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It is believed that the first school in what is now Garden City was a log cabin built sometime between 1840 and 1845. A one-room, frame school was erected circa 1847. Called the East Nankin School, it was used until the 1950s, although the original schoolhouse was rebuilt in 1910. About 1924, shortly after the beginning of Garden City, four other two-room frame school buildings were constructed. In 1929, a law was passed, creating a school district for the village of Garden City.
Old. No. 4 School 1954
Oh! how we've grown since then. Between 1948 and 1959 nine elementary schools were built to accommodate a swelling student population. In 1968, fifteen schools served 14,000 students. Currently, Garden City boasts four elementary schools, one middle school and one high school.
The district also operates the internationally renowned Burger Center for the Autistically Impaired, serving students ages 2.5 to 26 years. In addition, the Cambridge Center for Adult and Community Education serves hundreds more community members each year, with programs for job training, alternative education, and enrichment courses.
December, 1991, saw the culmination of a $12,000,000 renovation project that brought the district's high school into the 20th century with a new media center, cafeteria, science labs, and an athletic facility that is host to many county-wide sports events.
The O'Leary Performing Arts Center, named after former Superintendent Edwin J. O'Leary, seats approximately 920 patrons and has housed many cultural events, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Youth Symphony Orchestra of Tubingen, Germany.
The State Board of Education has designated Garden City's outstanding elementary Japanese and Spanish curriculum a "model world language program," one of only eleven so named in the state. Students begin their study of Japanese or Spanish in 2nd or 3rd grade and may continue through graduation. During the 2000-2001 school year the district will be hosting its 6th Japanese visiting teacher. Teacher, Atsuko Ozaki, will be arriving in October and will live and teach in the district for this school year.
