A new kind of high school is coming to Traverse City. The Greenspire School is preparing to welcome its first class of ninth and tenth graders on September 7, with plans to add eleventh and twelfth grades over the next two years. More than 60 students are enrolled in the new high school program, which is focused on project-based learning in an outdoor environment, offering multiple curriculum “pathways” that include options for students to graduate with both a diploma and college degree.

Superintendent Robert Walker says there has long been demand for Greenspire, a public tuition-free charter middle school located on the grounds of the Grand Traverse Commons, to add high school classes. “There has always been this kind of talk with parents and students of, ‘Why is Greenspire just a middle school? Can’t we keep going?’” he says. “That question was always out there.”

An infusion of state funding in 2020 allowed Greenspire to pursue the reality of expanding to high school. Last June, the school was approved for a $650,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Education’s Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Program to help develop and implement a high school program. Greenspire originally planned to start offering high school classes in 2022, but was able to move quickly enough through the process to begin this fall, Walker says. Greenspire set a target minimum of 60 to 75 students for the first high school class and began open enrollment in February. “We’ve hit that minimum target,” Walker says. “We wanted to start small, but eventually we have a high school target goal of 225-250 students.”

With the middle school already maxed out – Walker says there is wait list of over 30 students for middle school – Greenspire had to look elsewhere for classroom space for high school students. Greenspire High School will be held in rented classrooms at Northwestern Michigan College’s University Center on Boardman Lake. “It’s got an office, classrooms, security, access to the lake and woods and trails,” says Walker, ticking off the advantages of the site. Those include the newly completed Boardman Lake Trail loop connecting Fourteenth Street to the University Center. Greenspire will hold a public grand opening celebration on Wednesday, August 18 at 10am at the University Center to celebrate the high school's launch.

The site will make it easier for Greenspire students to simultaneously take college classes, according to Walker. Greenspire will offer an initial choice of four curriculum tracks or “pathways” for students, including Agri-Science, Architectural Studies w/Applied Environmental and Digital Engineering, Community Leadership (Stewardship), and Freshwaster Studies (Middle College Experience Global Policy & Sustainability). The last track involves “intensive college coursework,” according to its description, and allows students to graduate with both a diploma and an associate’s degree.

Students in other pathways can also accumulate college credits as they progress through high school, similar to other dual enrollment programs. While meeting all of the Michigan Merit Curriculum standards for core subject competencies, Greenspire’s classes are unique in that they focus heavily on the environment – with an emphasis on outdoor classroom time – and are project-based. At both the middle and high school levels, students pick a key major project that then is integrated into all their classwork.

“For example, in the middle school they did a project called Breaking Ground where they designed an outdoor learning space,” Walker explains. “That project integrated math and geometry, science with soil testing, social studies with geography and surveying, outdoor education, and speech, where they made a formal presentation within their group. Every time they went to one of those classes, they were working on the same project. It’s the exact same standards as a traditional middle school or high school, but meeting them in a more interactive way.”

Walker says project-based learning helps develop “all of the skills that colleges and future employers want out of graduates,” including interacting with the broader community on school-related work. “The pandemic has in some respects helped colleges look past just a transcript or test scores to say, ‘OK, what else is there about this person?’ Our students have apprenticeships, the ability to take higher education level classes, and are working on large community projects. It puts them on a faster track,” he says.

The pandemic also prompted parents to take a closer look at educational options for their students. Walker says Greenspire’s emphasis on outdoor learning and small class sizes – which will be further reduced from 22 down to 18-19 this year as part of a pod system that allows for dynamic scheduling and spread-out classes – increased interest from families during the pandemic.

“People are looking for something different, something small, something more community-based,” Walker says. “I think that’s one of the natural things that’s come out of it. Just the ability to have kids outdoors for class is such a benefit. People have been stuck inside, and they want to get out.” Walker attributes the school’s structure to not having a single COVID-19 case during the pandemic, nor having to conduct any quarantining or contact tracing. Greenspire offeried its own (internally built) remote learning option and followed all required safety protocols for in-person classes, including masking; that combined with small outdoor classrooms helped the school avoid the repeated closures that plagued other schools due to COVID-19 outbreaks. “Our parents and community were awesome at erring on the side of caution,” Walker says.

Like most other schools in Michigan, Greenspire is still waiting on guidelines to determine what safety protocols will be in place this fall for both the middle and high schools. Even bigger questions loom on the horizon, including what the future holds for additional expansion. Walker says Greenspire will likely search for property on which to build its own high school; a middle school expansion is also possible at the Commons, though Walker predicts that project will come after a high school buildout. Offering elementary classes in the future is “not off the table” either, he says. For now, Greenspire has a new matriculation agreement with Old Mission Peninsula School – both schools share a charter authorizer in Grand Valley State University – that guarantees at least 50 percent of Greenspire’s incoming sixth grade seats will be held for Old Mission students if they choose to use them. That offers students the ability to enroll in an experiential-based learning program from kindergarten all the way up through senior year between the two schools, Walker says.

Balancing a growing wait list with the need to preserve the intimate, hands-on learning environment for which Greenspire has become known will be critical as the school plans for future growth, Walker says. “One of the things you have to be concerned about is that you’re not getting too big and losing the community feel,” he says. “It’s about managing the demand while making sure you preserve the ability to do what you do best.”

Pictured: left, The Greenspire School; right, NMC's University Center, where Greenspire High School classes will be held