Page 8 — Thursday, May 12, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
New grant lets HMS students
create instructional videos
Students in the elective Innovation and
Design class at Hastings Middle School have
the opportunity to learn about creating,
designing, programming, sampling,
reverse-engineering and more.
Along with teaching more than 100 stu-
dents in the semester-long class, instructor
William Renner III is always looking for ways
to update and expand the class offerings.
Students have access to all sorts of projects
and lessons. The program, Renner said, is
based on students making choices about their
own learning.
The latest addition to the class included
microphones, green screens and a new iPad,
all of which are being used to create instruc-
tional videos.
Hastings Middle School received a $1,
grant from the Guido A. and Elizabeth H.
Binda Foundation through the Calhoun Inter-
mediate School District Mini Grant program.
The grant proposal was titled “Videos for
Learning, and I Don’t Mean Watching.”
The new technology is allowing students to
record and edit videos showing what they
have created in the Innovation and Design
Program.
“The regular microphone in an iPad is
designed to pick up all the sounds around it
when you press the record button,” Renner
said. “With the use of [the new] microphone,
you can eliminate most, if not all, the back-
ground sounds, so you only hear the voice of
the student who is doing the recording.
The recording accessories are not limited
to audio improvements.
“With the green screens, we have been able
to record without the distractions of the
room...” Renner said. “After students have
done their recording, they are able to add an
appropriate backdrop for their videos. If they
do not like the backdrop, they can change it
without having to redo their recording.”
When she was considering making a video,
eighth-grader Breanna Busboom recalled a
favorite activity in elementary science class:
Making simple “volcanoes” and combining
baking soda and vinegar to make them erupt.
So, when she had a chance to learn how to
use a green screen, Breanna revisited that
memorable project. She gathered the materi-
als, including craft sticks, foil, hot glue, paint
and red food coloring, and created a baking
soda island volcano.
She then used the green screen to make the
volcano appear to be in the ocean, erupting.
Shiloh Crandall and Claudia Minch used
the microphones to create how-to videos for
using the programmable sewing and embroi-
dery machines in the classroom.
When asked about the new equipment,
Claudia said iMovie makes it is easy to edit
the video clips. Shiloh added that the micro-
phone make the speakers voice much clearer
on the video.
Video creation is just one of many hands-
on lessons Hastings Middle School students
can choose for themselves. Renner will be
making the videos available, so the students
can become teachers, too.Name approved for new TK childhood school
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The newest building in the Thornapple
Kellogg school district now has a name.
The district’s board of education Monday
on a voice vote approved naming the
33,000-square-foot, $11.5 million facility on
Bender Road the Thornapple Kellogg Early
Childhood Center. The new school is expect-
ed to open in time for the 2022-23 school
year. It will replace the district’s learning
center, which is the district’s oldest building.
TK Superintendent Craig McCarthy pro-
posed the name for the building, which will
be home to the district’s preschool programs,
early childhood special education, Great Start
Readiness Preschool and child care.
“I proposed a name, and asked for any
names you might think of for the new build-
ing,” McCarthy told board members.
No objections were raised to McCarthy’s
proposal.Construction of the school was made pos-
sible by voter approval of a $42.5 million
bond issue in November 2019. The school
will have 10 classrooms, a sensory room and
a multi-purpose gymnasium that also will
serve as the cafeteria. The building also will
have a board room for school board meetings,
as well as offices and rooms for training and
professional development.
McCarthy told the board Monday that con-
struction on the early childhood center is on
track.
“They’re working on interior finishes right
now,” he said. “The roof was supposed to be
completed at the end of last week. Hoping
that ... I’m sure the weather this week will
permit that to be completed. The playground
work is actually being started. The site work
behind the building [is] getting things ready
for playground equipment, and all the furni-
ture for the learning center has been ordered.
We’re sitting pretty well there.”The board approved spending $66,576 for
the purchase of audio-visual equipment for
the board room in the early childhood center
and awarded the contract to Moss Communi-
cations of Grand Rapids.
Assistant Superintendent Chris LaHaie
said the district received two proposals for
the contract that were less than $10,000 apart
in price, but Moss offered more in its pack-
age, including a state-of-the-art camera, an
advanced broadcast-level recording system
and digital hardware as opposed to analog
hardware.
“It’s a better proposal and a better system
for our needs,” LaHaie said. “It provides for
future growth and better meets our current
needs, as well.”
