Midland Public Schools launches new podcast
Midland Public Schools has launched MPS Connections, an informational bi-weekly podcast for stakeholders in the school district.
Associate superintendent Brian Brutyn is the host of the podcast. He told the City Paper that he was assigned to be the host because of his public speaking skills, and his personal use of podcasts.
“That’s how I absorb all of my information,” Mr. Brutyn said. “Every single morning when I’m on my run, I’m listening to podcasts, and every time I drive, I’m on them as well, too. And I think every single team meeting we’re in, I’m saying, ‘Hey, did you listen to this podcast…'”
Mr. Brutyn told the City Paper that MPS Connections is being started as an effort to expand communications from the school district to all stakeholders – which includes parents and students.
The Superintendent’s Weekly Communique, a newsletter sent out to stakeholders every Monday from the Superintendent’s office, already exists to communicate the latest news and events within MPS schools.
Starting with the July 19, 2021 edition, the communique has been redesigned from its PDF format to an interactive, online format, making it more mobile-friendly and accessible.
Mr. Brutyn told the City Paper that MPS Connections was launched to supplement the communique as a way for the school to discuss certain topics in detail.
“We’ve been talking about expanding into it for the past year, and we finally decided this last summer that it was time to jump on board, and to get this additional mode of communication out to be able to try to get to as many people as we possibly can, in the way that they want to consume and absorb information,” Mr. Brutyn said.
Mr. Brutyn elaborted that parents are likely going to be the main audience for the podcast, but it also can benefit students and the general public.
“We have a very engaged public – those that have students with us and those that don’t – that live in the community that wants to know what’s going on in Midland Public Schools. When we’re picking topics and we’re looking at things, we’re trying to find ones that will reach everyone out there,” Mr. Brutyn said.
The first episode of MPS Connections, which dropped July 21, centers around the MPS Return to Learn plan, which details health and safety protocols for in-person learning for the 2021/2022 school year. Most notably, students will not be required to wear masks or use face shields when attending in-person, regardless of vaccination status.
The second episode was released August 5, and focuses on high school athletics. The third episode comes out Thursday, August 19, with back-to-school tips as its topic.
Mr. Brutyn told the City Paper that, behind the scenes, there is a list of nearly 60 potential topics for future podcast episodes, which were brainstormed when planning the podcast.
“Our goal at first is to hit the broad range topics, and we’re probably going to narrow it down as time progresses on,” Mr. Brutyn said.
While the focus is currently on hot topics which are relevant to the public at a given time, Mr. Brutyn says future episodes may narrow down to more specific, localized topics, including the honors society and the robotics program.
“We don’t just want to bring adults in. We’re going to talk with students at certain times, and so as the year progresses, you’re going to be seeing the guests vary a bit, from adults to students, from administrators, etc,” Mr. Brutyn said.
Mr. Brutyn told the City Paper that the MPS staff was inspired by researching and listening to similar podcasts from other school districts.
“First and foremost, we’re educators. We’re not public broadcasters, so we’re doing our best at it, but we do have a great couple of folks behind the scenes who are in our communications arena that are helping us with this and helping with the editing and the intros and that type of deal,” Mr. Brutyn said.
MPS Connections will be available on major podcast distribution platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. However, links to each new episode will also be made available at the MPS website, as well as on MPS blast emails and weekly communiques.
New episodes will be released on the first and third Thursdays of each month, except for June, July, December and April, where one monthly podcast will be released.
Michael Piwowarski covers education, including higher ed and Midland Public Schools, for the City Paper.