- [announcer] this program was made possible by roos roast coffee, home of lobster, butter, love, art and coffee experiences, in ann arbor, michigan. to learn more, visit roosroast.com. enspire dental, committed to supporting the community through comfortable, comprehensive, and personalized dental care. explore more at enspiredental.com. fresh forage, committed to delivering locally sourced, fresh, seasonal food experiences in the ann arbor area. find out more at freshforage.com. the film program at college for creative studies, providing students with the tools needed for careers in dynamic creative industries. learn more at collegeforcreativestudies.edu.

the michigan theater and state theater, bringing films and performing arts to the greater ann arbor area. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. (radio static vibrating) - [narrator]or thpast twoeeks in ann arbor, michigan, parents, and many children have been waiting in line in ann arbor, michigan, inometimes freezg weather. e distri's onlyalternate . [don] mo than a zen brigly color tents d the wn behinthe ann arbopublit [don] mo than a zen badminiration blding. the pking lotthere are threpop-up cpers and assoed minivan hopi to secu a sp for a cld inhe cominyear's freshmanlass ann arb's counity hi sool. (mellow zz music

abt community, bud it w like a ole fferent ll game r me. i reallyanted toe ab to exple the wod, and th's what communy offere a way tt no her scho offered en i g to haard, i was able to function pretty well. and maybe, in part, it was cmunity that taut me tha it's iortant tchalleng yourlf in dierent wa, d it's n just about beg differt th's not o bus. (lghs) - [intviewer] it? - don't know. - [intviewer] it? that i that's r bus. all rit. i used to ri the bus ck and fth to counity ery day r the first cole of yes i used to ri the bus that was goi to commity.

o exted to gto schoo i uit dn't matte bus thatwhathe weather w.ty. it didn't tter howold, i uit dn't matte bus thadidn'tatter hodark,y. so this is the yearwhen e ere they wt to go to hi school. for while,he didn' wanto apply communi. she was raid that sh would t her het set and because counity's now so popular and it's a lottery, only onen four ks get and she sn't surthat she can tn buyeah, shs deded she'gonna, e's gonngo in for the ttery.

(students chattering) (upbt band mic) - th is e best d. welcomto the fst day school, 26-17! (crowd cering) we are slucky th we g to havell of our assembls in thi beautiful, beautiful place. d that'shat commity gh schoois about it's aut learng from yr communy, a part of communit and le am inspid by udents, staff. look at ur paionate tchers who'veeen workg so rd all smer long for example, juth dewosn,

(crowd cheering) right here. judiths 73 years old and still mes to sool and lear somethi every y from y guys. (crowd cering) (mlow jazzusic) (studentchatteri) - i we to community high, graduated in '76. i didn't go there all four years, but that group was the first graduating class that had been there, many of my classmates from ninth grade to 12th. this is the founding blueprint. this was the group of teachers and administrators, and so on, who designed the school, including the idea of what forums are, why it's called community, that you earned credit for doing stuff in the community.

basically it ran the gamut and they, i think they tried to find teachers who were willing to, think outside the box. - some people stuck with very traditional values about the classroom and the structure, and then there was a more vociferous group, hich "l's play wi this. let's pl with th." - so it was a combination of people who were failing at other schools and also geniuses. it kind of went to that spectrum and i was failing, (laughs) but community high saved my life and i do hold it totally responsible for having a bachelor's degree, a master degree and everything. - i think a lot of people we challeed by wt was gog on ithe late60s, and everything. rly '70spsycholocally, emotionay, cultully, traditnally.

rly '70lotsf stuff s being . - l of thisort of turmoilm trng to settle things down, anthey tri to crte progrs for ki beuse you had pioneer gh schoo this big high school there, they're building huron, those two schools were the most expensive schools in the country when they were built. - these parents, they wanted something different for their kids, some kind of alternative school program. so then, bruce macpherson was brought in as the superintendent because he had started something in philadelphia called the school without walls, and that was a program where kids could get credit in philadelphia called the school without walls, for ing wo ouide the hool. and th was likthe ed that routed into community high school. - well, i was interested in being in a new type of high school and it was groundbreaking, so i was excited about that. my fathewas prty frustted

because they did not have the backing of most everybody. i mean, if you go back and check the "ann arbor news" out, you'll see some things going on the timehat had r very fst meeti at the church across the street, well, i think one of the articles, or on the news or something, said about the pot smoking in the churcin the balcony. soy father definitely hato mention that. - i nted to expod to peoe in the churcin the balcony. who were aware and tnking. community high was the closest thing to that. so i came in with that understanding, as well, that we were changing education throughout the country. (mellow jazz music)

