Up North Progressive

If you look at Gateway to Success’s website today you will notice that tonight is their prom. You will also see that there was an all-school meeting this morning at 11:00 AM. If you take the time to peruse the board meeting schedule you will see there was a special meeting today at 10:00 AM. Finally, click the job postings tab and you will also notice as of today the for-profit charter school posted an ad for a new superintendent slash principal.

Jamie, what happened?

Since 2015 when Jamie Bandstra became the frontman for John Wilson’s fever dream of single-handedly fixing the country’s highest graduation rates in the history of public education ever by buying an empty grocery store and turning it into a charter school, he smiled for the media as he stumped for a charter with the local ISD and never mind about the successful alternative ed program helping at-risk kids earn their diplomas. It was hard to imagine G2S would ever need to search for another person to head the program. Based on a charter school in California that uses project-based education and boasts all of their students get accepted into college by forcing them to fill out community college applications, G2S promised to radically change education in northern Michigan.

And they certainly did. First, by shuttering Ludington Public Schools’ Journey Alternative Education and leaving at-risk kids in limbo for a year, then opening G2S and forcing those kids to go through an application process competing for a classroom seat with students not at risk of graduating. Once the school opened, the school had some interesting moments like hotlisting all of Holland Public School’s transparency reporting data and passing it off as their own, expelling more students than they graduated, and even firing staff for gross incompetence and badmouthing the school while off-duty.

5 years later and it looks like Jamie Bandstra could be ready to move on in his education career.

Or is there some other reason G2S hired a fancy leadership search company out of Grand Rapids to find a new superintendent/principal?

Jamie Bandstra’s LinkedIn still has his current employment as G2S. He’s still on the G2S website as the school’s superintendent/principal.

Regardless of what happened, good luck to Jamie Bandstra and whatever future he’s looking forward to.