Pictured above: a Dow High National Art Honor Society student paints a welcoming spring image on a window at Chestnut Hill Elementary.
Midland Public Schools District Vision Statement: Lead with respect, trust and courage. Ensure an equitable, collaborative and inclusive culture. Enable all to achieve success.
February 20, 2024
Volume 11 Edition 26
MPS Operating Millage Renewal
The MPS Board of Education recently voted to place a millage renewal proposal on the May 7, 2024, ballot. This renewal provides a significant source of revenue to the school district’s operating budget, including salaries, utilities, and educational programming for students. You can find more detailed information by visiting our Operating Millage webpage, linked here, as well as in the Frequently Asked Questions document linked in the button below.
MPS Multicultural Calendar - February
Dates of Interest for February:
Black History Month: This month celebrates the history and achievements of African Americans. For more information, click here.
- International Mother Language Day: February 21 - UNESCO day that promotes awareness of heritage languages and celebrates multilingualism. For more information, click here.
Dow High JV Pompon Takes First Place!
Congratulations to the H.H. Dow High Junior Varsity pompon team for competing at Mid American’s pompon competition on February 11. The team earned first place in JV Division 2 and brought home a State Champion title. Awesome job, Chargers!
Carpenter Pre-Primary Center Welcomes Dow High Student Volunteers
A group of students from the H.H. Dow High School CI program have spent the past 5 months volunteering with the Developmental Kindergartners at the Carpenter Pre-Primary Center. The Dow High students have been learning about childhood development, and part of their class was getting the opportunity to interact with young students. The high school volunteers spent two days per week at the Pre-Primary Center, helping in a variety of ways. They zipped coats, pushed students on the swings, read stories, played endless games on the playground, and assisted with a variety of learning engagements and activities. To celebrate this experience, the Dow High students wrote children's stories and read their stories aloud to the DK classrooms. The Pre-Primary Center Developmental Kindergarten students and staff would like to thank Mrs. Hopkins and her students for all the wonderful memories this school year!
Meistersingers Spread Love and Joy!
On Valentines Day, our very own Meistersingers delivered over 200 Singing Valentines to MPS schools and the Midland Community! This year included a special pre-Valentine's day appearance at Washington Woods where our students were able to sing for and spend time with residents, what a wonderful evening.
This annual event is a decades-old tradition that has had a massive positive impact on the MPS and Midland communities. What a great expression of Chemic Pride!
MHS Participates in Regional Super Connect Event
In January, members of both the Midland High School Student Council and Varsity Leadership Class attended a Regional Super Connect event in Frankenmuth, sponsored by the Michigan Association of Students Councils and the Michigan Association of National Honor Societies (MASC/MAHS). Each year, the MASC/MAHS year holds approximately 7 events across the state during the months of January and February, with the purpose of providing students an opportunity to share the best student programming they offer in their home schools.
Midland High School chose to attend an event that would expose the students to schools that are diverse in terms of their size, student population, and activities offered, with the hopes of learning new ways to engage with all of the students at Midland High School. This year’s conference did not disappoint as 11 schools attended, including nearly 250 students from Novi, L’Anse Creuse North, Troy Athens, Brandon, and Northville.
The Chemics featured 3 showcase presentations: the Halloween Community Event was created and presented by the team of Addison Birchmeier, Faith Kogei, Cayden Nieto, and Emily Schulz. Their presentation had two activities for the attendees to experience: sensory boxes and a cereal sorting competition. The team of Keara Banks, Alexis Johnson, Maisy Matthews, and Avery Shepard created and presented “Building a Student Family, Not a Council”, which focused on how MHS Student Council creates a safe space where students can build meaningful friendships while making our school and community a better place. The final team of Elly Black, Mary Doan, Heather Herron, and Porter Pritchard presented “Engage the Unengaged”, which shared how a leadership organization can work to create a better community in a school by offering various activities that attempt to interest the diverse student groups in a school. This team earned one of the 3 best in show awards, and they will be sharing their presentation at the MASC/MAHS Student State Conference that will be held in Grand Rapids this coming weekend.
