While there is still much yet to do...
...we have a lot to be very proud of.
I recently came across the following unsolicited letter to the Grand Rapids Press, November 2007, and even though the alumna who wrote it graduated back in 1992, much of the storyline of City remains the same. And in an era of statewide budget cuts, declining urban enrollment and increased competition from suburban districts and charter schools, City continues to move forward... #2 in MME scores statewide 2 years running... one of the top 200 schools nationwide... just a few weeks away from being IB World School-certified.
And there is much, much more.
While some things have changed, (no more downtown campus, class sizes have increased), we should all be proud of this school, its teaching and administrative staff, and above all, its students.
Read on:
Alumna gives plug for City High
By The Grand Rapids Press
November 02, 2007, 12:25AM
Time to focus on something a little more fun. Last week I had a story about Grand Rapids' City High looking to add the rigorous International Baccalaureate program.
Plus, the district is working with local philanthropist Peter Wege to explore adding a program or even a school-within-a-school based around "economicology," a premise that a healthy economy and healthy ecology are compatible.
Word of this reached Hawaii, where City High grad Elizabeth Hew Len now lives. She was known as Beth Santarelli while she still was a Michigander.
Here's what she had to say:
"Thank you so much for your recent article about City High's forward thinking philosophy.
My mom, Cynthia Santarelli of Grand Rapids sent the article to me ( I live in Honolulu, HI ). I am a PROUD City High Graduate,
class of 1992! I had a wonderful learning experience at City. I loved all the teachers and the curriculum was incredible!
I was so blessed to have been able to attend City High and Middle School from 1987 until 1992. I so enjoyed the humanities based teaching style, and our trips to Stratford in Canada, Chicago, the Toledo Art Museum, and elsewhere were enlightening.
Being downtown was also a good experience for me. And the small class sizes really made for a personal learning environment. When I attended City, we were on the Grand Rapids Community College campus on Bostwick Ave.
My classmates from all over the Grand Rapids area gave me a broader focus of who I considered neighbors and friends.... and from different socio-economic levels, as well. My parents were savvy enough to find out about City after we had moved to Grand Rapids 1986 from Lansing, where I had attended a public elementary and had been in several of Lansing's gifted and talented enrichment programs.
City has a wonderful history and a promising future. I am looking forward to seeing where City focuses its goals in the future. For what it is worth, my education at City truly prepared me for college and employment success. I am extraordinarily grateful to all the teachers that encouraged, challenged and excited us."
Our school is far from perfect. We endure some of the same ills that plague every public and private school. But with a positive attitude, hard work and a commitment to continuous improvement, CIty will always have successful alumni that can look back fondly on the years spent here.
Wayne Glatz
City High-Middle PTSA president, 2009-10