Oak Park School District


The Oak Park School District is a public school district in Metro Detroit in the U.S. state of Michigan, serving most of Oak Park, and portions of Royal Oak Township and Southfield.
WWW oakparkschools.org𝕏 oakparkschools

History

The district began with Clinton School, a one-room schoolhouse near the present-day Nova Academy. The south side of the Clinton School District was home to Wineman School.
In 1945, the Wineman School area was growing rapidly due to Oakdale Gardens, a housing project for African Americans in Royal Oak Township. In 1945, whites in the district circulated a petition demanding that the district be split on racial lines. The school board, which had one Black member and two white members, agreed. The division removed seven-eighths of the taxable value from the original district. The new district would be known as George Washington Carver School District. It would ultimately be reabsorbed into the Oak Park School District in 1960.
In 1949, Clinton School District's enrollment was 51 students, and it was 140 in fall 1950. Its facilities included the old schoolhouse and a 2-classroom building for which a five-room addition was being planned.
With the hiring of superintendent James Nelson Pepper in August 1951, the school district began to modernize to fit the needs of the fast-growing city. By the end of that year, the Oak Park School District had changed its name from the Clinton School District.
Prior to Oak Park High School opening to grades nine and ten in 1953, high school students in the district attended high schools in Berkley, Royal Oak or Clawson. The high school was planned and built in sections, with 14 classrooms opening in fall 1953. As grades eleven and twelve were added by fall 1957, the school had 50 classrooms, its gymnasiums and auditorium.
Nine new schools were built between 1951 and 1963. The district hired O'Dell, Hewlett and Luckenbach architects to design new schools. The Michigan Society of Architects showed four Oak Park schools in its July 1957 magazine: The high school, Clinton Junior High School, and Dewey and Lessenger Elementaries.

Schools

Former schools

In 1960, Governor of Michigan G. Mennen Williams consolidated the majority black George Washington Carver School District, along with its elementary school, into the Oak Park School District because the Carver district no longer had sufficient taxes to pay for a senior high school services, and no area school districts voluntarily took its students for high school.
  • Dewey Elementary, 21700 Marlow St. Became Oak Park Service Learning Academy charter school.