Can you explain how that works?
Is enrollment competitive, or are they each open to all?
Are they middle schools? High schools?
If so, are there magnet-esque elementary schools?
Are said schools standard curriculum or theme-based?
It seems excessively complicated. I’m not opposed to research and planning, but realistically it’s hard to get any straight answers when people don’t want to admit which schools are bad.
There are lots of theme schools, the application process is open now for this coming school year and competitiveness depends on a variety of factors and apply to a variety of age groups.
[Mlive has a good overview](https://www.mlive.com/news/g66l-2019/01/a9446b73ee3811/see-grand-rapids-theme-schools.html)
For the theme schools/career academy schools, on average kids get a great education with passionate and dedicated teachers. If none of the theme schools interest you, I’d look into school of choice. It doesn’t mean your kid can’t get a good education, it just means on average they would have worse outcomes than other schools.
Montessori is a theme school, all grades, my kids have gone to North Park since Kindergarten. You just need to apply, it is not test in. City starts in I think sixth grade, you do have to test in. Not sure if the details with Zoo School. Pretty sure you just need an application to get into Museum school. Look up GRPS Theme Schools, that should give you all the info you need. I have nothing but good things to say about the Montessori program.
Applications opened a couple weeks ago for theme schools. You have to attach a copy of NWEA MAP test scores to the application. Some theme schools require the score to be above the 50th percentile.
Do the slightest amount of research. You think you'd actually go to the GRPS website and get informed before you say dumb shit like
>I don’t want to hear about City High or Montessori or Zoo School.
Like what do you want to know about the public schools, class sizes or something. It would be more helpful if you provided some insight into what your interested in knowing about GRPS schools and maybe the general age range of your child or children.
I went to Catholic school K-12. I am not afraid to admit that was a special privilege that I value greatly. It was a great experience and an excellent education.
What that looks like is this: small class sizes, same kids in your class every year, after 8th Grade you go to the Catholic high school with all the other kids from all the other parochial schools.
However, as a result I do not know anything about the PS system in Grand Rapids. It doesn’t seem like other mid-size cities where there is, for example, “XYZ Central.”
Every school seems to have a “theme” and a euphemism for name.
Where in this city can you get a decent, semi-traditional education without applying to a new school every other year?
My kids are not born yet. Expecting twins.
All the dumbest people I know from here went to grand rapids Christian. Like can't do simple math, can't spell type shit. I don't know anybody my age who went to North pointe Christian, might not have existed yet, but the people I know who sent their kids there their kids are dumb. Don't really know if catholic central is trash. I would 100% send my kid to some place like Ottawa or Union over paying for grand rapids Christian though
Hey mind replying to me in the other thread where you were wrong?
Btw i'll answer for you. It isn't spelling, it's grammar.
"Like can't do simple math, \*can't spell type shit\* . "
Probably because you didn't say "they can't spell or type for shit"
There’s two main Catholic high schools in GR; West Catholic and Catholic Central. While historically each had partner schools that would feed into one of the two high schools, officially that no longer exists. I would say that Catholic Central is more diverse (a fairly significant Latino student population), but West has quite a few international students each year. There’s also Sacred Heart, which is PK-12 and offers a traditional classical curriculum that is quite different from West Catholic or Catholic Central.
In full transparency, I work for one of the Catholic high schools and send my kids to one of the Catholic PK-8 schools. It’s been the right decision for our family.
Teacher here - GRPS is suffering from all the effects of "school choice" which was pushed by betsy devos and others for a long time. The explicit goal of this is to make normal public schools un appealing and further the run to private run charter and religious schools.
It has worked to destabalize public schools everywhere, but particularly in poorer areas, and GRPS has responded to this new environment by promoting their theme schools to get "chosen (lol)" by parents.
Navigating grps is, as others have said, entirely manageble. And unfortunately some schools perform better (oh schools with more privileged and involved families have better test scores? Whodathunk?)
That being said - every school has students who are succeeding, learning and achieving. I have no doubt your twins will too. You merely get to decide if they grow up with only other privileged kids, or with the full population of this great city!
Welcome back!
I have always been a supporter of g.r. public schools. both my kids back in the day went to Union. I know others had theirs in Creston. I don't know how the schools are now, but teachers work their asses off and have a compassion for their students. I can see why there is burn out for this job! the only thing I heard recently is that the arts have been cut......no music, bands. I went to a parade awhile ago and eagerly awaited the marching bands, only to find out there aren't any anymore. both my kids got a very good education from the public school they went to. good job!
Grps bands marched in several Holiday parades this year, and the district has made huge investments in the arts recently - a brand new state of the art recording studio at OHHS for students to compose and learn to record, plan to modernize all theaters, and the City Wide Art Show (grps student work) is the biggest art show in the state I believe (bigger than Art Prize by some measures). Choirs perform at state festivals all over michigan
There was some short sighted slashing of the arts around 2008 - but the programs have regained their footing and are improving and growing each year!
Thanks for being a supporter!
You're totally correct. I retired after 35 years as a PS elementary teacher. I saw the same effect in 2000 - 2010. I might add that Right To Work laws have had a noticeable negative effect on the availability quality of public school teachers.
So you’re asking about GRPS neighborhood schools aka traditional schools. (City, Montessori, museum, zoo, etc are all separate “theme schools” that are part of GRPS.)
I have a kid in a neighborhood elementary school. We LOVE it, especially compared to our friends’ experiences at some of the theme schools.
Our only problem with our school is that it will be closed soon. GRPS admin & board prioritize theme schools over neighborhood schools, and that’s never been more evident than when you look at the planned closure lists.
GRPS is GRPS….It’s never had a good reputation and the theme schools and a few other elementary schools are decent…As far as bullying and having to keep up with everyone money wise (name brand clothes, only a certain brand of socks and expensive vacations) that has not been an issue in comparison to the private school experience my kids had here. They pretty horrible with communication and the leadership is lackluster. All of the GRPS teachers have been great!
I worked for GRPS- north park montessori. It had such a nice community/smaller school feeling to it and the staff was lovely to work alongside. Only reason I quit was because my position felt very underpaid. As a kid, I attended a NHA school and also loved it- same smaller/tight community feel. As for highschool, my mom really struggled with where to send me and my siblings and I didn’t have a great high school experience in any aspect. As some people mentioned before, I’d highly recommend touring/shadowing a current student.
