08/23/2026
We are so proud to have Mrs Kietzman and her amazing musical talent!
The Other Pickford Dynasty
Pickford Public Schools is a dynasty.
In football, and in music.
The football part is easy to see.
The other requires you to listen.
And for nearly two decades, Jessica Kietzman has been the engine behind the sound.
Inside one PK–12 school of roughly 430 students, Kietzman has helped build a music program that consistently punches far above its size.
She teaches K–4 music, then fifth-grade band, sixth-grade band, middle-school band and finally high-school band.
That means a student can meet Kietzman in kindergarten — and years later, still find her standing in front of them as a senior.
She doesn't simply inherit musicians.
She grows them.
And in Pickford, growing your own matters.
There aren't hundreds of musicians waiting in reserve.
When a talented senior graduates, there isn't always another kid ready to slide into the chair.
So the process starts early.
A kindergartner learns rhythm. A fifth grader picks up an instrument. A middle-schooler learns how to become part of an ensemble.
Eventually, some of them walk into the Pickford High School Band.
By then, the person holding the baton isn't a stranger, she's been the one helping build them for years.
And the results have followed.
Pickford’s bands have consistently earned Division I — Superior — ratings at Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association festivals.
In 2018, Kietzman took a 46-member Pickford High School Band to the State Band & Orchestra Festival.
But the high school wasn't there alone. Pickford’s 25-member middle-school band qualified for State, too.
A year later, both programs returned.
And in February 2026, both the Pickford middle-school and high-school bands again received straight Division I ratings at the District 13 festival.
This isn't one unusually talented class.It's a system, like football.
In 2017, the Pickford High School Band received the American School Band Directors Association Michigan Award of Excellence.
Kietzman herself has been named MSBOA District 13 Teacher of the Year three times and has spent more than a decade serving as District 13 president.
But perhaps the best way to understand what she has built isn't through awards, but through numbers.
430 students and one teacher helping guide music from the earliest elementary years through the final high-school ensemble.
And somehow, Pickford keeps producing musicians capable of Superior ratings and state-level performances.
That's where the music program begins to resemble the football program.
At a large school, depth can hide weaknesses.
At Pickford, everybody matters.
One missing lineman can change a football team.
One missing trumpet can change a band.
Small schools don't have the luxury of waiting for talent to show up.They have to develop it, keep it, and convince the next kid that being a part of it means something.
For nearly two decades, that's what Kietzman has done. She isn't waiting at the end of the pipeline to see what arrives.
The fifth grader struggling to make a clean sound today may eventually become the senior an entire section depends upon. Kietzman gets years to help make that happen.
Pickford's football dynasty is measured in wins, playoff runs and banners.
Its music dynasty means a Superior rating, state Festival appearance, or an Award of Excellence.
And somewhere inside that little eastern Upper Peninsula school, another kindergarten student is sitting in music class right now.
They may not know it yet, but Jessica Kietzman could still be holding the baton when they take their final bow.
Pickford knows how to build programs.
Football just isn't the only one.
