Bay College Iron Mountain Campus on Friday added a new training classroom for Manufacturing and Engineering Education Reimagined for All, or MEERA, program after five area school districts secured state Career and Technical Education, or CTE, to extend technical education into middle school grades. Each school district will get a similar classroom and equipment, with teachers learning about the equipment at new MEERA-UP Regional Training Center. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

Five area school districts are among 17 in the Upper Peninsula adding new equipment and classrooms in the next few months to extend manufacturing training into middle school grades after receiving roughly $160,000 to almost $235,000 from the state.

The funding comes from $24.2 million in state Career and Technical Education, or CTE, expansion grants, allocated by the Michigan Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer through the Michigan Department of Education.

It’s intended to help meet rising student demand and regional labor needs, particularly in CTE deserts and districts with demonstrated opportunity gaps, according to a Michigan Department of Education news release.

The area school districts and grant amounts approved include —

— Forest Park School District, Crystal Falls: $234,814;

Bay College Iron Mountain Campus on Friday added a new training classroom for Manufacturing and Engineering Education Reimagined for All, or MEERA, program after five area school districts secured state Career and Technical Education, or CTE, to extend technical education into middle school grades. Each school district will get a similar classroom and equipment, with teachers learning about the equipment at new MEERA-UP Regional Training Center. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

— West Iron County Public Schools, Iron River: $234,814;

— Iron Mountain Public Schools: $233,625;

— Breitung Township Schools, Kingsford: $203,557; and

— North Dickinson County School, Felch Township: $163,000.

North Dickinson’s amount was lower because it needed fewer stations in the new classroom, given its smaller enrollment, Superintendent/Principal Dave Florenski said.

Yet the change will be profound in rural Felch Township, he said. The school will have such items on site as a 3D printer and a Computer Numerical Control, or CNC, machine that can precision cut, carve or shape materials such as wood, metal or plastic.

Manufacturing and Engineering Education Reimagined for All, or MEERA, will handle all the design and adapting the classroom, which will be a converted art room, Florenski said. They’ve already seen mock-ups of the new classroom, with MEERA scheduled to do set-up and installation in August.

The school also plans this year to add a greenhouse and a Lego Robotics program for kindergarten through fifth grade students through other grants, Florenski said.

Kevin Schmutzler, superintendent of West Iron County Schools, said the CTE grant will provide unique resources such as virtual welding with special optics.

“This opportunity will give our sixth through eighth grade students access to high-quality, technical, hands-on learning experiences that introduce students to manufacturing and engineering pathways earlier and unlike ever before,” Schmutzler said in an email. “By engaging students at this level, we hope to spark curiosity, build confidence, develop skills, connect classroom learning to real-world applications and explore careers to prepare our students for future jobs.”

While WIC has access to the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District Technical Education Center in Kingsford, that’s an hour away and only for high school students, he noted. This will add to the construction, metals, woodworking and other careers experience students can get in Iron River.

“It’s just a real neat, high-tech, innovative way to introduce our middle school students to such education,” Schmutzler said.

Historically, CTE programs have been reserved for high school students, according to the state. However, the latest funding opens the door to middle school CTE exposure in Michigan for the first time, an opportunity many states still do not offer.

“We are incredibly grateful to receive this state funding, which allows Breitung Township Schools to continue partnering with our local industry to provide practical, hands-on experience at the middle-school level. By fostering this synergy between BTS and our community partners, we are preparing our students for multiple successful pathways; whether that leads directly into the trades, manufacturing, or advanced post-secondary degrees,” said Aaron Yonke, superintendent of Breitung Township Schools. “This is a tremendous win-win for BTS and the entire Kingsford-Iron Mountain community as we work together to equip the next generation of our workforce.”

Iron Mountain Public Schools this month hired Anthony Abney as its CTE-MEERA teacher.

Iron Mountain Superintendent Jerry Sardina earlier had told the school board he would like to create a manufacturing program that would incorporate the virtual skills students will learn in middle school into physical programs for high school students that eventually could lead to partnerships with local business by the time the students are seniors.

The district plans to convert a room in the former industrial arts building into space for the CTE-MEERA classroom.

Joe Tinti, the Career and Technical Education director for the DIISD who assisted in pursuing the grants, said he was surprised to see five receive funding.

“This is an excellent opportunity to expose middle school to technical education early,” Tinti said, adding it aims to “meet the need for skilled manufacturing” now and in the future.

He noted the application period is now open for the next round of CTE grants, so other area districts may secure funding as well.

Engaging students in sixth through eighth grades with the MEERA competency-based manufacturing education program is “designed to inspire the next generation of America’s manufacturing workforce,” state officials said.

Middle school teachers from each school district will learn about the equipment at a new MEERA-UP Regional Training Center. The local one was set up Friday at the Bay College-Iron Mountain Campus, in a room that had gone unused for years, a Bay official said.

The other Upper Peninsula districts to receive funding were —

— Bark River-Harris Schools: $311,000 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— Burt Township School District: $218,529 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— Copper Island Academy: $287,002 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— Gogebic-Ontonagon Intermediate School District: $400,000 for High School Construction Trades;

— Hancock Public Schools: $273,790 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— Houghton-Portage Township Schools: $177,000 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— L’Anse Area Schools: $232,786 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing;

— Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency: $80,000 for High School Engineering Technology;

— Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency: $176,291 for High School Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance;

— Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency: $202,800 for High School Natural Resources and Conservation;

— Marquette-Alger Regional Education Service Agency: $180,480 for High School Aeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science and Technology; and

— Public Schools of Calumet, Laurium, and Keweenaw: $400,000 for Middle School Advanced Manufacturing.

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Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.