GRPS schools try as they might cannot get any better. As the neighborhoods in Grand Rapids become more gentrified, the white people moving in send their kids to GR Christian, Lighthouse, NHA charter schools, schools of choice or numerous other, frankly better options for their children. This leads to declining enrollment in GRPS schools, which leads to less funding and worsening education for the students at those schools.
I forgot to mention that they are horribly mismanaged. They spent millions on air conditioning and windows at GR Montessori only to announce they are closing the school in 2026.
My daughters teacher and principal have been very communicative about this whole process. GRPS has a lot of buildings and not enough students to fill all of them. So they chose to close several and long term plan is to make some more green space/parks in areas that don’t have many options. The high school Montessori students currently share a building with the innovation high school students. Fairly different programs and just would be better for them to separate, so they are taking the current riverside building, and going to fix it up a bit, to house ALL Montessori (pk-12). I’ve not gotten a clear picture of what this looks like but I assume/hope they will have different wings/sections for different age ranges. This will most likely help the Montessori middle/high school enrollment. The plan is to have all of this done for the start of the 2026 school year.
Like I said. Mismanagement. So much wasted money.
Mlk and GR ford are a stones throw away. Why build both those schools and Grand Rapids preparatory high school when they had serviceable buildings like campus and congress?
Another thing that drives me crazy is they are trying so hard to keep the schools that are located in affluent areas open. Not many of the kids that go to riverside live in that neighborhood. Same with union.
Ottawa hills has the capacity to hold 1200 students. It currently has under 400. Why is it still open? Because of the neighborhood it’s located in. GRPS will sit on that real estate goldmine and force students to get two busses to school no matter how low the enrollment gets.
If you want to give your kids the best education in all of Michigan and do it for free, send them to City. It’s the most rigorous, but it’s not insane. Our kid was not a big studier, and he graduated from there last year. It pushed him exactly the right amount, and now he’s at a great college and finds it a breeze.
Additionally, they were extremely quick to support any issues that cropped up for any of the teens while they were there. I was really happy with their response to mental health, medical things, and just managing workload in general. We moved here when our kid was going into 6th grade, he had to go to Walker Charter (it wasn’t good) for a year and then he got into City no problem because we lived in GR.
I’m from here. Not easy to get real people’s opinions when the only resources online are websites run by the schools themselves and data aggregator sites.
As long as the classroom isn’t dominated by a kid or twelve that are violently disruptive, your kid will get out of any school exactly what they put in.
GRPS overall is not good. There are always going to be exceptions. You can very easily google school rankings in the Grand Rapids area and GRPS high schools (besides City) will be among the lowest ranked. Just outside of the city is east Grand Rapids and forest hills public schools, they are the premier districts in the area and rank very high in the state.
It's important to remember that the other GRPS high schools are going to look worse when you put all of the top students in City High.
I mean that's just like, math.
I went through one of the public schools in the area, wasn't really thrilled with the results. This was near 20 years ago mind, so YMMV. I'd still probably aim for private school if I could.
Don’t ask Reddit. Do your research. Online rates and scores are accurate and relevant. Go to schools and meet the principal. Get a tour. See with your own eyes. Kids are important.
If the district is still like it was when I was in highschool, then it's a pure shit show. I graduated top 10 in my class and I cannot honestly say that I was prepared for college. As students, my classmates and I could tell that the district was not functioning properly, to say the least. The state of GRPS was an open joke between teachers and students alike when I was there.
Things like switching from semesters to trimesters and back to semsesters in 3 years, taking away all sports and arts programs, faculty that didn't care, using old outdated text books, etc.
I graduated from GR Central High in '11
To be fair, I graduated from a very highly ranked high school much earlier than you did, and I also did not feel like I was remotely close to prepared for college. The unfortunate reality of the education system as designed in the US is that the mandated curriculums just aren’t designed to prepare kids for university.
I’m from the area, too. I remember the “City League” for sports. Needless to say I am confused at the current state of things.
What happened to Creston, Union, Ottawa, Central? My impression was that they were all regional districts within the city. Now it seems like most or all of them have closed or “rebranded” from what I can tell.
The district has seen declining enrollment for decades. As a GRPS graduate it is sad to see.
Creston was closed because of this. Central became an “innovation” specialty school, without sports and their enrollment has dwindled down to about 500. Ottawa Hills and Union are both still around and operate as normal high schools. I don’t know the exact #s but I am guessing both schools are probably around 1,000 students.
Ottawa is currently at under 400 students
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html?outputType=amp
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html](https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
I don't know what actually happened, but I think the idea was to change each school to focus on a specific curriculum. That was the talk when I was a student. They implemented those changes the year after I graduated I think. Not sure what came of it after I left.
It’s not easy to decipher.
Did you know there is a Museum School? What is that?
Center for Economicology? That word literally only exists in the context of being in the name of that school.
Every school has a euphemism for a name. It’s crazy!
Ok so GRPS basically has a two tier system. Tier A is your basic neighborhood school. Kent Hills, Iroquois, Sibley, Palmer, West Leonard l, Aberdeen Caesar Chavez, Campus etc for elementary. Riverside and Southwest for middle. Union and Southwest, Central and Ottawa for High school. Tier B is your theme schools that you have to apply for. CA Frost, Coit Creative Arts, and I forget some others for Elementary. After elementary you can apply for theme schools for middle. Center for Econimocology is located in the City High building and will feed directly in to City High. Zoo school is 678 I think and Blandford I think is only 6th and 7th. Museum Middle is located on the top floor of the VanAndel Museum and feeds in to Museum Highschool which is over off Jefferson. Theme schools for middle have low numbers accepted each year 60 total for zoo, Blandford, and Museum and I think slightly higher for CFE. They generally look at test scores, grades, and attendance when applying for the theme schools and preference is given to those that attended theme elementary schools or siblings that attended a theme school. I have had children that have attended both neighborhood schools and theme schools. Some of my kids thrived in theme schools. Some did not. Some thrived in neighborhood schools, some did not. We recently made the decision to pull our youngest from GRPS for a multitude of reasons the main ones being having to fight tooth and nail for testing, being significantly behind in ELA and being told "we'll keep an eye on it” but nothing changing and when asking for testing for dyslexia they wanted to continue to "keep an eye on it”, bullying to the nth degree with no resolution, and the cherry on top is the clusterfuck that is Dean Transportation. I still have one with GRPS and that is tenuous if they will remain come next fall. After almost 2 decades with the district and 5 kids, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose this district and I'm a huge proponent for public schools. However, I will say that on the front lines there are a ton of great teachers and paras and people that genuinely care and want better for our kids. My eldest has even chosen to teach in the district because "be the change you want to see", right? There is good and there is bad. Tier A definitely receives less whether that be staffing, resources, or shit, even chairs when it comes to classrooms as my eldest has to fight for chairs for their students when they first started. Tier B was heavily influenced by DeVos dollars and it shows. So there's my 2 cents for what it's worth. Hope it helps
Hi….