- well, forum is the most important part of the school. if forum is done right, that's where you do a lot of learning and a lot of the learning you do inigh scho is growg up. it's nice to have der kids , the youer kids n len from t older ks anthen he a gnificanadult th kids arable to lk to. (studes chatteng) i ink peop undetand homoom, but ey don'tnderstan th a forumeader undegoes cping,, has eepoverst her hoe, i d mice imy close thisear (chules) d i had say thekids, "wc. thpantry'setting iaded."

call it forum mom ana forum d. - tudent] ay, at else we need u give mthe name. - tudent] t takis ego. u g- whats takie. (stunts loly chatting) wait ainute! (sdents lahing) wait ainute! - of crse foruwas diffent cause th was n reallylike an . i ow we wod plan o campingtrips, somethi that th neededo deal wh, that wn't so mh during the . thatould be ke a onen-one with t teachertalking abou. (sdents lahing) with t teachertalking abou. - kids, think yove got i no, thmoney, iidn't tell youecause. with t teachertalking abou. -- 's thereatest ncept i no, becausit givesyou yourn. tell youecause. for a faly wherei wasn'tettg thatame nourishment or care, i guess, somebody who's genuinely caring

about mynterestsnd welfa. ♪ oy, o oy ♪ nicloveforum evy day ♪ hdoes a lot ofwork just t♪ ♪ hey craig, that's the wrong grade ♪ hdoes a lot ofwork just t♪ ♪ y're loweng his g ♪orum'supposedto be anas the wrong grade ♪hat grade ould a 10 inpace ♪ stop is madne right ay i woulgo on these camping ips and my at wod say toe, "judith, are other teache doing ts?" and i'd y, "yes,e all dot. we're l goincamping, or, "we' all havg activies that iolve speing daysith and enings wh our stents." that mak a huge fference whoa ♪ive nickn "a" this roo i thinksometimei.

it's le at thend of thday, u have 2wired lile kids come the roo d they'rbouncing and th're, and th you do is. mean, it kind ofice becausin a way we l ki of collse togetr. - nterview] have you beent the school for a cole of yes? - . - [intviewer] ve you bee in ts room f a long me? - s, all that me. this is room, mroom. - tudent] thk you, jith! thanks, judi. - bye, you're welcome, guys. - bye, jith. - any re? didn'just eatwo hot dogs. - no w, he dinitely ate mo. "oh, i perceive your interests, and let's give you this opportunity." i an, it'suilt to the sucture comnityigh, community reurce, rit? (mlow ja music) - david tuck and i were quite close, and he's the one who came to me as dean and said, "we wanna have skateboarding for pe credit.

is it okay?" i said, "just come back and explain to me w it quafies, 'cau i don'tnow anytng abouskateboaing." and sohey tooke out the parng lot and theyere whizng arnd and jping the lite cement abutments and i was like, "i'm down, let's do it." - i wasn't a big fan of gym class, so me and my friend marnin created a community resource class called, swim, swam, swum, where we snuck into swimming pools of hotels around ann arbor and recorded our imming a our heart rate, but also wrote abo the exrience otrying to sne into the pos and noget caught where kids would bring their babies and leave them there. other kids could get counity reurce cret folearning how t takeare of babies, which is really cool. - they had to do a certain amount of educational value

and the kids hado learn me. mean, ifhe cr is being monitored correctly, they have to learn something. - but over time, it became a little more structured, and so there were classes like you would see in any high school, but you also had a real option if you wanted to do something different. - i was in charge of community resource department, and teaching speech, and a forum leader, a lot ofids spenmore time out of school than in school and it was based on the parkway philadelia idea that educaon isn't contained in brick and mortar. [narrator] cue down. and it was based on the parkway philadelia idea - good afternoon and welcome to "students in the spotlight." i'm vicky henry, and today with m i have tracy osborn, who is a student at community high school. hi, tracy. - hi. - i understand community high's an alternative high school. wh's that mean? - it's a lot more freedom than most schools. like, i don't know, most ann arbor schools.

- what do you like best about this school? - i like the freedom and the teachers. they're really nice, and the students are nice too. - well, we're out of time for today. i hope you'll tune in tomorrow when i'll be talking to another community high student. thanks, tracy. - all right, leah, do you have yr phone? u have erythg el you nee - eah] yea u have erythg el - okaye soe did chk out the plicatio actuall a w minus ago an thers nothinto it. 's just ke, your kid'name, cause myaughter,eah, is gon enter t lottery to se. ese didn exist ck when i went, sohis'll bdifferen leahdo you kwt wh to expe?ent, has anybody to you? - [leah]o, everydy just said ie - itas jusreally pked. - [leah]o, everydy just said ie so, it so popur now thathey haveo have five of ese thin

ausehere's jt so ny famils to incde. yeah, ese are finitelyot our e. ausehere's jt so ny fam- is one ide. ere's tia, right thaty sister so my huand trevor aples erand hunout on te front rch, ife ever ce to schl. ma years later, ter i had alrey been mried hend i m again, actually at a communi high reion, and beme frids. and then several years after that, we started dating and eventually got married atommunityigh scho (laus) on the front porch. - we definitely had different experiences at community high. i have friends that are lifelong friends from my time at community, but you know, the other day kelly asked me who my forum leader was, and i just said,i don't ow." from my time at community, but you know, i don'rememberho myorum leadewas.

