My School Choice Story

By Celina Inosencio, Grandparent at Grand Rapids Ellington Academy

Thank you for the opportunity to tell a little about me and my school choice. I am a grandparent raising two awesome grandkids. People might say why are you doing this at your age, I tell them cause my family (kids, grandkids, son in laws, siblings, and my parents) is everything to me, it’s where I came from and my future, and if I can be a part of helping my grandkids achieve everything they deserve well that is my mission. My Grandkids came to live with me in 2014, they were a part of a bad domestic violence situation, which had slowed them down, in growth, security, learning, and feeling confident. All the things they were lacking were just not noticed or cared for at public school, but the public schools they went to are two of the best in the Grand Rapids area.

I graduated from one of the school systems they went to. I have always spoke very high of this school and what it did for me, but it failed my grandkids. With all that was going on at home all the teachers ever had to say about these two were negative, and beating them down in what was there safe place. So I had a friend that happened to work for Ellington, she said let me help you with your grandkids, so I enrolled them in GR Ellington.

Right away I was told how far behind they were academically, withdrawn in PE, music, and not making friends very well. One teacher and my friend have changed the lives of these two!!! My grandson is autistic with a mild cognate impairment and he has made leaps and bonds. He is General Ed but leaves for Special Ed a couple hours a day and he is making a lot of friends. My Granddaughter, well she couldn’t read or spell but she now reads at a lower, 2^nd grade level, but every day is new and so are the things she is absorbing from Ellington.

I have a choice every year on where to send them, but GR Ellington is and will be my school choice.  They have a staff that is passionate about the kids that attend that school, that is something you can’t find these days. It does sadden me that we do have struggles with money at our school, but Ellington is more like family, not just a school. We as a family, are always looking at ways to build our foundation and raise what we need, most of all every child is shown love and respect and that is so important.