New high school reservations NOW!

If you are the parent of a newly graduated 8th grader from Excel, now is the time to reserve your child's spot at Grand River Prepartory Academy! If you have not already seen the form, it should be in your mailbox this week. If you still don't have one, you must go to Excel and fill out a re-enrollment form, so your child will be transferred into the 9th grade. All incoming 9th graders will be funneled through Excel Academy. This will soon apply to Cross Creek, Vanguard and Vista students, also. See the article from the GR Press below. If you have questions, please contact Jason Pater at Grand River Prep, or call Excel Charter Academy. Thanks and good luck. Please pass this on to those who you believe need to read it!

Grand River Prep Ready to Accept Ninth-Grade Students

Posted by Beth Loechler | The Grand Rapids Press June 04, 2008 18:30PM

KENTWOOD -- Grand River Preparatory High School is ready to accept about 100 ninth graders for the coming school year now that Grand Valley State University's Charter School Office has signed off on a plan to open the school.

The high school, located on 52nd Street between Division and Eastern avenues, will open this fall as an offshoot of Excel Charter Academy, the National Heritage Academies' K-8 charter school where parents began clamoring for a high school in recent years.

But eighth-graders from three other proposed feeder schools -- Vanguard, Vista and Cross Creek academies -- won't be excluded. The boards and authorizers for the three charter schools are expected to vote soon to transfer their graduates to Excel, meaning they will be eligible to attend the high school, too. Excel's board has agreed to accept transfers from the three schools.

"This is the fastest path to get the school open this fall," said Ed Richardson, GVSU's director of charter schools.

Richardson has signed off on the plan, and the GVSU board of trustees is expected to approve it at a July 18 meeting, he said. GVSU's approval is necessary because it holds the charter for Excel Academy.

"There seems to be a need for high school (charter) options. We are pleased that we have a board interested in creating one in the area and hope that other K-8 schools are able to offer high school options in the near future," Richardson said.


David AngererThe school, which will focus on preparing students for college, plans to begin solely as a ninth grade and add one grade a year until it's a four-year high school in 2011. Principal David Angerer has said he hopes to enroll about 100 freshmen, but the size of the school could vary based on the level of interest from NHA families.

So far, about 150 families have expressed an interest in the school, said Ginny Seyferth, spokeswoman for J.C. Huizenga, who created the for-profit NHA and Grand River Prep.

In the unlikely event that fewer than 100 students from the four charter schools enroll at Grand River Prep, the school may accept incoming freshmen from other schools.

Angerer has begun hiring teachers and sent a letter to Excel parents asking them to "secure a seat for your child in Grand River Prep" by the end of this week.

Excel is managed by NHA, but Grand River Prep will not be. Huizenga said he wanted to open a high school separate from NHA, which specializes in elementary education, so he created a new company, American Dream Network, to manage it.

The state law that allows one school to transfer its students to another school is Michigan Public Act 1 of 2008. It was created as a way for small school districts to merge but also works for individual charter schools.