The current learning center was built in as
part of what was then the high school. That
building will be torn down to make way for
more parking and better traffic flow around
McFall Elementary School.DeCamps bring symphony, youngsters together
Programmable embroidery machines were a big hit with Hastings Middle School
students when they were purchased last year for the innovation and design class.
Now, with the addition of more equipment, students, like Shiloh Crandall can create
videos to show how to use the machines, or make specific items. (Photo provided)
Hastings and Delton Kellogg early elementary students were treated to a concert by the Grand Rapids Symphony Friday as part
of the GRS Lollipop concert series. The DeCamp Family Foundation covered the cost of the symphony to play at the Hastings
Performing Arts Center, as well as transportation for around 900 students in pre-kindergarten through second grade in the two
districts. The interactive performance was designed to teach and entertain the youngsters. The visiting musicians gave two perfor-
mances, each with a classical selection, “Overture to Il re Pastore” by Mozart, and a musical rendition of “Peter and the Wolf” by
Prokofiev. Students had learned about the story in their classes. Edie Evans-Hyde, who performed at the HPAC in February with
the Terry Lower orchestra, narrated the story as the instruments played the parts of the characters in the play. Avery Wilson, a Star
Elementary second-grader, was one of the hundreds of students who enjoyed the show. It was fun to hear all of the different instru-
ments and how they represented each character,” she said. “I really liked the bird, which was played by the flute, and the wolf, that
was played by the French horns.” (Photo by Bob Gaskill)Lartigue’s selection came after the second
round of interviews with the board. The inter-
views took place over the course of three
hours – an hour-and-a-half for each candi-
date. Lartigue and Plainwell High School
Principal Jeremy Wright, the other finalist,
were each asked more than two dozen ques-
tions by the board. Members from the audi-
ence also were able to submit questions, as
well as feedback forms for the board.
During the interview, Shooks asked Lar-
tigue how he plans to improve the district.
“My dad always told me to just sit back and
listen for a while,” Lartigue said. “I think the
older you get, the more you realize that. If I
say, ‘The first thing, I’m going to come in here
and change everything overnight,’ well, No. 1,
it’s not my job, it’s actually a collective job
and every voice needs to be heard. But there
are things we need to improve on, like with
storage, security, having a good rotation for
the buses, and actually having the timeline for
when stuff is supposed to be put out, like with
the bonds.”
“Also, a lot of our students, they need a
little fire behind them,” he added. “A lot of
them seem a little lost. They seem like they
are just here. And I get that. But we have to
do something about lighting that fire so edu-
cation is exciting and fun for them again. I’ve
seen it all over the United States, and I’ve
talked to colleagues all over the place.
“But the nice thing is we are starting to
bounce back after all of this COVID stuff
because it’s all over the U.S., it’s not just
here. But it’s our job to take care of them
babies; it’s our job to take care of them kids.
And we are it.”
Board Treasurer Sarah Austin asked how
Lartigue will connect the three buildings.
“I plan on being in every one of them every
day,” he said. “I’m always in classrooms.
There is something about it: Having someone
come in and say ‘Hi’ to you. [As a kid] I don’t
think I saw my first superintendent for quite
some time, and he walked in, and one of the
kids said, ‘You should knock.’
“I plan to be as visible as possible. Poking
in and seeing if the folks need anything.
That’s one way to have those conversations to
see what the teachers actually need – and it
only takes a couple minutes.”
After the interviews, board members went
into closed session for about an hour to dis-
cuss the public feedback forms and the inter-
views. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the
board returned to open session and conducted
a straw poll to see where members stood on
the candidates. Six of the seven board mem-
bers favored Lartigue.
Concerns were raised about both candi-
dates in that straw poll. Those who were in
favor of Wright were concerned with Lar-
tigue’s lack of experience in finance and
budgeting. On the other side, those who were
in favor with Lartigue were concerned with
the challenges that might rise with the “bag-
gage” Wright could bring regarding the law-
suit at his current post at Plainwell High
School.
Wright is named in a lawsuit filed in feder-
al court by a Plainwell student who alleged he
was suspended for expressing his beliefs as a
Christian about LGBTQ people in private
text messages and in the school hallway.
Board President Jessica Brandli and Vice
President Kelli Martin struggled with the
weight of this decision.
