Related: Students, staff reflect as Ypsilanti Public School District dismisses for final time
At the beginning and end of every school year, Willow Run Middle School special education teacher Sue Littlefield reads Dr. Seuss’ timeless picture book “Oh the Places You’ll Go” to her students.
But when she read the book to her class Friday morning, it took on a much more weighted meaning.
After 70 years of educating children living near what was once the plant that produced B-24 bombers for World War II, the Willow Run School District will dissolve.
On the last day, Willow Run students hugged their teachers, said their final farewells for the summer and prepared to return to the Ypsilanti Community Schools, a merger of the Willow Run district with Ypsilanti Public Schools. The consolidation officially takes place July 1.
Littlefield’s students are feeling the sadness that comes at the end of something important.
“I’m a Willow Run girl,” said Littlefield, who has taught 29 years in the district. “It’s sad to know that the family you’ve built will end but I’m also a step-mom, and I have talked to my students about blending our Ypsilanti and Willow Run families together.”
Working-class Willow Run has long been the underdog, but for many staff and faculty members, that’s what’s helped build the community family.
“From its humble beginnings, it has a mystique to it, dating back to the war,” said Isaiah Daniel, intervention specialist and middle school basketball coach. “By a lot of people’s standards, I’ve only been here a short time — 14 years — but a lot of people touch you, and you touch a lot of people.”
Instead of moving to the adjacent Willow Run High School, most of the 101 eighth grade students will attend school across town at YCS High School, which now houses Ypsilanti High School. While new school colors (black and Vegas gold) and a new mascot (the grizzly bear) have been chosen, a name for the new high school has not, said Natalie Turner, assistant principal of Willow Run Middle School.
The new high school will be divided into smaller learning communities, including one to focus on fine and performing art, as well as one for science, technology, engineering and math.
The current Willow Run middle school and high school campus will house the new district’s middle school program, with fifth and sixth graders at the current middle school and seventh and eighth graders at the current high school. Of the 29 Willow Run Middle School teachers, 13 will be returning to the new district, Turner said.
Turner herself just learned she has been assigned as the assistant principal of the high school. Interviews still are underway for a new principal.
While adults were worrying about job assignments and the loss to history, students had more immediate concerns.
Eighth-grader Amari Jenson, a football and basketball player, is fine with the merger, but knows the sports teams will the more competitive. That doesn’t bother him. “It’s nice to have competition,” he said. “There are a lot of changes. Change is good.” (But) it's not just the school that’s going down,” he said. “It’s the Flyer pride that’s going down. When you say 'Flyer pride,' you represent Willow Run. We’re going to have to find a chant for the grizzlies.”
Eighth-grader Mia Thomas said she has a few worries. As a female member of the football team, where she won an MVP award, she’s worried she won’t make the YCS High School team.
She’s also voiced concerns about about the potential for fights. The two school districts have been cross-town rivals, and she’s afraid that will spill over into the classroom. Turner said teachers and administrators are aware of those risks and are working on programs — including a Restorative Practices program that deals with conflict before it escalates — that will address the challenge of bringing rival schools together.
As sad as it is to see the Willow Run's era end, it will serve the district’s students better, Willow Run Middle School Principal Delores Jenkins, who is retiring, said shortly after she read the announcements over the loud speaker minutes before school was dismissed for a final time. The move is overdue, she said.
“The area will become a draw. It will be a new future for the entire area. Kids will be learning in small communities, and it’s going to be good. We’re going to get some new hope here.”