1335 Eastern Pl NE
Grand Rapids, MI 49505

as a former Blandford school student, my experience was amazing. the only way to fully understand the greatness of this program is to experience it. the teachers push you to your limits and beyond. blandford is the place that I met my 5 best friends, and we are still as close as ever. the way they slip nature into the daily learning is simply amazing. I love when we went into the woods and learned about everything around us. sometimes we would even go out there to have a conversation about math! the teachers create a friendly environment for the kids, while making it easy for us to respect them. I loved every minute of it, even when I was struggling a bit. I hope that this post may convince you to let your child go on to what I thought of as the best experience of my life.

The metrics on this school are not as straightforward. As I imagine is the case for many schools that are on this website. In regards to the large gap between test scores and progress, students have a test score requirement to apply. As for progress, our personal experience saw exceptional progress, though not necessarily in test scores. Our student learned how to manage multiple projects with varying deadlines, work with a team, and how to study independently. Also, the metric on teacher to student ratio is off. There are two teachers that teach 2 subjects each and they work with half of the students at a time. The students rotate classrooms. Please do not take these scores at face value. There is so much learning and progress happening at John Ball Park Zoo School. Reach out to the school, or a parent or even a former Zooie themselves. Highly recommend this program.

They don't teach their students here. They give them a computer and YouTube and leave them alone. My child had homework in 1st grade at her original school out of state, one packet with a page to do every day of the week at home. Starting 2nd grade here they give no homework at all. Students where forcing my child to draw scary cartoon characters with blood in there eyes and on their hands. They are getting access to drawing tutorials for these things AT SCHOOL on kids YouTube. They do not monitor what your child is on during computer time. Children think bullying here is extremely fun, and have made it extremely normal. One child kept going out of his way to try to slap and punch my child and pull them by their jacket hood choking them. Bring your child anywhere else. We removed our child from the school the following year because of how bad they were being treated and not cared for. The staff did nothing about the drawing my child was being forced into making. No one was reprimanded for the situation.

My child was bullied because he's white....being called "white boy" an told by other students I don't wanna sit next to a white boy....teacher was going to send my son to office because she only heard him....an not the girl saying racial prejudice stuff...my son was un comfortable an still don't want me to say anything cuz he's worried that it'll get worse.

At Union High School we have lots of supports for students and lots of opportunities to learn. We have expanded our AP course offerings and after school clubs and activities. Union is a very safe school with good procedures and we have reduced out of school suspensions by more than half over the last few years. Union is a great place to teach and learn. Most of the information on this website if incorrect or out of date. I hope parents and others who read this information realize this and take a closer look at Union High as an option.

So like first of all this school does not teach you anything. My teacher lost my paper and put it in as a zero I simply told her I gave it to her because I specifically remember her looking at it and saying thank you I’ll put it in as soon as I can and then I asked if she was gonna put it in and she said she never got a paper from me…

This school is amazing and helps us a lot.

Teachers weren’t helpful at all and were kind of not good at teaching. They also sometimes would favor some students and if someone did one “wrong” thing they would basically target them the whole year if something went wrong… but sometimes they were nice and fun

sense the moment i arrived here it has been nothing but constant behavioral issues for the other students. they hit and cuss at the teachers. and nothing happens to these students. the materials we are sought to use are old and writen on scrolled with gang signs . i will not be returning here ext year kids here , are the worst kind , they never stop spreding rumors. kids smoke in the bathrooms its truely terrible.