GRPS reveals closure plan Version 2.0

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Creston High School will still cease to exist in Version 2.0 of the Grand Rapids Public Schools transformation plan unveiled Monday evening by superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal, but the building that has housed it will be used for other students.

Version 2.0 is estimated to save the district nearly $4.5 million annually, about half of which, 24 Hour News 8 was told, will be reinvested into classrooms.

Initially targeted for closure were 10 schools, but several others were to be reorganized in what district officials said is a plan to strengthen and expand what is already working.

Weatherall Neal presented the modified plan to the Grand Rapids School Board after a series of community meetings and other outreach methods. GRPS spokesperson John Helmholdt said the district has heard from about 1,000 people so far in this process.  

The large Creston building will be the new home to City High - Middle Program, if Version 2.0 of the transformation plan passes, and Creston students will be offered the option to finish out their Creston High School experience at the Central building.

That got mixed reviews in the public comment portion of the Monday evening board meeting at which the plan was announced.

"I think that Creston should stay at the building, in the building, because both City and Creston have different academic areas and I think we could both learn from each other," one current Creston junior said.

"We all must make some sacrifices and do what's right for the best interest of the whole community, not just your school," another community member, Jimmy Carter, told those there. "Any school, people could say good things about keeping that school open."

The new plan to move Creston and City students is an example, school officials say, of the district listening to the people.

"I wanted to be open, and I wanted it be flexible and I wanted it to be a plan that we as a community owned," said Weatherall Neal. "When you have that many people saying it's the wrong thing, there's something wrong with your plan."

Keeping the Creston building open will mean several hundred thousand dollars less saved overall, but Weatherall Neal says saving money wasn't the point -- academics were and are.   

Teachers said they can't know how they feel until they know what this plan will mean for staff.

"I think when you sign on and vote for a process without having decided what the entire process is, you run into problems," said Paul Helder, president of the Grand Rapids teachers' union.

Weatherall Neal has said some people will be laid off, but she won't go into more specifics until after the big vote.

"I can't do the plan that's best for staff I have to do what's best for children and their education," she said. "Hopefully, that will be what's best for employees as well, but that can't be my focus."

Among the changes in Version 2.0:

• Creston will close, but the remaining ninth-11th grade students would be given the option to finish high school at the Central High School campus with other Creston students.
• City High-Middle and the Sixth Grade Center for Economicology will relocate and expand at the Creston High School site.
• Shawnee will close, but the Shawnee pre-K-5 oral deaf/hearing impaired students will be all together at Ken-O-Sha with Shawnee preschool/Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) students.
• Neal recommends a new pre-K-fifth grade small traditional school be opened at Ken-O-Sha, where the POHI students will remain.
• Instead of bussing to Ken-O-Sha, the West Leonard preschool/GSRP and some Straight preschool/GSRP students will relocate to Stocking Elementary. Covell MICI students will also relocate to Stocking Elementary.
• The Wellerwood preschool/GSRP students will relocate to North Park instead of bussing to Ken-O-Sha.
• North Park Montessori will expand to a pre-K-eighth grade school. Next year the seventh grade will be added, then the eighth grade the year after.
• The expansion of Shawmut Hills to a K-8 will add grades six-eight in the 2013-14 year.
• Union, Westwood and Alger will implement the "turnaround model" with help from Cambridge Education and an effort to recruit and retain principals and teacher.
• The Phase II Planned Growth area is changed to emphasize the phase is about "exploring" concepts for new or expanded schools, keeping community partners in mind.

Over five years, this plan is estimated to save the district more than $22 million.

Board members will vote on the plan Dec. 17.