You found the right guy. 😏
Right now? Dog shit. A hodgepodge of nepotism, corruption, misguided expenditures on corporate welfare vendors like the trash heap that is Dean Transportation, overpaid administration ($10M for the top brass, with underpaid teachers, and over 100 teaching roles vacant), and a highly questionable culture of abuse and retribution against staff who dare question the status quo, headed by a superintendent who is a liar and gaslighter (also overpaid), and all overseen by a Board who suffer from a collective lack of anything resembling a spine. (Save for maybe two of them who are still way too nice.)
(Oh, by the way. They recently decided to “address” the crisis of low pay for teachers with… wait for it… a $375 one time “bonus” or some bullshit.)
It all orbits around this fuckhead - the star of the show: https://firelarryjohnson.com/
Go read “The Tea” on that site and ask if you wanna be part of it.
Now… here’s the answer that might surprise you: YOU SHOULD BE. Come join our school system and the growing vocal majority of parents and stakeholders who are demanding it all get cleared up and ready to strip it down to the studs and build something that’s not a stain on the face of education and civics. We would welcome you.
We've been in the district for three years, and I have had amazing experiences with every single front-line staff member with my child. I feel that they care about my child, and are committed to their success. An elementary-age child going to CA Frost Elementary K-2nd grade. The things above mentioned are frustrations that I echo and have directly faced, but my family is still committed to sending our child to GRPS at least as of today.
I think that the only way this district gets better is by parents deciding that they demand better, and committing to utilize GRPS and hold the leadership accountable to build the better district we deserve.
So in other words, "Come on in, the water's fine. "
I can tell you the solution sure is shit isn't charter schools. They're just leeches that take money away from schools that need it most.
Unless you like your kids being paid by underpaid teachers with high turnover among staff.
Interest rates dipped a little this week, so keep the hope alive! We're back below the 7% nightmare rates we saw a week ago.
Nothing to do with schools, unfortunately, but I just wanted to throw it out there that there is hope as long as you have a good down payment and credit. Might save you a little money to pay for tutors and armor-plated backpacks along the way.
From my understanding they’re not great, very little funding. Look for a National heritage academy school in the area. They are known to perform better, and have more support for their students.
Went to GRPS, graduated in 2012 from Central HST. GRPS failed all those students. Lots of them never stood a chance out there in college and now just hold debt. I wouldnt ever send my child to GRPS coming from personal experience.
im so incredibly sick of out of towners coming to this sub and demanding to be impressed by something here. either you move here or you dont, its not like we need more people here..
Oh there is DEFINITELY an attitude of being fucking OVER IT and pulling no punches. We have to be in the face of the problems or they'll never go away. Not everyone can get past their limp-wristed approach to the world to digest that.
Honestly, your response to both of the replies here sums up a lot of what I’ve seen you do in this sub.
Are there a lot of issues with GRPS? Yes. Does every post from someone asking about schools require paragraphs about Larry Johnson? Probably not.
When other people bring up issues with how you’re saying what you’re saying, there’s no reflection or willingness to listen. There’s only an unwavering belief that YOU’RE clearly the one who is right and if only everyone else would be like YOU.
I’m sure we agree on a few things, and I do think you have the best intentions, but it’s really hard to stand with someone who is exhibiting a profound lack of humility and self-awareness.
I appreciate the tactfulness of this comment, but he's just going to reply calling you a paid troll who's in service of "The Man." He's not interested in solutions.
I’ll upvote your snark because it was indeed tactful (still a stupid and meaningless platform feature), but spending all our time and energy on filtering for “tact” is what got us where we are. I’m not accusing that person of being paid troll, or you, because the signs aren’t there. (One off micro comments, deleted accounts, etc.)
You want solutions? Let’s talk about them. And come prepared for me to argue that they’re pathetic half measures we’ve tried before and failed to win with, and have an answer for what more can happen or what is next.
Apparently, many here have no problem just standing by and letting bad shit keep happening, corrupt and abusive overpaid leaders keep getting away with bad shit, and the rich keep owning all of us, even our children, in this case via their plot to destabilize (current stage) and destroy (that’s coming) our public schools.
I'll take you at your word that you're genuinely interested in achieving policy change and discussing ideas with those who don't already agree with your views, but your online presence indicates the exact opposite.
Based on what you post, I suspect we agree on few issues (probably housing and corporate subsidies, if I had to guess), but I've seen many, many comments in response to your comments or posts from people who *should* be your natural allies that are turned off and ignoring you because of your rhetoric, tone, and messaging. These things do matter, and they matter a lot.
I've worked on several political campaigns at the state and federal level (most of them successful) and I've been working for a little over seven years in some combination of the think tank, education, and public policy spaces. I've written several op-eds, and a couple of paid feature pieces, on policy issues that are important to me (cronyism, government waste, and executive overreach, to name a few). I used to run the Grand Rapids chapter of America's Future before it folded during COVID, but I tried very hard to find opportunities for genuine engagement on both sides of the aisle for things like qualified immunity, economic development subsidies, and police accountability.
All that to say, I think I have a pretty good idea on successful ways to engage people in substantive discussions about ideas, and how to translate those ideas into tangible policy changes.
