1st Place, News Story
2023-24, Division 3, News Writing
By Kennedy Thurlow & Leena Voneitzen
Focus
Midland HS
After 56 years of a “cross-town rivalry”, the healthy competition between Midland and H.H. Dow High School may be forced to dissolve in the near future. Soon, there may only be one high school in Midland- -a new, “true community” school.
The latest and most significant proposal for this scenario came on Dec. 18, at the Special School Board Meeting, with a presentation delivered by Midland Public Schools Associate Superintendent Brian Brutyn.
“There are several challenges that the district currently faces,” Brutyn said. “The challenges include an expanding population in the northern section of our district, the need for space in our elementary schools, and the need to address aging facilities.”
With many possible plans introduced at the meeting, each one had been carefully thought out as a way to solve these challenges. Though they were officially announced in December, these plans have been in the works for a year and a half.
“We have reviewed over nine scenarios,” Brutyn told the board. “We did look at alternate grade configurations, the repurposing of buildings, and also studied programmatic impacts as well.”
Two possible plans were presented at the school board meeting: (1) Build a new elementary school and replace Northeast Middle School, or (2) Combine MHS and DHS into a “Community High School”. This plan would also reconfigure grade levels. The new high school would consist of grades 10-12, Midland High would be renovated and turn into a junior high with grades 7-9, and Dow High would be renovated to a new intermediate school with grades 5 and 6. This plan also included repurposing or demolishing the two existing middle schools and the Carpenter Pre-Primary building.
“It’s important to note that in this new high school, there are additional opportunities that’d be considered,” Brutyn told the board. “These opportunities could be an enhanced auditorium, a community pool, and also the chance for a new and revised stadium.”
Scenario 2 is a long-term plan, and would not affect any current high school students in the district; however, Brutyn believes that voting on this proposal could take place as soon as next school year.
“Once voted on, it would be several years, likely 2-3, before construction would begin,” Brutyn said. “There are many steps to complete [before building].”
One of the major challenges MPS faces, expanding populations in the northern part of the school district, is causing Dow High-feeding elementary schools to increase enrollment each year. However, Midland High-feeding elementary schools have seen a decrease in incoming students.
Principal Tiela Schurman believes redrawing attendance lines could help balance enrollment across the elementary schools.
“There’s no new homes going up in [the Midland High] attendance zone,” Schurman said. “[There’s no space] for new families to come in. That’s a problem.”
Redistricting — redrawing boundary lines for individual school neighborhoods–has been discussed by the school board throughout this process, yet there is no date for this to occur.
While “The Community High School Plan” would address the issues that are currently present in the district, Schurman knows there would also be issues that would emerge with building a community high school.
“You’re going to have to start cutting more students [on sports teams],” Schurman said. “So fewer students would have access to compete athletically at this level, and I think that’s a downfall.”
With cutting down to one high school from two, the historic Midland-Dow rivalry would also be forced to disappear. Midland High was originally built in 1876, and for 96 years it was the only high school in MPS. H.H. Dow opened its doors in 1968. With the high school being such a historic part of Midland and the community as a whole, full of alumni, creating a new high school with a new mascot and colors would be a major change.
“Some of those traditions that a lot of [community members] hold dear that help identify us would go away,” Schurman said. “They have to, naturally, because now you’re combining two different cultures.”
Though it’s inevitable for problems to arise with a change so big, Brutyn believes that it’s important to have an optimistic outlook on this proposal.
“It is best to contextualize ‘issues’ as ‘opportunities’,” Brutyn said. “It is obvious that there would be numerous items that would have to be addressed: staffing, curricular offerings, transportation. Each would present unique scenarios to be vetted as an opportunity on how to enhance those experiences for our students, staff, and stakeholders.”
NW-02. News Story
News stories should report but not interpret events that have news value and timeliness to the publication’s readers. Advance stories may be included in this category; follow-up stories should be submitted in NW-03.
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- Proper diction/grammar; use of third person