In eighth grade, I had to make a decision: should I enroll in Skyline High School (SHS) or Community High School (CHS) for the next four years of my education? In the end, I chose both. There are many factors that I wish I had known about and that I want to share with current eighth graders who are about to go through the same decision-making process. In an effort to help those students make the right decision for them, I want to address some benefits and drawbacks of each school from my split-enrollment point of view.
Freedom
Among the most important concepts to know about CHS is that the school has an open campus. That means that during their 45-minute lunch period, CHS students are able to walk to Kerrytown across the street to enjoy the benefits that Kerrytown has to offer, like french fries from Monahan’s or a drink from Sweetwaters. Sometimes, students are even able to make it downtown and back by the time lunch ends.
As a split-enrolled student and even just a CHS student, this policy is incredibly useful. After my class at SHS gets out, I take the bus to CHS, where I’m able to go to Sweetwaters and then go to class. The policy also comes in handy during our 10 minutes of passing time if my friends and I explore anything that’s outside the building: Zingerman’s, Kerrytown, the Farmer’s Market, the list goes on.
Overall, this open campus policy leaves my friends and me not having to feel contained by the school, knowing that we have the freedom to get some fresh air and take a walk around outside when we get time. At SHS, students are not able to leave the building until the bell rings, which can feel more limiting because students are obligated to stay in the same building all day instead of being allowed to walk around the campus.
Choice
Another benefit of CHS is that students can make most of their decisions throughout high school. The school gives students free rein over what they learn, how they choose their schedule and especially, being able to cater to their own needs. CHS runs a registration day at the end of every semester, just like colleges, only it’s in person and by grade. Here, students are able to build their dream schedule with the teachers they want, classes they prefer and even with their friends, based on their randomly assigned registration number. Students must register in the random order given to them based on that number.
With CRs (customizable build-your-own classes) and dual enrollment to WCC & Umich, along with our registration system, CHS is perfectly designed to guide students along the track they want to pursue. SHS does not have these options, which may leave some feeling contained and not being able to fit their needs.
Relations with teachers
At CHS, the small-school feel and first-name basis for all teachers helps students become more comfortable with their teachers, which creates a safe environment for them to be able to ask questions.
CHS alum Leila Bank is a 2024 graduate of the school. She believes that it’s important for students and teachers to have a close relationship, like CHS students and teachers do. She explains how teachers are there to help and support students, as well as answer their questions. When kids don’t have that personal relationship, they’re not always able to get personalized help and ask their questions.
“I didn’t realize until high school or middle school that my teachers actually wanted me to succeed. I could ask whatever I wanted; I could always go get extra help,” Bank said. “The relationships that we have with our teachers and Community really gave me that.”
Bank adds that it’s important for young adults to be taken seriously, and at CHS, there’s a level of respect that teachers and students have with each other that’s very different from the power dynamic at other schools. Bank thinks that this is because at CHS, teachers are treating students like “real adults,” and vice versa.
“This way, students get to be treated like a real, whole person. They get to form a connection with an adult who can really help them,” Bank said. “Because of that, there isn’t a power dynamic of ‘your teacher is always right, and you’re wrong,’ you know?”
Bank says that at CHS, teachers are always learning from students, and students are learning from teachers. She thinks that it makes for a much better support system.
A big reason why Bank chose to go to Kalamazoo College over the UofM Residential College is that the school was built on this support system of student-teacher relations.
“The teachers at Community, and the time and the effort that they put into getting to know me, really inspired me to go to a similar college, where I could find similar relationships with my professors,” Bank said.
Bank believes that it’s important for everybody to have these kinds of relationships with at least one or two adults in their lives.
“It’s great to have parents, but the parent-to-child relationship is much different from a student-to-teacher relationship,” Bank said. “Finding teachers or professors who you really connect with and who believe in you can go a really, really long way. It’s extremely helpful for learning, for becoming a better person and for figuring out who you want to be.”
Coming from another point of view, Corrine Sczomak has taken classes from both CHS and SHS teachers and can compare the two. Sczomak has taken biology, guitar, math and history classes at SHS aside from the main class she splits for, which is symphony band.
Sczomak says that the SHS term flies by so fast that by the time students get to know everyone in their class, as well as their teachers, the term is over. At SHS, periods are 70 minutes long, whereas at CHS, they are 100 minutes. According to Sczomak, students getting to know their teachers is made easier by the long class periods.
“At Community, we can talk about our lives for 15 minutes and then start class or something, and teachers can tell us about themselves,” Sczomak says. ”But there’s just not enough time at Skyline.”
Sczomak did not know her teachers at SHS as personally as she knew her Community teachers. Although she feels supported at SHS because of the community in her band class.
“I’ve had such a big community built up through band, so I felt pretty supported at Skyline in general, just not by teachers in the same way,” Sczomak says. “They were all still really great, though.”
Sczomak adds that the teachers she had at SHS were pretty forgiving when she had to come in late because her split-enrollment schedule didn’t always line up perfectly.
“I got pretty lucky; the teachers I did have really went out of their way to help me make sure it worked with my split enrolling,” Sczomak says.
Sczomak admits that she does hear her friends complain about their teachers at SHS sometimes and that the teachers there are a lot less forgiving about people’s social circumstances or out-of-school issues. “They just don’t know you as well,” she adds.
Academia
Stereotypes of CHS are common; it’s either that the school is considered “weird” or that no student who goes to the school is smart. Neither of these are true; the community at CHS embraces everyone who enrolls, and the school actually had some of the highest SAT scores in the state in 2024 for any school without entrance exams. CHS seniors graduate and go all across the country; a few CHS alumni are currently at Northwestern University, many at UofM, and even one in Madrid, Spain.
At SHS, the magnet program is a common choice among students. As a current junior at SHS, Valencia Oleksinski provides information on the program and explains that, as a freshman, there are four different career types (magnets) that students can choose from. Each magnet provides an opportunity for students to take focused classes unique to that magnet.
Oleksinski says that magnets are especially great for students who know what they want to do in college or have a specific interest. Students can only choose one magnet, and that is the one they stay in for the rest of their high school career.
“I think of them as mini-majors,” Oleksinski says. “I’m in the health and medicine magnet, and I really like it because it gives you hands-on experiences in that career field, and you get to work with people who are interested in the same things.”
Oleksinski adds that since students are in the magnet for three years, they often start to build a community and connections within the magnet. This makes magnets a popular choice among SHS students. For more information on the magnet program, you can visit skyline.a2schools.org.
Big school elements
At SHS, students won’t need to go to another school to participate in a homecoming dance, marching band, or football games, because SHS hosts all of those big school events. The school also includes an incredible music program that is committed to helping students learn and has a variety of sports in which students find their closest friends and build great bonds.
If a student who wants to participate in these activities goes to CHS, they can split-enroll and take the bus to SHS. On the other hand, if they already go to SHS, they won’t have to. SHS also captures that big-school feel that some middle school students are looking for when they leave their smaller school.
Overall, CHS and SHS both have their pros and cons. Each school is designed to fit the needs of different students and teachers. CHS is generally known for having more choices, while SHS follows a clear path. Now, some incoming freshmen must make a choice: SHS or CHS?