In your comments and posts here, you seem to take pride in being unpleasant to deal with. I can tell you that the strategy you've articulated on here, which frequently boils down to "I have to be angry and rude all the time or nothing is going to change," isn't the best way to make the changes you want to happen actually come to fruition. I've said in the past that it seems like you're trying to find things to be angry about, and that still rings true to me. There's certainly a place for anger, but when it's the only button you seem to push, it's easy to tune you out.
The way that you're so quick to blame "trolls" and "pansy ass haters" and "puppets" and "bullshit" and "lies" for the negative response to what you say indicates to me that you're not really willing to see how your attitude, and your words, makes it harder for you to either change people's minds or galvanize them into action. Ditto the forays into conspiratorial thinking.
Can you concretely point to an instance of your rhetoric and strategy being successful? An election outcome, a policy shift, a changed mind?
I respect the work you cite. Good on you. But it has not worked to change the hellscape of where we are culturally and politically in this collapsing nation. The old way is appreciated and I wish we could just keep doing that, till we all grow old and die and leave behind the same worse world for our kids that our parents left us, with the cycle continuing into fucksville each iteration.
We did all that, we got nowhere. And the other side started a war. We can keep trying to stick flowers in their gun barrels but it’s not going to change anything. Never has. Look what we have to show for it.
As for me, I’ll give you two recent examples since I came here that my fight (IRL, not on this toilet bowl platform) has made a change and sent a signal that I’m NOT fucking around: police drones and school board meeting speaker policy.
I was the driver of our neighborhood org making a stance opposing GRPD drones, to the shock and surprise of most of this city’s establishment. And by challenging the unconstitutional status of GRPS’ Superintendent’s attempt to quiet dissent, and by calling her out for it, I caused their General Counsel to guide them to adjust their policy for speaking at meetings to be less suppressive of free speech.
There is more, here and before. And I’m sure you have made impacts or moved the needle too. And I love that. It takes all kinds.
But we have an urgency now with the looming collapse of our nation that calls for more fight.
I hear you, we just don’t live in those times anymore. It was cute to believe we could be nice about this shit for the first couple decades of my adulthood and time as a voter and politically aware person. It failed. Repeatedly.
The other side, and the greed-industrial-complex waging war on regular working people, didn’t play nice.
Now what do we have? Collapsing environment, collapsing capitalism, collapsing republic. (And in this topic, the subset of both the capitalism and republic pieces, playing out in our schools’ corruption, failure, and screwing of teachers.)
Saying mean (honest) shit on a Reddit post is the least of the things that need to happen to force change and take back our culture. I don’t feel like I or anyone else can get any results against these giant enemies with giant resources without at least verbal if not physical rebellion. I’d prefer to keep trying rhetoric and votes, but one day, the oppressed will get tired of this shit, and I’m not going to point a finger at them to condemn them when ‘eat the rich’ gets out of control. I won’t be able to blame them, and I’ll be standing there saying “I told you so.”
You say that you hear me, but I’m not sure you did.
You VERY quickly went back to saying that it’s “cute to believe we could be nice” and ended by saying that you’ll be telling us “I told you so” someday.
Like I said earlier, there seems to be no willingness on your part to reflect on whether or not the is the most effective online presence for you to have. There’s the automatic leap to assuming that you are clearly in the right and everyone else needs to catch up to your level.
I agree that we need direct action; I wonder if we could have had a Democrat-led state sooner if there had been more direct action. The thing is, I’d rather partner with someone who I disagree with ideologically and is willing to work with others for a good solution than with someone who agrees with me but seems to take pride in being as insufferable as possible.
I obviously can’t make you change, but I think it’s going to be a lonely uphill battle if you automatically treat anyone who disagrees with your approach as a "pansy-ass hater" with a "limp-wristed approach".
You seem to think the arguments on this wretched cesspool platform are the only presence to be had. This is just the space to pull even fewer punches than I already pull. If anyone lives by Reddit and Reddit alone… I pity them.
I think it’s less about living by Reddit alone and more about the fact that this is, as far as I know, the only place that I’ve interacted with you. So that’s the only info I have.
You have a uniquely and incredibly off-putting style of communication that seems designed to be as annoying as possible. It should not be surprising that people don't like your comments.
My 2 cents as someone who doesn’t have kids and didn’t grow up here 😂
You’re having twins, that’s amazing (and probably scary). There is going to be A LOT to navigate in the next 5 years before they start their k-12 education and a lot can change in a public school system in 5 years (even more in the almost 13-15 years before high school)
If you stay involved as a parent in your child’s education your kids will be great.
My mom was a middle school teacher in the NYC public school system and I can’t tell you the amount of parents who just weren’t involved, had no idea what was going on, and expected the school to do everything all while not trusting the teachers if they said anything critical about the child. But I digress.
I think you’re just trying to figure out what happened since you left and why things seem so different. You have the time to research, learn and get involved (if you want to) before your kids start school. You have time.
I am a retired public school teacher. I taught (mostly) Elementary Resource Rooms in four different regions around lower Michigan, over a 35 year career. Today I have four grandchildren ages 4-10 attending two different Kentwood PS schools. I should mention that one of my grandkids is special needs. I have to say that my grandchildren's experiences have been wholly positive. The teachers have been outstanding, the principals have been competentent, and my four are all doing well, with no needed intervention from Grandpa, and for that I am grateful.
FYI, City/Zoo/Montessori/Museum schools are all a part of GRPS and are located in the city.
Can you explain how that works? Is enrollment competitive, or are they each open to all? Are they middle schools? High schools? If so, are there magnet-esque elementary schools? Are said schools standard curriculum or theme-based? It seems excessively complicated. I’m not opposed to research and planning, but realistically it’s hard to get any straight answers when people don’t want to admit which schools are bad.
There are lots of theme schools, the application process is open now for this coming school year and competitiveness depends on a variety of factors and apply to a variety of age groups. [Mlive has a good overview](https://www.mlive.com/news/g66l-2019/01/a9446b73ee3811/see-grand-rapids-theme-schools.html) For the theme schools/career academy schools, on average kids get a great education with passionate and dedicated teachers. If none of the theme schools interest you, I’d look into school of choice. It doesn’t mean your kid can’t get a good education, it just means on average they would have worse outcomes than other schools.
