John Glenn High School (Westland, Michigan)

John Glenn High School

John Glenn High School is a public high school in Westland, Michigan in Metro Detroit. It serves portions of Westland, Canton Township, Inkster, and Dearborn Heights.[1] It is a part of the Wayne-Westland Community Schools district.

History

One of two traditional high schools serving the Wayne-Westland Community Schools, John Glenn High School is located in the city of Westland, Michigan. The school, which opened in 1964, was named for astronaut John Glenn, who just two years prior had become the first American to orbit the earth. The "space" theme dominates at JGHS, including the nickname (Rockets), yearbook (the Satellite), newspaper (the Explorer, formerly the Echo), and school store (the Gantry).

When John Glenn High School opened its doors in 1964, it did not have its own football field, having to play home games on the field of rival Wayne Memorial High School for the better part of its first decade. The building was only a fraction of its current size. To keep up with expanding enrollment in the 1970s and 1980s, new wings were added for Fine Arts and Special Education, as well as a new gymnasium and its own football and baseball fields. (Also, fitting for a school named for an astronaut, JGHS is one of the few high schools in the state to feature a planetarium.)

When John Glenn High School opened under principal Frank Higgins, it served students in grades 7-11, expanding to grades 8-12 from 1965-67. After a brief stint as a four-year high school (9-12), it stabilized as a 10-12th grade school in 1970, finally returning to its 9-12 status in 1995 when the Wayne-Westland district adopted a middle school format. It currently serves approximately 2,250 of the 14,100 students in the Wayne-Westland district, accepting its students from Stevenson Middle School.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ "johnglenn.pdf." (Archive) Wayne-Westland Community Schools. Retrieved on November 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Westland honors hometown celeb, Jim Harper". HomeTownLife.com. December 18, 2011.
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Coordinates: 42°18′57″N 83°23′45″W / 42.31583°N 83.39583°W / 42.31583; -83.39583

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