and i just said,i don't ow." (laus) i mean, tt'st cow detach i wasou know, (soft sic) and i just said,i don't ow." (and at's parof whyt it's surising fopeople know, that wre togetr and that we' still tether. thother hi schools were vyd that wre togetr and and counity hi was a thaplacthat wasore loos d maybe somethg in betweenhere would ve been tter fore. i wasn prepareto do scol - [wom] ? - e's totally calm she's t sweati this. [wom] ? muchore profsional.alread io we were , not goa sadisorganed, buit didn'feel rmal in y way. i n feel le it's a littleore seris thant was. - [teaer] we a know thatommuo

is aottery sool, ich meanevery ye... (studentchatteri) when i w in eigh grade and starng to fire out i couldo to mmunity not, my dad g really ck. he kw about is planand wast mmunity not, and thenn marcof my eighth grade year, he passed away. my mom was completely in favor of it. so it was an open secret that i lived in ypsilanti and was going to school in ann arbor. and so people, for the most part, just looked the other way. it wasn't until my junior year that it became a problem. what i ended up doing was, i t emancited by t court and i ined a cop. and moved into co-op

anmaybe itidn't, maybe itnly matts now. this is whe i used thang out ere the rt of gey, potical tys hung o. doou want see thfitness uff ke theance roo and e workouroom? - you wan go see , mom? k- wean see the nce ro, at lea.m? i ner went io the - fitness om. (laus)om? - annah] ihould no be trued with ades. i ner went io the -that a true ct aboute.? th you hdling th, hannah - ha h (deep ss music we've t a lot news cause, ayou can e, it'she electn. we've t a lot news cause, ayou can e, so we vered tikaine, llary d bernie differentake on , but i ine ich is cl.

ould we en more boxes? (sdents chtering) (bght musi - is is wh it look like. bere itarted, 1999. have a "counicat"? - [stuy - [stunt] you t one! - 's nice givehem someing soarely doeople ge the same informati and ommunicar" athe wh we distbute,, soait one of osege moments ere everne...ti ani li walking athe aroundhe hallw,, and seng what ey're momelooking . (laughs)i learningow to pu togeer a newaper ere the rk waseal.

th sdents acally val, of real work and are being used other sdents, a facuy, and son. and sowhen y can eate reawork th studentcan enga with, it total changes how yot (upbt jazzusic) - [sdent] ok, so likwe'rehow yot coming bk in lik what? [boy] wee probab not nna leavthere unl 10-i. - [student] ay, so le geback at or someing. takes aile. - 10:30 11. that mak sense,because have to. oheah. - you're gng to beo glad that y don't he to repk this tre. d we'll the xt one next to it. so we'ret the noh americ internional au show. it's aharity ga. there's gointo be ov 13,000eople the tonigh

a lot ofip's and . th is justne of nearly a hundr gigs that we' do thisear, and this is e of the bigg. nearly a hundr gigs anit all ces out of what s going on the '70with barpolot, anthen lat on mike grace . the whole idea was to make a small group jazz program. at's alle do her that's wt separas us thathat's wh we studis anthat's a we stud that's wt separas us that(brit jazz mic)dis (crowdhattering) that's wt separas us - for all yo thatperfmance nes.)dis thank u. communithigh jaz and yoguys areigh schoers? i waed past d itas just azing. please, es - therare veryew kidst communy th get losor that' how ithould be,

anreally, at's wha you nt to aceve in high hool, becausio disenfrahisement are so easy with adolescence school tt sort acceptethat anrolled wh it was gonna s school tt sort (ueat musit there was ways tha really marlous mal of thenti-zebrmascot. it w right next the offe ruing agait thtide of bras, itwhlook sorof astoued.fe e expresons on those zeas' face in theriginal ral e really gd. thzebra haa lot mo goinon than inbow, rht? there'patternsit's ma differe pattern anything can happen on an anti-zebra. - oh, this is the where the rest of the pictures are.

