8/18/21 - New Schools Opens in Grand Rapids

A ribbon cutting ceremony took place for the new Southwest Middle High School - Academia Bilingue.

(GRPS) - The new, $20 million LEED certified Southwest Middle High School officially opened in January 2021 in the midst of the global pandemic.

This project is an expansion of the original Southwest Community Campus, a Spanish-English immersion them school that was a PK-8 grade school.  Thanks to the voter-approved $175 million bond, Southwest is expanding to become a PK-12 grade theme school.

The school is located at 327 Rumsey Ave. SW, Grand Rapids. 

The two-way immersion program, also known as dual immersion, serves students whose primary language is English and students whose primary language is Spanish in the same classroom. Students at Southwest Schools - Academia Bilingüe become bilingual and bicultural. Research shows that bilingual people are positioned well for a successful future with more opportunities at the college level and in the workplace, better performance on standardized tests, and are more competitive in an increasingly global economy.