“I was impressed with Herman,” Brandli
said. “But I’m very concerned about the lack
of budget and finance experience. That is a
huge concern.”“This is not a decision that is taken light-
ly,” Martin said. “I’ve read all your feedback
forms; I’ve heard from many people. I just
don’t want to mess this up.”
Secretary Craig Jenkins said he favored
Wright because of Lartigue’s lack of finance
experience.
“I don’t think that the outside is always quite
aware of how hard it is to run such a small
district with the staff that we have – that I feel
is generous and charitable by staying here – to
stretch that further is just going to complicate
us,” he said. “I do love Herman; I would love
to hang out with that guy. He seems like a great
person, and I really think people would rally
around him for sure, but unfortunately, we
can’t just hire based on that.”
Charles Dumas of the Michigan Association
of School Boards acted as the board’s consul-
tant for guidance on making its decision.
“I would offer, from my professional expe-
rience as a superintendent, that those things
can be learned,” Dumas said in response to
Jenkins’ concern. “It’s been my experience
that the most important thing is personality
and attitude and drive because the personal
traits you can’t teach, but the practicality
aspects of the job, you can teach.”
During public comment and before the
board conducted the straw poll, two people
from the audience spoke – Jill Steele and
Nick Baker of Delton.
Steele’s main point was how Lartigue is
already such a huge part of the community.
“I graduated from Delton, my husband did,
our four kids did, and we have grandkids
here; so, I’ve been in this community for a
long time,” she said. “It is a very unique com-
munity and, in past years, we’ve had a couple
superintendents that just didn’t seem to mesh
with the community. And so I think that –while we’ve got two very good candidates
here – I think that half the battle is already
won by Dr. Lartigue. He has been in this
community, he worked here, he was well
received by the community, and so I think
that’s half the battle.”
Baker’s concern was with Wright’s law-
suit.
“My kids actually go to Gull Lake right
now, but I will be sending them to Delton next
year to come into district,” he said. “We had a
lot of lawsuits last year with Gull Lake. To me,
that just seems like a lot of baggage for a small
town. I don’t think we want our community to
be linked to that – especially in the news arti-
cles that will show up afterwards.”
Board members said they rank the commu-
nity’s perspective highly when making their
decisions. Many of the feedback cards from
the audience Monday night expressed con-
cern with the Plainwell lawsuit.
“In the overall, my vote is with Herman,”
Trustee Rodney Dye said. “A lot of that is
based on just reading, for the last couple of
sessions, the responses back with concerns of
the lawsuit. These are your voices that he is
bringing baggage, and this community has
dealt with that in the past. We know what that
brings with it.
“Because we have two good candidates
and with what we have staff and the people
that we currently have in our administration,
where Herman lacks in some of the things
that Jeremy could bring to the table, I think
there is enough of a support system here for
him to grow into that position and I think that
he would do well here, and that reflects spe-
cifically what you guys are telling me.”
Brandli called Lartigue a lifelong learner
and said she believes “he will throw himself
into this district.”“It is a big curve, but I will support this
board. We all know the gravity of this deci-
sion. We all know,” she said. “This is nothing
that we take lightly. Each of us has done our
due diligence in researching both of these
candidates. We’ve got members up here that
are, well, shaking and in tears. We want
what’s best for this district. My children go to
this district; I hope my grandkids will go to
this district. I love this place, and I’m not
even from here. I want what’s best for these
kids and what’s best for this faculty. I just
want you to know that none of this is easy for
us, and we want what’s best for these four
buildings – three schools and our bus garage.”
Finally, at around 10:50 p.m., the board voted
to enter into contract negotiations with Lartigue.
Dye expressed his appreciation for the
community’s feedback on the candidates.
“It’s one thing for us to govern and tell you
where the school is going to go, but, ulti-
mately, it’s nice to know and see the honest
input of where you guys want the schools to
go,” he said.
When asked what the first thing Lartigue
will do as superintendent is, he replied,
“Pack!” to laughs from the audience.
“But no, actually, I would like to try and
contact some of my old students and see if we
can have a little party right out here at the
park – a little homecoming party,” he said. “I
want to get all of my kids and all the commu-
nity members to come in and have a barbecue
and sit down and talk about all the things we
used to do, have done, and plan to do.”
“I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I
have a way of bringing people together so
they can fight for the same cause,” Lartigue
said. “They can find a little something inside
of them that will push them towards that
cause and work together.”DELTON, continued from page 1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––