Ypsilanti Community Schools
Ypsilanti Community Schools is a public school district in Washtenaw County, Michigan. It serves Ypsilanti and parts of Superior Township and Ypsilanti Township. The district has four magnet schools that feature STEM and International Baccalaureate curriculums.
History
The district was formed on July 1, 2013, by the merger of the Ypsilanti Public School District and the Willow Run School District. Experts in K-12 education along with university, business, and parent partners assisted in the development of the district.The first public schools in Ypsilanti date to 1840 and 1844. A Union School was built in 1858, and destroyed by fire in 1877. A new high school was built in 1879 on the northwest corner of Cross and Washington Streets, which featured a 100-foot bell tower.
During the 19th Century, Ypsilanti was unique in Michigan for having a large African American population. It was centered in the First Ward, near the corner of Adams and Buffalo Streets. The First Ward School, at 407 S. Adams Street, was one of many ward schools in the city, built in 1864. The school was exclusively for Black students up to grade six, at which point they attended integrated schools. As the city's new high school was under construction in 1917, the First Ward School was considered dilapidated, was heated by an indoor stove the students called 'Smokey,' and had an outhouse for a restroom. In 1918, Black leaders in the city won a lawsuit to close the segregated school.
In 1917, Ypsilanti High School was built on Court Street between Washington and Adams Streets, the site of the old high school. The Arts and Crafts Building, an addition along Adams Street, was built in 1951. The building was used as the high school until 1973. It was sold by the district in 1997 and became senior housing.
Ypsilanti's Harriet School had the first Black principal in Michigan, Charles "Chief" Eugene Beatty Sr., in 1940.
Willow Run High School was built in 1955 and rebuilt on the same site in 1985. It was expanded in 2004 to include a middle school and a new pool. It became Ypsilanti Community Middle School with the merger of the school districts.
Ypsilanti Community High School opened in fall 1973. The former Ypsilanti High School became a middle school when the present high school opened.