Two Chemics also competed in the Michigan Student Voice Competition. Keara Banks presented “Changing the Narrative” and spoke about the obstacles she faced as an athlete and how her disappointments turned into triumphs when embraced the opportunity that she had been given. Elly Black shared “Friendships Come and Go”, a heartwrenching, often common story about overcoming the loss of a friendship and how she is healing through the creation of new relationships. While these students did not advance to the state competition, their time, effort, and passion were greatly appreciated and valued. Their presentations provided valuable life lessons, and their courage and perseverance are applauded! Way to go, Chemics!
MHS 3rd Annual Human Library
On February 15th, in a collaborative effort with MPS and the community, Midland High School hosted its 3rd annual Human Library event. The Human Library is an international organization that publishes people as open books.
The goal is to create a safe place for dialogue and a place to ask questions about difficult subjects, thus offering the opportunity to challenge stereotypes and provide the opportunity to "unjudge" someone.
Human books represent our own community members that often are subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination. This could be due to lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status, ethnic origin, etc. This year there were 14 books from all walks of life with excitingly diverse life stories to share, including veteran, learning disability, life and culture of our local Chippewa tribe, cross-cultural adoption and identity, and early black families in Midland who witnessed our city's journey to become more inclusive.
Both the books and readers (MHS Seniors who chose to opt in) had the opportunity to create empathy and meet people who may seem different but actually share many things in common.
"Minorities in our society are either under-represented or misrepresented in mass media," said DEI director Dr. Yang Jiao, "such events like this are refreshingly eye-opening, as we communicate candidly face to face, without any mediated filters or fillers. 'Unjudge' someone is more than a social responsibility, but a lifelong skill to empower ourselves in our increasingly dynamic world we are all part of."
Celebrating Black History Month
Midland High Black Student Union visits Northeast Culture Club
On February 13, members of the Midland High Black Student Union paid a visit to the Northeast Middle School Culture Club. They formed a mini panel discussion on the vision and mission of their Union, along with various events and learning opportunities for Black History Month. During the Q&A session, the BSU panel also shared life and culture in general at Midland High, and that their younger peers will all have a great high school experience if they "just be yourself, have an open mind, and TRY everything"! The discussion was well received by both parties and proved to be a mutual learning experience. Way to go, Midland High and Northeast!
Voices of Black Midland coming to MPS
As part of celebrating Black History Month on a district level, Both of our high schools will take turns hosting the "Voices of Black Midland" banners for the remainder of February.
These banners, titled "First Families", "Black Settlers", "Education", and "Work and Community", feature a collection of oral histories from current and former residents of Midland from all generations, careers, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is educational for our students to see how members of Midland's Black community were able to tell their stories in their own terms, in their own words.
Lunar New Year Celebrations
Students at Jefferson Middle School and H.H. Dow High School celebrated the Lunar New Year with a variety of activities, including drawing Chinese dragons, writing Chinese idioms containing the character of the dragon, decorating the windows with teacher Lifang Qiu, and making and tasting glutinous rice balls.
2024-2025 Enrollment
Online Enrollment
Online enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year is now available by clicking the link below.
If you do not already have a ParentVue account, you will be prompted to create one, and then you will be able to complete the 2024-2025 New Student form for grades DK-12.
If you have any questions or issues with the enrollment process, please contact the enrollment office at 989-923-5024 or enroll@midlandps.org.
School of Choice
School of Choice applications for the 2024-2025 school year will be available beginning February 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024 by visiting the link below.
Availability will be based on current enrollment information for each building and grade. Families will be notified via email of their application status by the end of the day on April 24, 2024. Please contact Becci Longstreth at enroll@midlandps.org or 989-923-5024 with any questions.