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New Museum School site formally approved

Hilary Farrell

The former site of the Grand Rapids museum gets new life, while keeping its original purpose of public education. 

Grand Rapids Public School district and city officials formally signed documents this week transferring the building at 54 Jefferson Ave. to district property as a new site for Museum School students. 

GRPS board member and pastor Nathaniel Moody was one of many who shared childhood experiences at the then-museum - and positive hopes for the building’s future. 

"This museum was an escape for us," he says. "So it is good to see that it is coming back to life, and that it’s going to be used for educational purposes.”

Grand Rapids Public Museum President and CEO Dale Robertson notes the museum’s founders placed a large emphasis on the importance of accessible education – so much so that they wrote language requiring the building provide benefit to future generations as part of legal ownership.

The building will house ninth to twelfth-grade Museum School students.

The school began its first year this fall with incoming sixth-graders, who are taught at the Van Andel Museum Center building. 

Hilary is a General Assignment and Enterprise reporter for WGVU Public Media. She joined WGVU in September 2014 after several years of experience as a local news reporter, anchor and photojournalist in Midland, Saginaw and Bay counties. She's also worked as a financial and business reporter and audio field producer.