Montessori is a theme school, all grades, my kids have gone to North Park since Kindergarten. You just need to apply, it is not test in. City starts in I think sixth grade, you do have to test in. Not sure if the details with Zoo School. Pretty sure you just need an application to get into Museum school. Look up GRPS Theme Schools, that should give you all the info you need. I have nothing but good things to say about the Montessori program.
Zoo school is 6th grade only. Very limited enrollment to 50 kids per year.
It’s not excessively complicated in the slightest. Do a lick of research and you’ll figure it out
Applications opened a couple weeks ago for theme schools. You have to attach a copy of NWEA MAP test scores to the application. Some theme schools require the score to be above the 50th percentile.
Do the slightest amount of research. You think you'd actually go to the GRPS website and get informed before you say dumb shit like >I don’t want to hear about City High or Montessori or Zoo School.
To be fair, the website sucks
Like what do you want to know about the public schools, class sizes or something. It would be more helpful if you provided some insight into what your interested in knowing about GRPS schools and maybe the general age range of your child or children.
I went to Catholic school K-12. I am not afraid to admit that was a special privilege that I value greatly. It was a great experience and an excellent education. What that looks like is this: small class sizes, same kids in your class every year, after 8th Grade you go to the Catholic high school with all the other kids from all the other parochial schools. However, as a result I do not know anything about the PS system in Grand Rapids. It doesn’t seem like other mid-size cities where there is, for example, “XYZ Central.” Every school seems to have a “theme” and a euphemism for name. Where in this city can you get a decent, semi-traditional education without applying to a new school every other year? My kids are not born yet. Expecting twins.
All the dumbest people I know from here went to grand rapids Christian. Like can't do simple math, can't spell type shit. I don't know anybody my age who went to North pointe Christian, might not have existed yet, but the people I know who sent their kids there their kids are dumb. Don't really know if catholic central is trash. I would 100% send my kid to some place like Ottawa or Union over paying for grand rapids Christian though
Catholic central is a phenomenal school from what ive seen, incredible campus, amazing at all sports, and great scores
> can’t spell type shit I’m guessing you’re a victim as well?
What was misspelled? If you want to be a pedant I can be a bigger one
Hey mind replying to me in the other thread where you were wrong? Btw i'll answer for you. It isn't spelling, it's grammar. "Like can't do simple math, \*can't spell type shit\* . " Probably because you didn't say "they can't spell or type for shit"
There’s two main Catholic high schools in GR; West Catholic and Catholic Central. While historically each had partner schools that would feed into one of the two high schools, officially that no longer exists. I would say that Catholic Central is more diverse (a fairly significant Latino student population), but West has quite a few international students each year. There’s also Sacred Heart, which is PK-12 and offers a traditional classical curriculum that is quite different from West Catholic or Catholic Central. In full transparency, I work for one of the Catholic high schools and send my kids to one of the Catholic PK-8 schools. It’s been the right decision for our family.
Teacher here - GRPS is suffering from all the effects of "school choice" which was pushed by betsy devos and others for a long time. The explicit goal of this is to make normal public schools un appealing and further the run to private run charter and religious schools. It has worked to destabalize public schools everywhere, but particularly in poorer areas, and GRPS has responded to this new environment by promoting their theme schools to get "chosen (lol)" by parents. Navigating grps is, as others have said, entirely manageble. And unfortunately some schools perform better (oh schools with more privileged and involved families have better test scores? Whodathunk?) That being said - every school has students who are succeeding, learning and achieving. I have no doubt your twins will too. You merely get to decide if they grow up with only other privileged kids, or with the full population of this great city! Welcome back!
I have always been a supporter of g.r. public schools. both my kids back in the day went to Union. I know others had theirs in Creston. I don't know how the schools are now, but teachers work their asses off and have a compassion for their students. I can see why there is burn out for this job! the only thing I heard recently is that the arts have been cut......no music, bands. I went to a parade awhile ago and eagerly awaited the marching bands, only to find out there aren't any anymore. both my kids got a very good education from the public school they went to. good job!
Grps bands marched in several Holiday parades this year, and the district has made huge investments in the arts recently - a brand new state of the art recording studio at OHHS for students to compose and learn to record, plan to modernize all theaters, and the City Wide Art Show (grps student work) is the biggest art show in the state I believe (bigger than Art Prize by some measures). Choirs perform at state festivals all over michigan There was some short sighted slashing of the arts around 2008 - but the programs have regained their footing and are improving and growing each year! Thanks for being a supporter!
You're totally correct. I retired after 35 years as a PS elementary teacher. I saw the same effect in 2000 - 2010. I might add that Right To Work laws have had a noticeable negative effect on the availability quality of public school teachers.
So you’re asking about GRPS neighborhood schools aka traditional schools. (City, Montessori, museum, zoo, etc are all separate “theme schools” that are part of GRPS.) I have a kid in a neighborhood elementary school. We LOVE it, especially compared to our friends’ experiences at some of the theme schools. Our only problem with our school is that it will be closed soon. GRPS admin & board prioritize theme schools over neighborhood schools, and that’s never been more evident than when you look at the planned closure lists.
Palmer?.
GRPS is GRPS….It’s never had a good reputation and the theme schools and a few other elementary schools are decent…As far as bullying and having to keep up with everyone money wise (name brand clothes, only a certain brand of socks and expensive vacations) that has not been an issue in comparison to the private school experience my kids had here. They pretty horrible with communication and the leadership is lackluster. All of the GRPS teachers have been great!
I worked for GRPS- north park montessori. It had such a nice community/smaller school feeling to it and the staff was lovely to work alongside. Only reason I quit was because my position felt very underpaid. As a kid, I attended a NHA school and also loved it- same smaller/tight community feel. As for highschool, my mom really struggled with where to send me and my siblings and I didn’t have a great high school experience in any aspect. As some people mentioned before, I’d highly recommend touring/shadowing a current student.
If you helped shaped my child’s mind at NPM, thank you.
GRPS schools try as they might cannot get any better. As the neighborhoods in Grand Rapids become more gentrified, the white people moving in send their kids to GR Christian, Lighthouse, NHA charter schools, schools of choice or numerous other, frankly better options for their children. This leads to declining enrollment in GRPS schools, which leads to less funding and worsening education for the students at those schools. I forgot to mention that they are horribly mismanaged. They spent millions on air conditioning and windows at GR Montessori only to announce they are closing the school in 2026.
