First, they were classmates at Wayne State University. Then they were colleagues at Grosse Pointe North. Soon they became friends and, at a co-worker’s wedding on Mackinac Island, that friendship blossomed.
Two years later, Don and Amanda Pata were married.
“We taught down the hall from each other for four years before we realized that we kind of liked each other,” said Don, who teaches physics.
Amanda is currently North’s media specialist, but was initially hired to teach science.
Other than the four years Amanda served as the librarian for the three GPPSS middle schools, she and Don have worked in the same building their entire teaching careers, initially in the same department.
While it may have taken a while for their friendship to grow into the partnership they share today, they have a lot in common, including a love of sports and traveling. Also, while Don graduated from Grosse Pointe South in 1991 and Amanda graduated four years later from Hastings High School north of Battle Creek, they both attended WSU on a Presidential Scholarship, allowing each to graduate debt-free.
“I played softball at Wayne,” said Amanda, who grew up on a farm on the west side of the state. “I would never have landed at Wayne State without that opportunity.”
Don earned his undergraduate degree at WSU, then returned to complete a master’s degree in teaching after volunteering with the Peace Corps. Amanda was an undergraduate when they met in a science teaching methods class. She later went on to earn two master’s degrees — the first in multidisciplinary science and the second in library media.
Don completed his degree a year ahead of Amanda and landed a position at Grosse Pointe North in the fall of 1999.
“I was working hard, trying my best and having a good time with the kids,” he said. “That winter, one of the department heads came down and said, ‘Hey, we’re getting a new student teacher. It’s someone you knew from the college.’”
That student teacher was Amanda. The next year, she was hired as a science teacher.
Both were busy that first year with their teaching schedules, with Amanda also coaching North’s softball team.
“Teaching, especially in the first couple years, is really challenging,” Don noted. “You’re always just trying to keep your head above water.”
Still, they found time to have lunch together and attended North sporting events together, often with a group of friends.
It was at that wedding on Mackinac Island the summer of 2004 that something changed. Two years later they were married.
“Once I started hanging out with Amanda, things started to click for the rest of my life,” Don said, adding he realized “this was what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, and these are the people I wanted to spend my time with. It was a great grounding moment and luckily, she agreed.”
Fast forward 15 years, and the couple have four children — Marshall, a sixth grader at Pierce Middle School; Dexter, a fourth grader and Brooklyn, a second grader, both at Maire Elementary; and Berkley, a preschooler at Monteith Elementary.
All four children are named after cities in Michigan — a tribute to the Patas’ love of their home state.
“Because we got together when we were very young and we weren’t ready to jump into having a family right away, we did a lot of traveling,” Amanda explained. “We still do a lot of traveling with the kids, too, but one of the main adventures that we did was to set foot and take a picture in every county in Michigan.”
It took them two and a half years, but right before their oldest was born, they completed this quest, setting foot in all 83 counties.
“Our commitment to the state of Michigan is like our commitment to the district,” Don said. “We love the district. I don’t want to teach anywhere else. I want to be part of this. We are parents in the district, our kids go here, I went to Grosse Pointe South. Amanda and I talk about that a lot. Our work is important. It’s important to the community and it’s important to the kids. To share that value is super important.”
That sense of community is especially exemplified at Grosse Pointe North, Don said.
“When Kate talks about the fact that as a staff we’re a family, it’s not hyperbole. We’re a real family here.”
As far as their own family is concerned, working together makes the logistics more manageable.
“If you look at our family and life and the school calendar, it’s crazy, but I couldn’t imagine trying to do this thing we’ve been so successful at if we taught in different districts or different buildings,” Amanda said. “We’re able to make life work the right way for us. Our lives are pretty crazy, but we make it happen. It’s really the only thing we know, in the best way.”
“Our story is not special and it’s not unique,” Don added, “but we love sharing it because working in the district means so much to us and we’re happy to tell people about our experiences.”
Look for more GPPSS “power couples” in future editions of School Pointes.
Future problem solvers seek a waste-free future
Future City starts with a question: How can we make the world a better place?
To answer that question, middle school students imagine, research, design and build cities of the future that showcase their solution to a citywide sustainability issue.
Past topics include storm water management, urban agriculture, public spaces, and green energy.
The 2021-22 theme is “A Waste-Free Future.” Teams are challenged to design a waste-free city using the principles of a circular economy.
While it’s still early stages in the project, members of Pierce Middle School’s Future City team were hard at work after school on Wednesday.
