College Prep Financial Aid - A5 Grand Rapids Public School News - Section A Choosing a College - A6 Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation Activities - Section B • Adult Fitness, Youth Soccer, and more! Michigan College and City of Grand Rapids and Public Library News - Section B University Directory - A7 January 2018 | Vol. 17 | Issue 3 | Section A Thanks to the generosity of our advertisers, this newsletter was funded using minimal taxpayer dollars. Community Update on Bond Implementation Your Bond Dollars at Work for Kids By Teresa Weatherall Neal, M.Ed., Superintendent of Schools When I asked the distributing and installing new technology throughout Park Early Childhood Center to serve as a new Montessori residents of Grand Rapids the district. More than 4,200 Chromebooks and iPads option on the southeast side of town. The building has to support our bond in have been distributed to students with a goal to have all been transformed and reopened this fall with preschool 2015, I pledged to secure, remaining devices distributed before the end of this school through 6th grade students. connect, and transform our year. This will help support the district’s new science Grand Rapids Public Museum School district. Two years after your curriculum, Discovery Ed Techbook. Instructional staff Status: IN PROGRESS overwhelmingly supportive devices have also been upgraded as more than 1,400 vote, progress is being made. teachers, staff, and principals have been equipped with The first class of high schoolers will start in the fall of 2018 at the newly renovated Museum High School. SECURE new Microsoft Surface Pro 4 laptops. 800 classrooms throughout the district have been upgraded with new The landmark 54 Jefferson, which served as the original Student and staff safety state-of-the-art, interactive, wireless projection capabilities. public museum, will become the ultimate place-based is our greatest concern. The remaining classrooms are on the schedule for the same learning environment. The dark and dusty building is being Although our schools have had upgrade. rejuvenated with a $10 million investment to become a secure entrances and requirements for all visitors to sign in first-of-its-kind high school, where students will have access TRANSFORM through the office, many of our buildings were not built to the museum archives located on-site to enhance their for the complex security concerns of the 21st Century. Led Ridgemoor Park Montessori curriculum. by Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Safety/ Status: COMPLETED Buchanan Elementary School School Security, Mr. Larry Johnson, building entrances and GRPS has a proud tradition of Montessori education Status: IN PROGRESS offices are being redesigned to meet today’s standards. as one of the first and only districts in the country to offer If you drive by Buchanan Elementary, you will see the CONNECT preschool through 12th grade Montessori education. concrete walls rising behind the current building. With a Our Management Information Services team has been Due to the success of the North Park and Grand Rapids Montessori programs, we renovated the former Ridgemoor ■ SEE TRANSFORM / A2 A New Vision for An Historic School College Tours Part of Ottawa Revamping, Renovation By Charles Honey, Courtesy of School News Network PAID ECRWSS PERMIT #319 PERMIT US POSTAGE Since its founding in the 1920s in the neighborhood Neal said then. NON-PROFIT ORG NON-PROFIT GRAND RAPIDS, MI bearing its name, Ottawa Hills High School has educated Sarkar was plenty of distinguished students. They include former chosen to lead that U.S. District Attorney Patrick Miles Jr., renowned gospel effort. He succeeds singer Marvin Sapp, and famous athletes such as boxing Rodney Lewis, now champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and former Detroit Tiger GRPS Director Mickey Stanley. of Secondary Ottawa has also seen great changes, including a move Education. in the early 1970s to its current site on Rosewood Avenue Coming from SE as well as enrollment declines. Kalamazoo Public Now more big changes are happening at Ottawa, from Schools, where he a major revamping of its academic offerings and an early was a leading math college program to a new principal, Kaushik Sarkar. teacher and adviser to the prestigious ECRWSS Customer Postal All are part of a planned $17 million renovation and ambitious initiative for the school, announced last spring Kappa League for African-American Kaushik Sarkar, Ottawa Hills by Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal in her State of High School’s new principal, the Schools speech. and other students, Sarkar brings says he intends to have “This is where I say, we do not turn this district “a strong impact on the school” around until we’ve flipped Ottawa Hills High School,” ■ SEE NEW VISION / A3 1331 Franklin S.E., PO Box 117 Grand Rapids, MI 49501-0117 2 GRPS News January 2018 Grand Rapids Public Schools Transform JANUARY 2018 Continued from A1 Grand Rapids Board of Education complete cost of $13 million, Buchanan 2018 Elementary’s renovation and addition is scheduled to