Consolidating 12 Rural School Districts into Forest Hills
Which Were You In?
There's an Suburban Life article from September 15, 1955 with Harold Chambers providing a "final report" considering consolidation of the 12 rural school districts incorporated into the Forest Hills school system, complete with a map.
We'd be interested to see which school district you attended during your elementary education years. Your choices are Gove, Thomas, Cascade, Strong, Ada, Martin, Carl, Collins, Murphy, Beckwith, Knapp and Orchard View.
Links to both the specific pages dealing with the consolidation and the entire paper can be found below.
"Even before the actual building of Forest Hills High School was begun in 1957, there was actually talk of creating a CITY named FOREST HILLS, near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In 1957, the Forest Hills community decided to build a junior/senior high school. It was the first campus-style secondary school in western Michigan. The school was scheduled to be built in four phases.
The school opened in 1958 with a few buildings, a small number of students, 11 teachers and Mr. Dean VanLandingham (Forest Hills High School’s first principal).
Mr. Shy, Mr. Van Oeveren, and secretary Mrs. Duiven
started in 1958 and were still on staff for our senior year.
School Board Selects Brick for School
Drilling Well for New School
Construction Ahead of Schedule
In 1962, more additions to the school needed to be built due to student growth.
In 1965, a new and separate junior
high school was built to accommodate grades 7 and 8.
Prior to this, the junior high
school was housed
at the
high school.
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