50 years of Metro High School

Cedar Rapids, Iowa – The sole alternative school in the Cedar Rapids Community School District for a long time was Metro High School, located on 12th Avenue in Cedar Rapids. This week, the school will commemorate 50 years of operation.

The school welcomed both past and present pupils, faculty, and community members on Thursday.

Shannon Ellis began working at Metro almost 25 years ago and is currently a teacher and facilitator. He claims that they frequently run into pupils who have “checked out.”

“Maybe they had stopped attending, they weren’t participating in class as much. And so we’re we’re looking for a way to reengage students to and again to make that experience more real,” says Ellis. “Most of our students have overcome a lot of obstacles, a lot of challenges that other kids don’t. You know, there are some real personal things that are happening in their lives with their families, stuff that’s out of their control. And when we see kids really overcome some of those personal challenges, it’s exciting to see them building the future that they want.”

Developing relationships is the first step in determining the best pathways for a student, according to Metro Principal Mark Groteluschen. “We aim to ensure that students are at ease.” “We want it to have a sense of community,” says Groteluschen.

He says he’s looking forward to continuing that legacy for the next 50 years. “What education holds the next 10 years we don’t know,” says Groteluschen. “I think Metro uniquely is positioned to adapt to that with, with those core elements that we talked about that, those are always going to exist. And as education changes, we’ll…be ready for those.”

Metro High will be planting a seedling from NASA’s Artemis 1 in honor of the 50th anniversary. The spacecraft made a full circle around the moon. Metro is one of the 50 schools that received it as a prize for their accomplishments in STEM education.