sun and news 4-3-2021

Page 2/The Sun and News, Saturday, April 3, 2021

Middleville Rotary Club

Presents

Spring Fling

Chicken Dinner

Drive Up

April 16, 2021

5:00-7:00 pm

Middleville Middle School

10375 Green Lake Rd,

Middleville, MI 49333

Tickets Available from any Middleville

Rotarian or Request online:

[email protected]

Presale only by April 13

Ticket Needed at Drive Up

Take Out Only - No Dine In

$10.

Dinner Includes:

1/2 Baked Chicken

Baked Potato, Butter, Sour Cream

Green Beans

Dinner Roll & Butter

TAEF seeks Hometown

Hero nominations

The Thornapple Area

Enrichment Foundation is

seeking nominations for its

2021 Hometown Hero

Award. The Hometown Hero

is an outstanding individual

in the community who exem-

plifies excellence, integrity

and commitment.

Nominations must

include the nominee’s name,

address, phone number and a

brief explanation of why the

nominee should be consid-

ered the community’s

Hometown Hero. Nominators

are asked to include their

contact information, as well.

The information can be

emailed to [email protected]

or mailed to TAEF C/O

Annie Halle, P.O. Box 164,

Middleville, MI 49333.

The 2021 Hometown

Hero will be recognized at a

dinner put on by TAEF in

September (dependent upon

COVID-19 safety restric-

tions). Nominations are due

by May 1.

The most recent

Hometown Hero award was

presented in 2019 to Don

Williamson, a former mem-

ber of the Thornapple

Kellogg Board of Education

for 20 years and a founding

member and first president of

the Thornapple Kellogg

Alumni Association. No

award was presented in 2020.

Don Williamson, pictured with his wife, Cathy, and state Rep. Julie Calley, was

named the recipient of the Thornapple Area Enrichment Foundation’s 2019 Hometown

Hero Award. Nominations for the 2021 award are now being accepted.

TK library to be open

during spring break

The Thornapple Kellogg

School and Community

Library has shelves full of

books for all ages.

Next week, during spring

break for TK students,

STEAM Grab and Go kits

from Pierce Cedar Creek will

be available for students, and

pingpong tables will be set

up for anyone who wants to

play.

Hours next week are

Saturdays, April 3 and 10,

9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.; Tuesday,

April 6, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.;

and Thursday, April 8, 10

a.m.-7 p.m.

Regular hours will

resume Tuesday, April 13.

More information is

available by calling 269-795-

5434 or visiting tkschools.

org/community/library.

Virtual job interviews provide

real-life lessons for TK seniors

Using computers and

linking up for meetings or

classes is nothing new for

high school students. But for

many, a virtual job interview

was a first.

About 120 seniors at

Thornapple Kellogg High

School were able to have that

experience this week as part

of an English assignment.

High school teachers

Scott Aldrich, Tricia Rickert

and Amy Forman organized

the lesson as part of English

assignments for their seniors.

For some students, it likely

was their first job interview.

“The feedback we’re get-

ting from students and inter-

viewers has been over-

whelmingly positive,”

Aldrich said. “It’s important

for kids to know how to do

this, and virtual interviews

are a real thing.”

The virtual interviews

were all set to take place this

past week. When the high

school was forced to close

for the week because of

increasing numbers of

COVID-19 cases, Aldrich

and Rickert said they

believed it was still an

important assignment for stu-

dents to complete. The nice

thing about a virtual inter-

view, Aldrich said, is that it

can be done from anywhere.

So, students linked up

from their bedrooms, base-

ments or kitchen tables.

Those without good internet

service were able to go to the

high school library or other

internet hotspots around the

district.

“So many people think

English is about literature

and writing research papers,

but it’s more than that.

Students need to know how

to speak and communicate.

This is a real-world applica-

tion,” Rickert said. “We

always have kids say they

want more classes that are

real-world experiences. This

is it.”

Students had to write a

cover letter and prepare a

resume. Based on interests,

they were assigned to an

interview. More than a dozen

companies and 29 interview-

ers – local and across the

country – participated. After

the interviews, students also

sent thank-you notes, either

via email or a handwritten

note delivered by mail.

“There are a lot of oppor-

tunities in life where kids are

going to need these skills,

whether they are interview-

ing for a job or something

else. They need to know how

to communicate,” Aldrich

said.

Rickert and Aldrich said

the mock interviews give stu-

dents immediate feedback

and tips from the interview-

ers.

“A lot of times you inter-

view for a job and you have

no idea why you didn’t get

the job or how you did in the

interview. With this, students

got instant feedback about

their strengths and areas for

improvement,” Aldrich said.

Participating companies

and organizations conducting

interviews included

Accenture, Barry County

Community Mental Health

Authority, Central Michigan

University, Farmers

Insurance, Greenridge

Realty, Guild Education,

Hastings Hotline Tools and

Equipment, Kellogg’s, Lacks

Enterprises, Maserati,

Michigan State Police, the

Village of Middleville, MKP

CPA, the University of Notre

Dame, Pine Rest Christian

Mental Health Services,

Rotary Club of Middleville,

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church,

Vital Records Control,

United Way and YMCA.

Kent ISD board suspends

search for new superintendent

Citing the extraordinary
challenge of searching for
new leadership amid a pan-
demic that has brought stress
on educators at all levels, the
Kent Intermediate School
District Board Thursday sus-
pended its search for a new
superintendent and asked
Interim Superintendent Ron
Koehler to remain until con-
ditions return to “some sense
of normalcy.”
President Andrea Haidle
said the board learned during
Koehler’s interim service
how heavily the pandemic,
work-at-home orders and

other unusual circumstances

had weighed on Kent ISD

staff of more than 1,000 indi-

viduals and decided now was

not the time for a change,

according to an April 1 press

release.

Before taking the interim

position in January, Koehler

committed to remain as

superintendent until the

board found permanent lead-

ership.

“This pandemic has

stressed us all, but few have

been impacted as much as

educators and educational

leadership,” Haidle said. “We

received just 13 applications

for what is widely viewed as

one of the premier education

leadership positions in the

state. One of our primary

goals was a diverse pool of

candidates, yet those we

received were not diverse.

“Our staff deserve a well-

known and welcome leader

during this time as we work

toward a sense of normalcy,”

Haidle said.

Koehler worked at Kent

ISD for 23 years, more than

half of that time as an assis-

tant superintendent, before

retiring in 2019.

Call 269-945-

for Sun & News

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