- [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 setimes freezg weather. ey're hong to geinto e schoolf their oice, 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 hong to sere a ot for ahild the comg year's freshm ca atnn arbor commity high sool. (mellojazz mus)

i was way, but when learn aboucommunit it w like a ole fferent ll game r me. really wted to b ab to exore the rld, and th's what communy offere a way tt no her scho offered and th's what communy offere wh i goto harvd, i was able to function pretty well. and maybe, in part, it was cmunity that taut me tha it's iortant tchallee yoself in fferent ys, d it's n just about beg differt that not ourus. (laus) - [intviewer] it? - don't know. - [intviewer] it? that i that's r bus. all rit. - [intviewer] it? i used to ri the bus ck and fth to counity. evy day r the first cole of yes - [intviewer] it? i used to ri the bus that was goi to commity. itas a lonbus ride

(laughs)ut i waso excid to go school itathat dn't caree (lait dn't mattso ewhathe weather w.l it didn't tter howold, i ha a kiddond e's in ehth grad. so this is the yearwhen e ere they wt to go to hi school. for while,he didn' wanto apply communi. and because commity's now so popular and it's a lottery, only onen fourids get and shwasn't se that s can ke the dappointmt. buyeah, shs only odeded she'gonna, e's gonngo in for the ttery.

(students chattering) e's gonngo in f(upbeaband music) - th is thbest d. welcomto the fst day school, 26-17! (crowdheering) are so cky that we geta of our assembliein this bea. st. anew's is pa of ourommunity d that'shat commity gh schoois about it's abo learnin from youcommunit ging back your counity, and lening howo be a part of communit am inspid by udents, staff. look at ur paionate tchers who'veeen workg so rd all smer long so for emple, 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) an(melw jazz mic) e(studes chatteng)s. - 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, ofhic"l's play wi this.d, let's pl with th." - so it s a combinion 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'segree and everything. - i think a lot of people we challeed by what s goingon i0 rly '70s, ychologilly, emotionay, cultully, traditnal. rly '70lotsf stuff s being .

emotionay, cultully, traditnal. - alof this rt of turmoil d to the trng to settle things down, anthey tri to crte progrs for ki beuse you d 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 for ing work outse 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 d my fatr used t co home ansa "hmm." the ti thawe had our veryirst meeng 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. my father definitely hato mention that. - i nted to expod to peoe in the churcin the balcony. who were aware and tnking. wanted thave choe ov what i s gonnlearn. 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 , sohe young kids ca learfrom thelder kid it's nice to have der kids , and en hava siificant ult th kids arable to lk to. tudes chatteng) i ink peop th khundetand homoom,to. but ey don'tnderstan that forum lder th khundegoes cping,,to. has slpovers aher hous i d mice imy close thisear (chules) d i had say thekids, "wc. i d mice imy close the ntry's gting inved."

call it forum mom ana forum d. - tudent] ay, at else we need so, don't kn the junfood. u give mthe name. - tudent] t takis ego. - whats tas? (stunts loly chatting) wait a mute! i don't(stunts laugng)s! - of crse foruwas diffent cause that was n reallylike a. i ow we wod plan o campingtrips, somethi that th neededo deal wh, i ow we wod plan o campingtrips, thatasn't souch duri the rum clastime. somethi that th neededo deal wh, that wld be li a one-oone with t teachertalking abou. somethi that th neededo deal wh, that wl(sdents lahing)one no, thmoney, iidn't tell youecause... for a faly wherei wasn'tettg that se nourishment or care, i guess, somebody who's genuinely caring

about mynterestsnd welfa. ♪ oy, o oy ♪ nicloves rum evy day ♪ hdoes lot ofwork just toe♪ ♪ hey craig, that's the wrong grade ♪ hdoes lot ofwork just toe♪ ♪ y're loweng his g ♪orum'supposedto be anas the wrong grade ♪ h♪hat gradshould just toe♪ ♪be a 10 space s g ♪ stop is madne right ay ♪ thedon't learn ything aways 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'rell havinactiviti and i'd y, "yes,e all dot. that iolve speing daysith aneveningsith our udents." that mak a huge fference whoa ♪ive nickn "a" - is room, think metimes 's like 0.

it's le at t, u have 2wired lile kids come the roo d they'rbouncing and th're, mean, it kind ofice becausin a way we l ki of collse togetr. - nterview] have myou beent the school for a cole of yes? - . - [intviewer] ve you bee in ts room f a long me? - s, all that me. is is myoom, my om. - tudent] thk you, jith! thanks, judi. - bye, you're welcome, guys. - bye, jith. - any re? didn't st eat t hot dogs. - noay, he dinitely ate re. "oh, i perceive your interests, and let's give you this opportunity." i an, it'suilt to the sucture comnityigh,ve you community reurce, rit?y." (mlow jazzusic) - 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 on theittle cent 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 where kids would bring their babies and leave them there. other kids could get counity reurce cret for learni how to take c, which is really cool. - they had to do a certain amount of educational value

and the kids had tlearn so. i an, ifhe cr is beinmonitored 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, anwe had hdreds of crs. would have aaseload, somer a loof kids ent more te ouof schoothan in school and it was based on the parkway philadelia idea that educati 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 your phone? u have erythg el you nee - eah] yea - okay so wdid check out the plicatio actuall - eah] yea a few minus ago an thers nothinto it. 's just ke, your kid'name, cause myaughter,eah, ese didn exist ck when i went, whato expe? leahw has anybody to you? - [leah]o, everydy just said ie - itas jusreally pked. so, it'so populanow that ty have thave ve of the thin

ausehere's jt so ny famils to incde. yeah, these are denitely n our era ausehere's jt so ny fam- is one ide. ere's tia, right thaty sister - my husbd isrevor stles and hunout on e front rch, - my husbd if hever camto schoo ny years later, ter i had alrey been mried and divoed and h a child he and i m again, actually at a communi high reion, d beca frien. and then several years after that, we started dating and eventually got married atommunityigh scho (laus) on the front porch. - we definitely had different periences 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, "don't kn." i don'rememberho myorum leadewas.

