Ferndale Public Schools

A school was built in the 1870s at the corner of Woodward Avenue and Nine Mile Road. It was replaced by a wooden building on the same site in 1909, but that building burned on December 28, 1914. It was rebuilt a year later in brick, and became known as Ferndale Central School.{{cite news| last= Wilcox| first= Harold B.| title= History of Local Public Schools| date= December 10, 1930| publisher= The Ferndale Gazette| page= 10}} The building remains as commercial space.{{cite web| author= Ferndale Historical Society| title= Ferndale Chronology| url= https://www.ferndalehistoricalsociety.org/history_chronology.html| access-date= February 1, 2025}}{{cite news| last= Zemke| first= Jon| title= Foley Mansfield to open new office in downtown Ferndale| date= March 20, 2008| publisher= Metromode| url= https://www.secondwavemedia.com/metromode/devnews/foleymansfieldferndale0066.aspx}}

1918 saw the first graduating class of Ferndale--two students.{{cite news| last= Wilcox| first= Harold B.| title= History of Local Public Schools| date= December 10, 1930| publisher= The Ferndale Gazette| page= 10}} The district was seeing fast population growth and by 1920, Lincoln High School was built at the northeast corner of Livernois and Nine Mile Rd. Although Ferndale's only high school, the district had a tradition of naming schools after United States presidents until the 1950s. When Ferndale High School opened in January, 1959, Lincoln became a junior high.{{cite web| author= Ferndale Historical Society| title= Ferndale Chronology| url= https://www.ferndalehistoricalsociety.org/history_chronology.html| access-date= February 1, 2025}}

In the 1950s, the area of the school district serving Oak Park was embroiled in a controversy over progressive education. Andrew Jackson School opened to serve this area in fall 1950. It was unlike existing district schools, both in terms of education and the building itself. Designed by Modernist architect Eberle M. Smith,{{cite magazine| last= Smith| first= Eberle M.| title= Case history: classrooms without corridors| magazine= Architectural Record| date= September 1953| url= https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1953-09.pdf| page= 172}} the school's classrooms were essentially open to the corridors, contained tables rather than desks, and were connected directly to single-stall bathrooms that were not gendered by signage.{{cite news| last= Griffith| first= John| title= Oak Park parents defend new methods in education| date= 27 Jan 1952| publisher= Detroit Free Press| page= 4}}{{efn|Based on the following quote from the cited news article, the students ultimately created signage for the bathrooms in a project illustrative of progressive education: "On a recent inspection tour, (school board member) Dr. DiGuilio noted that classroom toilets were not marked "boys" and "girls." He claimed that both sexes were using the same facilities. Teachers and Street denied this. They claimed that the use of the proper plumbing by the appropriate sex was no problem. But to bar future critism of this type the toilets are now plainly marked. But in line with their new "functional" teaching methods, youngsters down to the second grade made a project out of the names they wanted on the doors and their proper spelling." Griffith, John. "Oak Park parents defend new methods in education." January 27 1952: Detroit Free Press, page 4.}} Principal Scott Street, with the backing of Superintendent Roy Robinson, worked with parents in developing flexible teaching methods that caused disagreement amongst parent-teacher associations at other district schools and some school board members.

Devotees of progressive education were outraged when, in February 1959, the school board demoted Principal Street from his position at Paul R. Best School, a newer school down the street from Jackson School.{{cite news| title= Ferndale shrugs off big battle| date= 20 May 1959| publisher= Detroit Free Press| page= 3}} The School Board claimed Street had been openly campaigning against certain school board members.{{cite news| last= Cohen| first= Hal| title= Principal's firing explained| date= February 10, 1959| publisher= Detroit Free Press| page= 7}} By that July, eleven teachers had resigned in the district, many in protest of the school board.{{cite news| title= 11 teachers quit, two rip board| date= June 23, 1959| publisher= The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.)| page= 11}} Street accepted a superintendent position with the U.S. Army in Libya before becoming a principal in Ypsilanti 1962.{{cite news| title= Best PTA to hear Dr. Scott Street| date= March 13, 1962| publisher= The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Mich.)| page= 12}}

Throughout the 1970s, the district was involved in court battles over the racial segregation of Grant Elementary.{{cite news| last= Stevens| first= William K| title= U.S. Pressing School Integration in a Detroit Suburb| date= 13 June 1975| publisher= The New York Times| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/13/archives/us-pressing-school-integration-in-a-detroit-suburb.html}} The district had built Grant in 1926 in Royal Oak Township, a majority-Black area outside of the majority-white city of Ferndale where, even as late as 1944, there was no sewer system and inadequate police protection.{{cite web| last= McMillan| first= Tracie| title= BONUS: Ferndale, Michigan’s Secret Segregationist History: 1944: Memo from then-superintendent of Ferndale schools about Grant Elementary| url= https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24438469-1944_ferndalememo-down/?responsive=1&title=1| access-date= February 1, 2025}} A Federal Court judge found that the school district had practiced de jure segregation by allowing Grant to be overcrowded with Black students while other district schools, which were all more than ninety percent white, were under capacity. On October 7, 1980, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued a plan by which Ferndale's elementary schools would be integrated by reassigning some students to different schools.{{cite web| author= Justia US Law| title= United States v. School Dist. of City of Ferndale, Mich., 499 F. Supp. 367 (E.D. Mich. 1980)| url= https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/499/367/1871680/| access-date= February 1, 2025}}{{cite web| last= McMillan| first= Tracie| title= BONUS: Ferndale, Michigan’s Secret Segregationist History| url= https://traciemcmillan.com/bonus-ferndale-michigans-secret-segregationist-history/| access-date= February 1, 2025}}

In 2015, the district began an extensive restructuring process, led by the Board of Education and deeply dependent on community involvement. Changes to curriculum, expansion of academic opportunities for students and site transitions{{Cite web|url = http://ferndaleforward.com/|title = Ferndale Forward - Restructuring Schools|website = ferndaleforward.com|access-date = 2016-04-20}} were all based on the district's strategic plan.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ferndaleschools.org/district/strategic-plan-/ |title=Strategic Plan |website=www.ferndaleschools.org |access-date=2016-04-20 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418161241/http://www.ferndaleschools.org/district/strategic-plan-/ |archivedate=2016-04-18 }}

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{{Portal|Michigan|Schools}}

• [http://www.ferndaleschools.org/ Ferndale Public Schools]
• [http://www.ferndaleforward.com Ferndale Forward]

Category:School districts in Michigan

Category:Education in Oakland County, Michigan