Midland High Business Professionals of America members earned the right to compete at this year's state leadership conference.

79 HH Dow High DECA members qualified to compete against their peers from around Michigan DECA State Career Development Conference. They brought home 66 medals and 21 students qualified to compete at the international conference. Senior Kamika Chandra, was the recipient of the 2020 DECA Emerging Leader Honor Award.

Dow High's Debate Team earned the distinction of Varsity State Champions.

Midland High placed No. 1 at the Michigan State University High School Programming Competition.

This year, as they do year after year, MPS teams, student athletes and coaches earned many SVL and Michigan High School Coaches Association awards and accolades

Midland High Seniors Corbin Dittenber, Timmy Kipfmiller, Erika Leasher and Andrew Scheffer won the 2019 Congressional App Challenge for the 4th District for their "Meal Deals" app.

HH Dow High's Science Olympiad team competed at Delta College and took home six first place medals, two for second place and four for third place.

Jefferson and Northeast Middle Schools dominated the Regional Science Olympiad Competition at Delta College earning medals in 18 of the 22 events. Jefferson placed first and Northeast placed a very close second. Both teams qualified for the Science Olympiad State Meet.

Jefferson Middle School's regional qualifying team competed at SVSU against 11 other area schools in the State of Michigan Challenger for You Be The Chemist Program sponsored by Dow Chemical. The Jefferson Husky team took 2nd place and advanced to the National Level!

The Dow High Math Club earned first place at the Math Field Day Competition at U of M Flint.

800 MPS student musicians participated in the MSBOA Band and Orchestra Festival. Every MPS band and orchestra that attended earned a 1st division rating overall with most ensembles earning 1st division ratings from every judge.

Midland High Junior Izaac Goergen competed against 59 Division 1 bowlers to become Midland High's first Boys' Bowling State Champion!

Nine MHS Welding students competed at Skills USA's Regional Welding Competition. Aaron Clark won first and qualified for States. In addition, six welding students traveled to the Industrial Arts Institute in Onaway for their annual welding competition. Abby Markel was officially the first girl to ever place at that competition, earning second place in Gas Metal Arc Welding from among the 85 who participated.

The Adams Elementary Book Warrior team won this year's annual Battle of the Books sponsored by the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library.

Elementary FIRST Robotics: 26 FIRST Lego League Jr. teams (grade 1-3); nine FIRST Lego League teams (Grade 4-5). All six MPS elementary schools had FIRST robotics teams. Three FIRST Lego League Teams earned the right to compete at the MI State Championship: Siebert Bulldog Builders, Woodcrest Cyclone Wolverines, Adams City Warriors.

Middle School FIRST Robotics: All five MPS FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics teams (grade 6-8) qualified to compete at the MI State Championship!

High School FIRST Robotics: Two award-winning Robotics teams: Dow High's Team is 2209 'The Charge' and Midland High's Team is 5509 'Like a Boss' -- this competitive season may have been cut short for our high school teams, but both teams planned, built, troubleshooted, programmed and competed as knowledgeable, organized, collaborative, supportive teams. The MHS 'Like A Boss' team competed at Kettering University and won the Spirit Award; DHS 'The Charge' competed at the St. Joseph FIRST Robotics Competition and won the Gracious Professionalism Award.

FIRST Robotics Dean's List Award Semi Finalists were named: Midland High's Moira Blanchard and Ben Miller; HH Dow High's Caleb Allington and David Watkins

A major focus for MPS is Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI). Here are just a few ways MPS focused on DEI:

Midland Public Schools hosted exciting unified football and basketball games in 2019-20. In these Unified Interscholastic Games, special education and general education players took the field/court before the Varsity Games to compete with the same rules as the high school football/basketball games. Hundreds of students and adults cheered on the Unified Teams giving everyone on the field and in attendance wonderful memories.

Midland High held a One Billion Rising event that discussed how we can be "upstanders" rather than bystanders regarding gender violence.

Chestnut Hill held a Multi-Cultural Night that presented information to over 165 students on 15 different countries/cultures.

First Graders at Central Park took part in an International Day experience that led them on a journey to Israel, Spain, Nepal, Botswana and China. Students learned about cultural customs and traditions.

Another major focus for MPS is kindness through our #keepitkindMPS initiative. MPS students "keep it kind" in many ways. One way is through their volunteerism and giving back to our community. Here are just a few amazing examples:

Midland High's SAVE Club students promote kindness District-wide by reading to over 35 MPS Kindergarten through Grade 2 elementary school classrooms.

HH Dow High's Girls' Varsity Basketball team volunteered at Woodcrest Elementary on the day of all of their home games this season reading books, playing with students during recess, helping with math & more.

Students at Siebert volunteered at the Open Door.

Students at Woodcrest Elementary made blankets and donated them to Mid-Michigan Medical Center.

Midland High Music Department students gave a community member a helping hand by doing some fall yardwork

Many schools organized ingatherings such as socks, toys, stuffed animals, food, personal care items, etc. for area non-profit groups.

Siebert Elementary fourth and fifth graders created kindness coins in their art class to give away across the community. Their goal: to spread smiles far and wide and to share kindness to make the world a better place.

Jefferson Student Leadership organized after-school blanket making parties where Huskies came together to make fleece tie-blankets that they donated to Shelter House.

HH Dow High's Robotics Team sponsors an "Adopt-a-Street" section of Patrick Road helping to keep Midland beautiful.

MPS educators continue to be asked to present at state and national conferences as well as receive awards and accolades in their own right:

Diane White, DHS computer science teacher, and Robert Fox, MHS computer science teacher, were awarded the Inspiring Teacher Award by the Women in Engineering Society and Michigan State University.

Lynn Verdusco, Woodcrest Elementary teacher, and Andrea Jozwiak, Midland High business teacher/interim assistant principal, have been chosen to receive a Heroes in Education Award by SVSU.

Jen Lenon, MPS Middle School learning coach, was chosen as a Regional STEM Star by SVSU.

Jillian Seamster, Central Park third grade teacher, and Amanda Brown, Northeast sixth grade social studies and reading teacher, were chosen as Outstanding Teachers of the Year by the Saginaw Spirit.

Lynn Heil, Spanish teacher at Jefferson Middle School, was selected to speak at the World Language National Conference in Washington, D.C. with attendees from all over the world.

MPS world language teachers Patti Borus, Amy Rankin and Brian Smith were invited to present at the Michigan World Language Association annual conference in Lansing.

As you can see by the many accolades listed here, MPS students, staff and coaches represented Midland Public Schools and the Midland community in so many varied and competitive ways throughout the state of Michigan and beyond during the 2019-20 school year. Kudos MPS students, staff, coaches and parents for your hard work, preparation, professionalism and support in the many arenas in which you represented your district and community so admirably!

After reading all these truly noteworthy accomplishments by the MPS students and staff during this school year cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope you are as proud of your community's students and educators as Midland Public Schools is. Given this long, diverse list of accomplishments (which does not begin to capture everything), it can be no surprise that Midland Public School's is among the top 4% of the districts in the State of Michigan.

Thank you Midland Community for all of your support through the years. We know it truly does take a village to raise a child! Midland Public Schools is so fortunate to be located in this "Village."

Michael E. Sharrow is the Superintendent of Midland Public Schools. He authored this piece as part of the Daily News' Community Connections initiative.

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Community Connections: Midland Public Schools reflects on a memorable school year - Midland Daily News