DPS To Open 2 New Schools With Help From Universities, DMC
DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit Public Schools announced on Tuesday plans for two brand new high schools to open in the fall along with partnerships with Michigan State University, The Detroit Medical Center, and three national education organizations.
The Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine and the Detroit Collegiate Prep (Diplomas Now/Michigan Future) High School are funded also by a $2.8 million grant from Michigan Future Inc. Through its Michigan Future Schools program, the grant will open four high schools altogether that will challenge and support Detroit students as they are prepared for college and their future careers.
"I've been calling for increased partnerships from business, from higher education, from the community," said DPS Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, "but partnerships that are strategic, that are embraced by the principal, and that are student focused. There can be no better example of this than the participants in these programs, and I applaud them for expanding opportunities for Detroit students."
The Dr. Benjamin Carson School, which will be located at the Crockett Career and Technical Center on Mack, will prepare students for careers in healthcare. The school will provide a rigorous high school curriculum and may provide internships to nearby medical centers, such as Wayne State University School of Medicine.
"Rigorous classroom instruction will be the norm," said Principal Brenda Belcher. "Every student will enter high school knowing that the expectations staff, partners and parents have for them is college graduation."
The Detroit Collegiate Prep School will provide four years of a college-going culture for students. A partnership with City Year, Talent Development and Communities In School will facilitate mentoring and family support for the program.
"Students will be empowered to take charge and declare: 'This is my school,'" said Principal Ricardo Martin. Everyone will feel safe enough to be themselves, to ask for help and to help others when they need help. Students will know their goal is to achieve college success." A partnership with three national education organizations, City Year, Talent Development and Communities In School, will facilitate mentoring, job shadowing and family support for the program.
Kristen Canard, a Detroit school parent who has never sent her children to a Detroit Public School, told WWJ's Vickie Thomas that this will now change with her daughter.
"My children are in private schools now in Southfield," said Canard. "Because she is getting ready to go to high school, I figured I needed to start looking. By Googling, Michigan Future Schools came up, and when I clicked on the link and saw Ben Carson, I needed to get over here."
Open to all Detroit ninth-graders, both schools will offer open-houses to recruit students starting on Thursday.