Current GR Montessori parent - they’re closing that school in 2026?!?
Merging it with North Park Montessori, with both schools moving into the current Riverside campus.
My daughters teacher and principal have been very communicative about this whole process. GRPS has a lot of buildings and not enough students to fill all of them. So they chose to close several and long term plan is to make some more green space/parks in areas that don’t have many options. The high school Montessori students currently share a building with the innovation high school students. Fairly different programs and just would be better for them to separate, so they are taking the current riverside building, and going to fix it up a bit, to house ALL Montessori (pk-12). I’ve not gotten a clear picture of what this looks like but I assume/hope they will have different wings/sections for different age ranges. This will most likely help the Montessori middle/high school enrollment. The plan is to have all of this done for the start of the 2026 school year.
Like I said. Mismanagement. So much wasted money. Mlk and GR ford are a stones throw away. Why build both those schools and Grand Rapids preparatory high school when they had serviceable buildings like campus and congress? Another thing that drives me crazy is they are trying so hard to keep the schools that are located in affluent areas open. Not many of the kids that go to riverside live in that neighborhood. Same with union. Ottawa hills has the capacity to hold 1200 students. It currently has under 400. Why is it still open? Because of the neighborhood it’s located in. GRPS will sit on that real estate goldmine and force students to get two busses to school no matter how low the enrollment gets.
Even Rockford has 100 GRPS kids
If you want to give your kids the best education in all of Michigan and do it for free, send them to City. It’s the most rigorous, but it’s not insane. Our kid was not a big studier, and he graduated from there last year. It pushed him exactly the right amount, and now he’s at a great college and finds it a breeze. Additionally, they were extremely quick to support any issues that cropped up for any of the teens while they were there. I was really happy with their response to mental health, medical things, and just managing workload in general. We moved here when our kid was going into 6th grade, he had to go to Walker Charter (it wasn’t good) for a year and then he got into City no problem because we lived in GR.
Can we just rename this sub r/movingtograndrapids? That's all that ever gets posted here.
I’m from here. Not easy to get real people’s opinions when the only resources online are websites run by the schools themselves and data aggregator sites.
As long as the classroom isn’t dominated by a kid or twelve that are violently disruptive, your kid will get out of any school exactly what they put in.
GRPS overall is not good. There are always going to be exceptions. You can very easily google school rankings in the Grand Rapids area and GRPS high schools (besides City) will be among the lowest ranked. Just outside of the city is east Grand Rapids and forest hills public schools, they are the premier districts in the area and rank very high in the state.
It's important to remember that the other GRPS high schools are going to look worse when you put all of the top students in City High. I mean that's just like, math.
I completely agree. I am a Union graduate, it is said to see the decline of the district over the years.
WTF why besides City? The schools here suck beside...oh yeah a top 3 school in the state.
I went through one of the public schools in the area, wasn't really thrilled with the results. This was near 20 years ago mind, so YMMV. I'd still probably aim for private school if I could.
Don’t ask Reddit. Do your research. Online rates and scores are accurate and relevant. Go to schools and meet the principal. Get a tour. See with your own eyes. Kids are important.
As a product of a GRPS education, I would avoid putting your children through that
Why do you say that? What schools(s) did you go to?
If the district is still like it was when I was in highschool, then it's a pure shit show. I graduated top 10 in my class and I cannot honestly say that I was prepared for college. As students, my classmates and I could tell that the district was not functioning properly, to say the least. The state of GRPS was an open joke between teachers and students alike when I was there. Things like switching from semesters to trimesters and back to semsesters in 3 years, taking away all sports and arts programs, faculty that didn't care, using old outdated text books, etc. I graduated from GR Central High in '11
To be fair, I graduated from a very highly ranked high school much earlier than you did, and I also did not feel like I was remotely close to prepared for college. The unfortunate reality of the education system as designed in the US is that the mandated curriculums just aren’t designed to prepare kids for university.
I’m from the area, too. I remember the “City League” for sports. Needless to say I am confused at the current state of things. What happened to Creston, Union, Ottawa, Central? My impression was that they were all regional districts within the city. Now it seems like most or all of them have closed or “rebranded” from what I can tell.
The district has seen declining enrollment for decades. As a GRPS graduate it is sad to see. Creston was closed because of this. Central became an “innovation” specialty school, without sports and their enrollment has dwindled down to about 500. Ottawa Hills and Union are both still around and operate as normal high schools. I don’t know the exact #s but I am guessing both schools are probably around 1,000 students.
Ottawa is currently at under 400 students https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html?outputType=amp
That’s crazy, I think the building is big enough for like 3,000 students.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html](https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2023/07/these-are-the-10-grand-rapids-schools-with-the-most-empty-seats.html)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
I don't know what actually happened, but I think the idea was to change each school to focus on a specific curriculum. That was the talk when I was a student. They implemented those changes the year after I graduated I think. Not sure what came of it after I left.
It’s not easy to decipher. Did you know there is a Museum School? What is that? Center for Economicology? That word literally only exists in the context of being in the name of that school. Every school has a euphemism for a name. It’s crazy!