be completed in August of Wendy VerHage Falb, Ph.D., President 2018. Raynard Ross, Vice President City High Middle School Kristian Grant, Secretary Status: IN PROGRESS Jen Schottke, Treasurer Tony Baker, Ph.D. The $17 million renovation will José Flores, Ed.D. update the HVAC system and install Katherine Downes Lewis LED lighting throughout the building. Rev. John Matias Thanks to bids coming in under budget, Maureen Quinn Slade all classrooms and science labs will be updated. Classrooms will receive new Teresa Weatherall Neal, M.Ed. window treatments, refinished hardwood Superintendent of Schools floors, and classroom furniture. Science Equal Opportunity Institution: Grand Rapids Public labs will receive the same, as well as new Schools, as an Equal Opportunity Institution, casework and counters, fume hoods, and complies with federal and state laws prohibiting Smart Boards. discrimination and harassment, including Title IV and Title VII (with amendments) of the 1964 Civil Southwest Community Campus Rights Act, Title IX of the Educational Amendment of Status: IN PROGRESS 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, A partnership between Dwelling Veterans Readjustment Act of 1974 as amended 38 USC 20-12 and the Americans With Disabilities Act Place, Ferris State University, Grandville of 1990. The District will not discriminate against Avenue Arts & Humanities, GRPS, any person based on race, sex, sexual orientation, Habitat Kent, Hispanic Center of Western gender, gender identity and expression, height, Michigan, Mercy Health Saint Mary’s, weight, color, religion, national origin, age, marital Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association, status, pregnancy, disability or veteran status. The and the residents of the neighborhood, District’s Civil Rights Compliance Officer is Larry Plaza Roosevelt will be a transformation Johnson. Mr. Larry Johnson may be contacted at to the Roosevelt Park neighborhood. The 1331 Franklin SE, P.O. Box 117, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-0117 or (616) 819-2100. The District’s Title area northeast of Franklin and Grandville IX Coordinator is Kurt Johnson. Mr. Kurt Johnson will include affordable housing, plaza, may be contacted at 1331 Franklin SE, P.O. Box outdoor art, increased access to healthcare, 117, Grand Rapids, MI 49501-0117 or (616) 819- increased after-school programs, and the 2010. new Southwest Community Campus Title IX Annual Athletics Compliance Report: High School. The $20 million project is Grand Rapids Public Schools is committed to anticipated to be completed in the fall of securing athletic equity and provides annual Title 2020. IX reporting to the athletes and parents in an effort to bring increased attention and resources towards Air Conditioning ensuring that gender equity as required by Title Status: BEGINNING SUMMER 2018 IX of the Education Amendments for 1972, Grand After the heat wave last fall, What do you want to be? Rapids Public Schools annual report is available at I requested the bond schedule be www.grps.org. To comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act reevaluated to move some air conditioning At Ferris State University, you can projects to 2018. Thanks to the hard (ESSA), parents may request information regarding choose from more than 190 degree the professional qualifications of the student’s work of our Facilities and Operations classroom teachers. Department air conditioning will be programs. We offer a hands-on installed at Brookside Elementary, Please contact Micky Savage, Director of Human approach to instruction and 16:1 Resources, in Human Resources via email Campus Elementary, CA Frost student-faculty ratio to help you [email protected] or at (616) 819-2028. Environmental Science Academy (Elementary), East Leonard Elementary, be ready for a rewarding and North Park Montessori, and Shawmut successful professional life. Hills School this summer. JANUARY 2018 is published four times per year by For a complete listing of current and Find programs related to your skills GRPS Communications Office future projects, please visit grps.org or Grand Rapids Public Schools wearegr.com. and interests at ferris.edu/grbe. 1331 Franklin St. SE, P.O. Box 117 Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501-0117 Phone: (616) 819-2149 Fax: (616) 819-3480 BE A BULLDOG. www.grps.org www.WeAreGR.com John Helmholdt, Executive Director of Communications & External Affairs Kalli Zielbauer, Communications Coordinator Kyle Pray, Student Retention Recruitment Program Coordinator Ferris State University is an equal opportunity institution. For information on the University’s Policy on Non-Discrimination, visit ferris.edu/non-discrimination. Lynn Ritsema, Administrative Assistant January 2018 GRPS News 3 New Vision Continued from A1 for students, professors teaching them -- far beyond the tours of historically black colleges, giving whether on the mostly white confines of West Michigan them the same exposure to high-achieving college-career track schools. African Americans he’d had in high or in trades and the The experience proved to be a school. arts.