MPS CTE masks shields for healthcare workers

Although school has closed, MPS CTE staff have been working to 3D print and construct shields for our local healthcare workers. Kyle Reed, an MHS electro-mechanical engineering teacher, is using a total of 40 printers, 32 of which are in his classroom. Other teachers working on the project, which officially started on Thursday, March 19, are Josh Webb, Jake Kinsland, and Justin Knight.

These shields will go to Promedica and other healthcare workers around the community. To help with these efforts, retired Principal Lisa McLaughlin and board of education Trustee Larry Zimmerman are providing the materials needed to make them. Each shield takes about one hour and 42 minutes to make.

CTE director Steve Pollzzie said this project made him feel proud to be a Trojan.

“I just feel very fortunate to be a part of a highschool, CTE department, and district that has the reasources needed to provide the local healthcare workers the equipment to keep them safe,” said Pollzzie.

According to Pollzzie, Reed approached him and said he saw on Facebook a gentleman in Toledo was using his 3D printer to print a headpiece that would connect to a face shield to protect our healthcare workers from germs. He then contacted Superintendent Dr. Julie Everly to see if it was possible to utilize MPS’s 40 3D printers at the highschool to do this work”.

Everly praised the efforts of all MHS staff during this crisis, including the CTE department.

Everly said, “ Our CTE department has been a force.”

Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer has continuously expressed the need for more medical supplies.

“Michigan, like states across the country republican and democratic led, we are struggling to get the PPE that we need, we are struggling to make sure that our nurses and doctors on the front line have the N95 masks that are so precious,” Whitmer said.