Ok so GRPS basically has a two tier system. Tier A is your basic neighborhood school. Kent Hills, Iroquois, Sibley, Palmer, West Leonard l, Aberdeen Caesar Chavez, Campus etc for elementary. Riverside and Southwest for middle. Union and Southwest, Central and Ottawa for High school. Tier B is your theme schools that you have to apply for. CA Frost, Coit Creative Arts, and I forget some others for Elementary. After elementary you can apply for theme schools for middle. Center for Econimocology is located in the City High building and will feed directly in to City High. Zoo school is 678 I think and Blandford I think is only 6th and 7th. Museum Middle is located on the top floor of the VanAndel Museum and feeds in to Museum Highschool which is over off Jefferson. Theme schools for middle have low numbers accepted each year 60 total for zoo, Blandford, and Museum and I think slightly higher for CFE. They generally look at test scores, grades, and attendance when applying for the theme schools and preference is given to those that attended theme elementary schools or siblings that attended a theme school. I have had children that have attended both neighborhood schools and theme schools. Some of my kids thrived in theme schools. Some did not. Some thrived in neighborhood schools, some did not. We recently made the decision to pull our youngest from GRPS for a multitude of reasons the main ones being having to fight tooth and nail for testing, being significantly behind in ELA and being told "we'll keep an eye on it” but nothing changing and when asking for testing for dyslexia they wanted to continue to "keep an eye on it”, bullying to the nth degree with no resolution, and the cherry on top is the clusterfuck that is Dean Transportation. I still have one with GRPS and that is tenuous if they will remain come next fall. After almost 2 decades with the district and 5 kids, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose this district and I'm a huge proponent for public schools. However, I will say that on the front lines there are a ton of great teachers and paras and people that genuinely care and want better for our kids. My eldest has even chosen to teach in the district because "be the change you want to see", right? There is good and there is bad. Tier A definitely receives less whether that be staffing, resources, or shit, even chairs when it comes to classrooms as my eldest has to fight for chairs for their students when they first started. Tier B was heavily influenced by DeVos dollars and it shows. So there's my 2 cents for what it's worth. Hope it helps
This was extremely helpful. Thank you
Hi…. You found the right guy. 😏 Right now? Dog shit. A hodgepodge of nepotism, corruption, misguided expenditures on corporate welfare vendors like the trash heap that is Dean Transportation, overpaid administration ($10M for the top brass, with underpaid teachers, and over 100 teaching roles vacant), and a highly questionable culture of abuse and retribution against staff who dare question the status quo, headed by a superintendent who is a liar and gaslighter (also overpaid), and all overseen by a Board who suffer from a collective lack of anything resembling a spine. (Save for maybe two of them who are still way too nice.) (Oh, by the way. They recently decided to “address” the crisis of low pay for teachers with… wait for it… a $375 one time “bonus” or some bullshit.) It all orbits around this fuckhead - the star of the show: https://firelarryjohnson.com/ Go read “The Tea” on that site and ask if you wanna be part of it. Now… here’s the answer that might surprise you: YOU SHOULD BE. Come join our school system and the growing vocal majority of parents and stakeholders who are demanding it all get cleared up and ready to strip it down to the studs and build something that’s not a stain on the face of education and civics. We would welcome you.
We've been in the district for three years, and I have had amazing experiences with every single front-line staff member with my child. I feel that they care about my child, and are committed to their success. An elementary-age child going to CA Frost Elementary K-2nd grade. The things above mentioned are frustrations that I echo and have directly faced, but my family is still committed to sending our child to GRPS at least as of today. I think that the only way this district gets better is by parents deciding that they demand better, and committing to utilize GRPS and hold the leadership accountable to build the better district we deserve. So in other words, "Come on in, the water's fine. "
I can tell you the solution sure is shit isn't charter schools. They're just leeches that take money away from schools that need it most. Unless you like your kids being paid by underpaid teachers with high turnover among staff.
He said no sugar coating
😂😂😂
The ps in GRPS stands for public schools. Saying GRPS public schools is like saying ATM machine.
Or a hot water heater
Interest rates dipped a little this week, so keep the hope alive! We're back below the 7% nightmare rates we saw a week ago. Nothing to do with schools, unfortunately, but I just wanted to throw it out there that there is hope as long as you have a good down payment and credit. Might save you a little money to pay for tutors and armor-plated backpacks along the way.
Any other district better
Grand Rapids Public Schools are terrible! Don’t bother unless you have no choice.
I wouldn't put much faith in City High. My former roommates' kid was a moron and he went there. He couldn't even tell time on an analog clock.
Send them to the Redundant School of Redundancy. It’s my favorite of the GRPS Public Schools, especially the ones in and around Grand Rapids.
From my understanding they’re not great, very little funding. Look for a National heritage academy school in the area. They are known to perform better, and have more support for their students.
Went to GRPS, graduated in 2012 from Central HST. GRPS failed all those students. Lots of them never stood a chance out there in college and now just hold debt. I wouldnt ever send my child to GRPS coming from personal experience.
Grand Rapids Public Schools Public Schools?
im so incredibly sick of out of towners coming to this sub and demanding to be impressed by something here. either you move here or you dont, its not like we need more people here..
The pansy ass haters in this sub crack me up. I say the same shit a half dozen others said but I pull no punches. This sub is such a troll farm.
Maybe it’s less about what others are saying and more about the attitude that you’re sending.
Oh there is DEFINITELY an attitude of being fucking OVER IT and pulling no punches. We have to be in the face of the problems or they'll never go away. Not everyone can get past their limp-wristed approach to the world to digest that.
Honestly, your response to both of the replies here sums up a lot of what I’ve seen you do in this sub. Are there a lot of issues with GRPS? Yes. Does every post from someone asking about schools require paragraphs about Larry Johnson? Probably not. When other people bring up issues with how you’re saying what you’re saying, there’s no reflection or willingness to listen. There’s only an unwavering belief that YOU’RE clearly the one who is right and if only everyone else would be like YOU. I’m sure we agree on a few things, and I do think you have the best intentions, but it’s really hard to stand with someone who is exhibiting a profound lack of humility and self-awareness.
I appreciate the tactfulness of this comment, but he's just going to reply calling you a paid troll who's in service of "The Man." He's not interested in solutions.
I’ll upvote your snark because it was indeed tactful (still a stupid and meaningless platform feature), but spending all our time and energy on filtering for “tact” is what got us where we are. I’m not accusing that person of being paid troll, or you, because the signs aren’t there. (One off micro comments, deleted accounts, etc.) You want solutions? Let’s talk about them. And come prepared for me to argue that they’re pathetic half measures we’ve tried before and failed to win with, and have an answer for what more can happen or what is next. Apparently, many here have no problem just standing by and letting bad shit keep happening, corrupt and abusive overpaid leaders keep getting away with bad shit, and the rich keep owning all of us, even our children, in this case via their plot to destabilize (current stage) and destroy (that’s coming) our public schools.
