East Kentwood High School (EKHS) is a public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located just outside the city of

Kentwood, Michigan Kentwood is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 54,304 as of the 2020 census. The city is bordered on the northwest by Grand Rapids and is the third most-populated municipality in the Grand Rapids metropolitan ...

, United States. It is part of the Kentwood Public Schools district, working together with the Crossroads High School, an alternative learning center.

History

East Kentwood High School was built in 1969 in Gaines Township. Since then it has undergone numerous renovations, including the addition of the West Wing in 1975 and the construction of the Freshman Campus in 1994. Further construction was finished in 1983, 1986, 1994, and 2006. The 1994 project included a renovation of the fieldhouse and expansion of the West Wing, which involved adding several new science classrooms. In the mid-1980s, a south corridor was completed to shelter students crossing each wing. East Kentwood is one of two public high schools in the state of Michigan to have its own

ice arena An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...

on campus. East Kentwood also has its own competitive and community

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

s, and a 1,600-seat Fine Arts Auditorium. The original Kentwood high school, which is now Crestwood Middle School, opened in 1960. When the new site was built in 1969, the new school was named East Kentwood because there were plans to eventually build a second high school, which would have been known as West Kentwood a few years later. West Kentwood would have built on the same physical campus as East Kentwood. When the first vote for a second high school was turned down in the early 1970s it led to the construction of East Kentwood's first swimming pool as well as what was referred to as the Freshman wing. To this day, talks of building a second high school periodically resurface but have so far been turned down in favor of the economic advantages of running one large high school.

Renovation

In 2003, an $85.5 million bond was passed that allowed new construction at the High School Campus. A new athletic stadium was built with a capacity of over 7,500 along with a new 38-meter pool and a 75-foot community pool. Further work was done at the Freshman Campus to build it to the supportable core of 1,450 students with the moving of office and support staff to a new highly visible wing, and renovation of the previous office space with six classrooms and adding onto the existing classroom wings with 10 rooms. Additional work was done at the 10-12 main campus with the addition of more performing arts space including new practice rooms along with work at the auditorium with more dressing rooms, staging areas, and a new lighting and sound system. Furthermore, the seating was also refurnished. Another major project was the expansion of the east wing

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

and renovation of classrooms in that wing. The circle drive that has been a mainstay of the school was removed with a new corridor built to link the west and east wings. The new corridor also puts a large commons area in front of the school with the pools, field house, and auditorium on each side. This hallway added 6 entrances, which is twice as many as before, along with creating two courtyards. Beyond the front of the school work the art department was given a remodel which includes a new art gallery. Along with all of this new carpeting has been placed through the school. Furthermore, a south side road was placed between the school and the practice fields along with a possible storage facility were added between the new south road and the field house. A renovation of the

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

diamonds was also done then which included new home plate structures,

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

s, and permanent

bleacher Bleachers (North American English), or stands, are raised, tiered rows of benches found at sports fields and other spectator events. Stairways provide access to the horizontal rows of seats, often with every other step gaining access to a row ...

s. In the summer of 2011, the library was renovated as well as the weight room, which was completely remodeled.

Curriculum

East Kentwood offers 21

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

courses. Those courses include AP Biology, AP Calculus, AP Drawing, AP Chemistry, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP English Language, AP US Government and Politics, AP Latin, AP Psychology, AP Physics, AP Spanish Language, AP Spanish Literature, AP Statistics, and AP U.S. History, AP English Literature, AP Studio Art, AP World History, AP Computer Science.

References

External links

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East Kentwood Falcons historical football scores
{{authority control Public high schools in Michigan Schools in Kent County, Michigan Educational institutions established in 1969 1969 establishments in Michigan