e feathed hair (ughs) - oh, this is the where the rand th'80s bloacks. are. soi'm heren the main offe waitin anthen we' gonna go upstai to judh's clasoom d i'll da little ct tellhem abouwhat it was li , d what jith was ke wh she fir startedere tellhem abouwhat it was li , at cmuni. think shs still in theam. (students chattering) - would you all welcome kelly, and she can have a seat? (group clappin yoget the at of hor. - so i fst came commity in t ninth gde. at was 1983, a i gruated in987, itas fillewith peoe who dn't qui fit in other places, but people don't fit in for all kinds of reasons. there's all kinds of things that could be making you feel ki of out sorts, ght? - [interewer] wh do u wantor christmas? - i want some cotton underwear. - [interviewer] anything else? - cotton underwear, get a close-up on the cotton underwear. long johns, get a close-up on the long johns! - [kelly] like these! (tv static vibrating)

(hard rock music) - [interviewer] why did you decide to come to community high school? - community was a place where you could fit in, even if you had never fit in before. (students shouting) we had this sense that, if we didn't keep it together, th any mine now th coulclose thschool. is coulde the la year. th so we worked really couhard to reach out to theommunitynd try to g. is coulde the la year. th - weere fitingeally coharder at 10 years than we did the first ven or eight. the administrative role became very, very crucial, right then, for posterity, not ju balanceour budg, ta care ofisciplin t we we really fighti foy

and thatight be e - everybody was afraid. i mean, we've always been afraid because they had count days, they would count the numbers, that somebody is going to come and shut us down because we're not getting enough students. so i bought a full page ad in "the observer" and said"communi high enrollment starts march 31st," sometng, eats are lited." and said"communi high enroand ople shod up.ch 31st," first ar, somepeople le, but they got right in. the second year, the line was too long and then it got crazy. (ueat musi i mean, it got crazy because people started realizing that this place is a pretty good deal. - we are in the parking lot of the balas administration building.

my friend and i were talking with ourarents aut howe reallwanted tand weren'ture when thline wasonna sta who wasonna sta it. at the time, 45 minutes away. and she knew that if the line started during the middle of the week, she wouldn't be able to get me there in the morning. and so, i was the first one who showed up and a woman got out of the minivan and she said, "excuse me, are you starting the line?" and i s sort olike, of t"yeah, i guess i a"said, and they had some sort of elaborate phone tree plan. and within 30 minutes, the lot was full of eager, bright eyed, bushy tailed eighth graders, who were really committed to getting the education th communi would pvide. - if you're forced twait inine for eks on e,

you' gonna rlly love wtever it was that you waited for. so there must be like a super intensity amg the pele that wait in. - when wwere tre, some natiol magazis camen and di sometories osomethg, mae "teen"agazines or somhing like that. - i personally think it was kurt cobain and nirvana. i mean, they came out , then the whole grunge movement hit like hardcore. it was just, "i want to be alternative just like everybody else." so you go to community high to be alternative. - ke comnity wasalready t, and l of a sden the alternative became cool. - it became the cool school because itecame the smart school. community kids were outperforming the two main high schools. parents recognized that the quality of the education was almost rivaling a private hool education. parents recognized that the - it w a very mplicatetimen because had bui up to tt, parand i dn't likit,hat the - it w be realonest.tetimen i me the first time the line came, wh it lastedll night, it was sort of a festival and that was funny.

it had nothing to do with the inconvenience for me, but see, i could see who wasn't going to community all of these years. it wasn't a diverse school and that was pointed out to me by other people inhe communityll the te. i alwa wanted figure a more equle way of dog it, but i couldn't come up with anything other than a lottery. - at first, i thought a lottery was a bad idea because then we wouldn't necessarily get the most committed pple. but whate were gting om that nd of a ne was that igave a scial iority to peop who could afford to hire people to stay in li, could fly their grandparents in, or quit work for two weeks, and that's crazy. (upbeat music) - even before there was a lottery or line, t nnected to a neor or a comnityf othee, that kneabout thplace and ew what represeed anwhat itsotentialas, you weret gonna get acss .

and ew what represeed - th have oueach proams. they tryery hard ita fair lottery,bsolutel ann arbor a superich, per whittown, coared what itsed to b community s a specl, precious place in the community. and frankly, the community is getting more wealthy and community high school has been getting more wealthy. so although it's still a lottery, you ill justave the peoplehe to actuay get toommunity hi school l the ti retation obeing li, - so cs th reallweird lile schoo to actuay get toommunity hi school l the ti so a l of the ildren african desnt were not - so cs in thaschool. i thk after got there more came, but it was still a special group of students. kids didn't want to leave the mainstream high school. - i haa missioas dean to incase the minori enroment, peod. i didn'tare if t statrequiredt, or t districwanted i i was like, "n if 're a counity,