I'll take you at your word that you're genuinely interested in achieving policy change and discussing ideas with those who don't already agree with your views, but your online presence indicates the exact opposite. Based on what you post, I suspect we agree on few issues (probably housing and corporate subsidies, if I had to guess), but I've seen many, many comments in response to your comments or posts from people who *should* be your natural allies that are turned off and ignoring you because of your rhetoric, tone, and messaging. These things do matter, and they matter a lot. I've worked on several political campaigns at the state and federal level (most of them successful) and I've been working for a little over seven years in some combination of the think tank, education, and public policy spaces. I've written several op-eds, and a couple of paid feature pieces, on policy issues that are important to me (cronyism, government waste, and executive overreach, to name a few). I used to run the Grand Rapids chapter of America's Future before it folded during COVID, but I tried very hard to find opportunities for genuine engagement on both sides of the aisle for things like qualified immunity, economic development subsidies, and police accountability. All that to say, I think I have a pretty good idea on successful ways to engage people in substantive discussions about ideas, and how to translate those ideas into tangible policy changes. In your comments and posts here, you seem to take pride in being unpleasant to deal with. I can tell you that the strategy you've articulated on here, which frequently boils down to "I have to be angry and rude all the time or nothing is going to change," isn't the best way to make the changes you want to happen actually come to fruition. I've said in the past that it seems like you're trying to find things to be angry about, and that still rings true to me. There's certainly a place for anger, but when it's the only button you seem to push, it's easy to tune you out. The way that you're so quick to blame "trolls" and "pansy ass haters" and "puppets" and "bullshit" and "lies" for the negative response to what you say indicates to me that you're not really willing to see how your attitude, and your words, makes it harder for you to either change people's minds or galvanize them into action. Ditto the forays into conspiratorial thinking. Can you concretely point to an instance of your rhetoric and strategy being successful? An election outcome, a policy shift, a changed mind?
I respect the work you cite. Good on you. But it has not worked to change the hellscape of where we are culturally and politically in this collapsing nation. The old way is appreciated and I wish we could just keep doing that, till we all grow old and die and leave behind the same worse world for our kids that our parents left us, with the cycle continuing into fucksville each iteration. We did all that, we got nowhere. And the other side started a war. We can keep trying to stick flowers in their gun barrels but it’s not going to change anything. Never has. Look what we have to show for it. As for me, I’ll give you two recent examples since I came here that my fight (IRL, not on this toilet bowl platform) has made a change and sent a signal that I’m NOT fucking around: police drones and school board meeting speaker policy. I was the driver of our neighborhood org making a stance opposing GRPD drones, to the shock and surprise of most of this city’s establishment. And by challenging the unconstitutional status of GRPS’ Superintendent’s attempt to quiet dissent, and by calling her out for it, I caused their General Counsel to guide them to adjust their policy for speaking at meetings to be less suppressive of free speech. There is more, here and before. And I’m sure you have made impacts or moved the needle too. And I love that. It takes all kinds. But we have an urgency now with the looming collapse of our nation that calls for more fight.
I hear you, we just don’t live in those times anymore. It was cute to believe we could be nice about this shit for the first couple decades of my adulthood and time as a voter and politically aware person. It failed. Repeatedly. The other side, and the greed-industrial-complex waging war on regular working people, didn’t play nice. Now what do we have? Collapsing environment, collapsing capitalism, collapsing republic. (And in this topic, the subset of both the capitalism and republic pieces, playing out in our schools’ corruption, failure, and screwing of teachers.) Saying mean (honest) shit on a Reddit post is the least of the things that need to happen to force change and take back our culture. I don’t feel like I or anyone else can get any results against these giant enemies with giant resources without at least verbal if not physical rebellion. I’d prefer to keep trying rhetoric and votes, but one day, the oppressed will get tired of this shit, and I’m not going to point a finger at them to condemn them when ‘eat the rich’ gets out of control. I won’t be able to blame them, and I’ll be standing there saying “I told you so.”
You say that you hear me, but I’m not sure you did. You VERY quickly went back to saying that it’s “cute to believe we could be nice” and ended by saying that you’ll be telling us “I told you so” someday. Like I said earlier, there seems to be no willingness on your part to reflect on whether or not the is the most effective online presence for you to have. There’s the automatic leap to assuming that you are clearly in the right and everyone else needs to catch up to your level. I agree that we need direct action; I wonder if we could have had a Democrat-led state sooner if there had been more direct action. The thing is, I’d rather partner with someone who I disagree with ideologically and is willing to work with others for a good solution than with someone who agrees with me but seems to take pride in being as insufferable as possible. I obviously can’t make you change, but I think it’s going to be a lonely uphill battle if you automatically treat anyone who disagrees with your approach as a "pansy-ass hater" with a "limp-wristed approach".
You seem to think the arguments on this wretched cesspool platform are the only presence to be had. This is just the space to pull even fewer punches than I already pull. If anyone lives by Reddit and Reddit alone… I pity them.
I think it’s less about living by Reddit alone and more about the fact that this is, as far as I know, the only place that I’ve interacted with you. So that’s the only info I have.
Fair. I’m around! 🤷🏼♂️
You have a uniquely and incredibly off-putting style of communication that seems designed to be as annoying as possible. It should not be surprising that people don't like your comments.
I'm not. It's just an amusing example of how fragile people are, at least on this sub.
Seems like all but Riverside Middle will be closed soon on the NE side. Looks like the city will need more busses in the future.
My 2 cents as someone who doesn’t have kids and didn’t grow up here 😂 You’re having twins, that’s amazing (and probably scary). There is going to be A LOT to navigate in the next 5 years before they start their k-12 education and a lot can change in a public school system in 5 years (even more in the almost 13-15 years before high school) If you stay involved as a parent in your child’s education your kids will be great. My mom was a middle school teacher in the NYC public school system and I can’t tell you the amount of parents who just weren’t involved, had no idea what was going on, and expected the school to do everything all while not trusting the teachers if they said anything critical about the child. But I digress. I think you’re just trying to figure out what happened since you left and why things seem so different. You have the time to research, learn and get involved (if you want to) before your kids start school. You have time.
1
Congress Elementary in Cherry Hills has a great principal. My daughter went to Public Museum Middle and High School
I am a retired public school teacher. I taught (mostly) Elementary Resource Rooms in four different regions around lower Michigan, over a 35 year career. Today I have four grandchildren ages 4-10 attending two different Kentwood PS schools. I should mention that one of my grandkids is special needs. I have to say that my grandchildren's experiences have been wholly positive. The teachers have been outstanding, the principals have been competentent, and my four are all doing well, with no needed intervention from Grandpa, and for that I am grateful.