Dear Lansing School District Community,
I hope that this newsletter finds you well. As always, it is a pleasure to email you all.
On Friday, April 11th, I attended Mt. Hope's performance of Shrek Jr. the Musical. It was outstanding. Sitting in the back of the beautiful new Everett auditorium, I witnessed the incredible hard work of students and staff. The show had everything: singing, acting, dancing, a beautiful set, wonderful costumes, and a great crew supporting it all. Putting on a musical is one of the most difficult and labor-intensive activities a school can undertake. Learning songs, dances, and dialogue, along with creating a set and supporting all of the machinations of a performance, is a highly complex interdisciplinary undertaking. Most high schools only put on plays, if any type of drama, and here was a junior high school staging a two-act musical. Mt Hope and the entire Lansing community should be proud of this achievement. Accordingly, I do want to give some shout-outs:
The Creative Team of Courtney Pino (Director), Liisa Whitman (Musical Director), and Sarah Bingle (Technical Director) led our students through this amazing performance. Nicole Holliday (Principal of Mt. Hope) and Stephen Draper (Director of Enrichment) helped create the environment for Mt. Hope to put this production on. I want to thank the Mt. Hope families for their tireless efforts to help their children and the school. And, of course, I want to congratulate the students. I was so impressed with their talents and hard work: the Cast of — Jace, Zoey, Micah, Lauren, Allison, Jasmine, Emiliano, Gerald, Evey, Vanessa, Phoebe, Raeyonna, Kaylynna, Christielle, Emma, Izla, Zoe, Elizabeth, Madiana, Ruby, Emme, and Hope and the Crew of --- Deanna Amare, Makayla, Abigail, Gunner, Hannah, Ty'Anthony, Ty'lar-Jaymez, Julia, Mariam, and Michael.
For our district to truly be a vibrant and excellent school system, we need to have great academics and a top-notch enrichment program. What I saw on Friday shows me we are well on our way to this goal. Congratulations to you all. I hope every student has a chance to participate in some extra-curricular activity. I urge our students to join a team, club, or other enrichment program. And if you are a community member reading this newsletter and want to volunteer to help with any enrichment program, please let me know. We can't do it without you.
Thank you so much for all of your incredible support of our district. Together, we will do great things for the children of Lansing.
Benjamin Shuldiner, Superintendent
Lansing School District
