Community High School (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Community High School
Community High School, Ann Arbor MI
Address
401 N. Division St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 United States
Information
Type	Alternative college preparatory school
Established	1972
School district	Ann Arbor Public Schools
Website	www.a2community.org

Community High School (CHS) is a public alternative school serving grades 9–12 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. Located on a 3.2-acre (13,000 m²) site at 401 North Division Street near the city's Kerrytown district, CHS today enrolls approximately 450 students.

Established in 1972, CHS was one of the first public magnet schools in the country, offering students a smaller alternative to the city's three large comprehensive high schools. It is one of the few surviving institutions among the wave of experimental high schools that were founded across the United States in the 1970s.

Unlike many public alternative schools in other cities, CHS is not restricted to a particular student population (such as "gifted" or "underachieving" students), nor does it explicitly emphasize one particular area of study over others. Founded on an experimental "school-without-walls" concept, CHS continues to offer opportunities to interact with the surrounding community, primarily through its open campus and its Community Resources Program, an avenue for students to design their own courses for credit through experiential learning projects in the Ann Arbor area. In contrast to many traditional high schools, CHS has been known for its small size, its open campus and downtown location, student participation in school governance and staff hiring, and loose attendance policies more similar to those of colleges than those at most high schools. The school has also eschewed many of the characteristics of traditional high schools, including interscholastic sports programs, valedictorians, dress codes, detention, hall passes, changing bells, mascots (aside from a rainbow-spangled zebra). Although regular proms were not embraced until the 1990s, in 1974 an openly homosexual student, John Arden Rhyne, was named homecoming queen. There was a small prom attended by part of the student body. And Queen John was escorted by the winner of the third floor Euchre tournament. On the court were Marci Woolson, Karim Boukar (wrapped in cellophane) and two others.

By the early 1970s, Ann Arbor had developed a reputation as one of the most liberal campus towns in the country. The city played host to numerous radical political organizations, eventually electing three members of the left-wing Human Rights Party to its city council. Meanwhile, the teenage group Youth Liberation of Ann Arbor was carving out a role as a national pioneer in the nascent youth rights movement, with fifteen-year-old member Sonia Yaco's insurgent school-board candidacy earning her 1,300 write-in votes, or eight percent of the total, in spring 1972. Reflecting this non-traditional ethos, the city's school district opened two experimental alternative schools during those years: Earthworks (originally Pioneer II) in fall 1971, and Community High School (CHS) in fall 1972.