The team meets once a week. By the competition, participants are expected to complete five deliverables: a 1,500-word city essay; a scale built from recycled materials; a project plan; a presentation video, and a Q&A session with judges.
To get them started on the essay, adviser Carrie Morris gave team members award-winning essays to review. Then the students got to work brainstorming ideas for a location, recycled materials to use, resources, and a city name.
Seventh and eighth graders, led by veteran team members, worked independently discussing, debating and voting on their ideas.
For several of the eighth graders, this is their fifth year with Future City, as they previously were in Mrs. Morris’s fourth and fifth grade magnet class at Defer Elementary School. When they graduated and moved on to Pierce, Carrie continued to work with them.
Last year after she moved to Pierce to teach science, coding, and innovation and design, she opened the team up to all Pierce students. The competition was held virtually and only a small number signed up.
This year, in addition to returning and new seventh and eighth graders, Carrie got “a flood of lots of fifth and sixth graders who want to be a part of things,” she said. “People keep joining. We’re probably at 45.”
The students are preparing for the regional competition put on by the Engineering Society of Detroit at the end of January. Last year the competition was held virtually, but this year Carrie and the students hope it will be in-person.
The flexible, cross-curricular competition is “this perfect program with a mix of things — something for everybody,” Carrie said.
For example, they learn to do what engineers do: identify problems, brainstorm ideas, design solutions, test, retest and build, and share their results. Using the engineering design process, they apply math and science concepts to real-world issues; develop writing, public speaking, problem solving and time management skills; research and propose solutions to engineering challenges; explore career options; learn how their communities work; and become better citizens.
Eighth graders Betty Savage and Elena Martin were among the students who began participating in Future City in fourth grade. Once they got to middle school, they decided to continue.
“I really loved everything about it, like making the model and learning about how the world might be in 100 years,” Betty said, adding she is interested in economics and nature.
Elena continued with Future City because she had so much fun in elementary school. The benefit of middle school, she added, is the opportunity to fully compete. Her goal is to make it into the top five, where the team presents on “the big stage” to the full panel of judges.
“And we all want to be able to go to the competition,” she added.
It’s the first year on the team for seventh grader Charlie Marks. Last year he tried to join, but it was too late. This year he said he is excited to help out.
“I really like it because it’s a lot of science and engineering and lots of cool stuff that I really like,” he said. “And I’m with a lot of my friends and I really like talking about new ideas.”
Alumni Through the Decades
Our 100th anniversary series on GPPSS alumni continues.
Megan Grano
Grosse Pointe South High School
Class of 1995
by Andrea Daniell, guest writer
Comedian, writer, public speaking coach, rug collector.
Those are just of the few of the titles Megan Grano, Grosse Pointe South class of 1995, wears.
After graduating from South, Megan attended college at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. From there she found herself living in Chicago and pursuing a career in improv and sketch comedy at Second City. She toured with their national company for 3 years before becoming a member of their resident ensemble.
Megan later moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to write and act. She has appeared on TV shows like Parks & Rec, Veep, and Love, as well as movies including This is 40 and Bombshell. She was also a writer for shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, many YouTube channels, and Snapchat.
In 2013, Megan was introduced to the COO of a Fortune 500 company that was looking to add more humor in public appearances. She was referred by this executive to many other executives and now, nine years later, Megan has a wide array of corporate clients whom she assists with speech writing as well as speech delivering. Her clients include Disney, Boston Beer, Instagram, Facebook, Alteryx, the WNBA, the Washington Mystics, Google, Notion, Niantic, and more.
While in high school, Megan was part of the “Second Suburb” comedy troop. She credits this experience with influencing her life and giving her the desire to pursue a career in the performance world. At the time, Second Suburb was constantly on the brink of being canceled — and actually was canceled Megan’s sophomore year — so she thanks Vice Principal Bernie LeMieux for agreeing to keep the program around. Megan feels that comedy is such an important outlet for all humans, but especially teenagers, and especially in this image-conscious, cancel-culture world.
As far as advice for this year’s graduating class, Megan says, “Work hard, but don't take yourself too seriously.”
Andrea Daniell, a Grosse Pointe marketing consultant and writer and volunteer for the Grosse Pointe Alumni & Friends Association, is helping GPPSS reach its goal of profiling 100 alumni as part of the district’s 100th anniversary celebration. Read more alumni spotlights on the GPAF website or click here to nominate your favorite alum.
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.