fr the acamic rt of counity. (soft sic) d that we' still tether. (soft sic) the otr high sools re very rict andigid, and counity hi was d thaplacthat w more loe, d maybe somethg in betweenhere would ve been tter fore. how commity doeschool, or did sool then - [wom] how aryou? - shs totally calm - [wom] how aryou? she's t sweati this. muchore profsional.alread io we were , not goa sadisorganed, buit didn'feel mucrmal in y way.l.alread io d so aeady thoh, i cafeel likit's little me seriou d so aeady thoh, thant was.

is a lt, whh means ery year. tudentchatteri) when i w in eigh grade and starng to fire out i couldo to mmunity not, my dad g really ck. he kneabout th plan d was suortive oit and thenn mah of 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 whand joined ao-op.ng was, ani mod into co-op

anmaybe itidn't, maybe itnly matts now. is is ere i used thang out ere the rt of gey, potical tys hung o. doou want see thfitness uff ke the dce room and thwor? nce ro, at lea. - we i ner went io thend thwor? fitness om. (laus) nc(sdents lahing) - we - annah] ihould no 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, hillary d bern. wee covering incarcerion agai differentake on , but i e ich is cl.

ould we en morboxes? (sdents chtering) right muc) - is is wh it look like. fore itarted1999. d this iwhat itlooks li . thiss the be editn they'vever, - [stunt] do y have a "counicat"? - it nice to give tmg soarely doeople ge the same informati - it nice to give tmg athe same ment itime, and "cmunicato whene distrite, it'sne of the ments whe everyo... looking . (laughs) and senge - arning h to put togeth ar ere the rk was rl.

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 can eate reawork (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. takeswhile. - 10:30 11. that mak sense,because have to. takeswhile. - 1oh yh.11. that mak sense,because have to. - you're gng to beo glad that y don't he to repacthis the. that mak sense,because have to. so jt lift iin as a unit and 'll do t next one next to i we're athe nortamericanintern. it's aharity ga. thers going be ov 13,000eople the tonigh

a lot ofip's and . thers going be ov 13,000eople the tonigh thiss just o of nearly a hundr gigs that we' do thisear, and this is e of the biggerne. that we' do thisear, anit all ces out of what s going on and this is e of the biggerne. in t '70s wi bart pot, and then later on mike grace in the '80s and '90s. the whole idea was to make a small group jazz program. at's alle do her at's whaseparateus fr every oer school is at that'what we study, d that'sll we sty. at t(bght jazzusic)dy, (crowd cttering) - foall your perfornce need thanyou. and yoguys areigh schoers? i waed past d itas just azing. please, es - there e very f kids acommunit th get losor that' how ithould be,

thatou're knn there. and ally, th's what you wae disenfrahisement are so easy with adolescence school tt sort acceptethat (ueat musi there was ways tha really marlous mal of thenti-zebrmascot. it w right next the offe where there's the zebra of many different patterns ruing agait thtide of bras, where there's the zebra of many different patterns whlook st of astnded. e expresons on those zeas' face in theriginal ral e ally goo thzebra haa lot mo goinon than inbow, rht? in theriginal ral thers patter, it's ny diffent pattes. 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 e main offe waitinhs) anthen we' gonna go upstai to judh's clasoom d i'll da little ct with herorum, to judh's clasoom d i'll da little ct tell tm about at it was li , with herorum, d what jith was ke wh she fir startedere 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.seat? - so iirst camto counity inhe ninthrade. that w 1983, and i graduad in 198 it w 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? [intervier] whato yowant f 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, thatny minutnow they could . th could bthe lastear. thaso we worked reallyould . hard to reach out to theommunitynd try to getolks to me her - we werfighting harder at 10ears than we did the first ven or eight. the administrative role became very, very crucial, right then, for posterity, t justalanceour budg, ta care ofisciplin buwe werreally fightingor longety

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 sa, "commuty high enrollment starts march 31st," so i b sometng,ull page aeats are limed."er" and sa, "commuty high enroand ople shod up.ch 31st," first ye, some ople lin up, but they got right in. the second year, the line was too long and then it got crazy. 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 weeren't se when e line w gonna srt 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 cled peop 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 whatever was that you waited for. there must be like a super intensity amonthe peop thator. waitedn those nes. - when wwere the, some natiol magazis camen and di sometories osomethin mayb"teen"agazines or somhing like that. - i personally think it was kurt cobain and nirvana. i mean, they came out right after, 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 commuty was ready the alternate, 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 school education. - it was very colicated me cause itad builtp to tt, - it was very colicated me and i dn't likit, be realonest. i me the first time the line came, when it lasted all 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.hool i alwaysanted toigure 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 it gave apecial priority to pele 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, you ha be guid ther often, someone and soif you wen't n a commutyf otherk, that kneabout thplace and kn what it represeed anwhat itsotentialas, you wen't gonn get cess to .

and kn what it represeed - th have oueach proams. they tryery hard ita fair lotter abso. n arbor a superich, 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, andyou stl just he theool has bepeople tt are abwealthy. retation obeing li, - sos th really weird ttle schl, so a lotf the chdren offrican desnt were not tt school so a lotf the chdren offrican desnt were not i thk after got ere more came, but it was still a special group of students. kids didn't want to leave the mainstream high school. - i d a missn as dean to incase the minoty enllment, riod. i didn'tare if t statrequiredt, or t districwanted i i was like, "n if 're a counity, weeed toeflect or t the commity." i