The new school year at The Muskegon Heights Public School Academy System begins this week with a new principal, as leadership from the Muskegon Heights school district announced this week that Erica Patton has been tapped take over the reins.
Patton, who earned degrees from Alabama State University and Auburn University Montgomery, has spent the past six years teaching outside of Washington D.C.
But it is a homecoming for the new leader of Muskegon Heights’ middle and high school, as Patton is also an alum, having graduated from the academy system in Muskegon Heights roughly 20 years ago.
It’s an opportunity Patton says, to instill in students a sense of pride to be from Muskegon Heights, and turn around a school that has struggled in recent years.
“I want to restore it to its former glory,” Patton said. “I don’t want it to look like a dumping ground. Because it’s not.”
With the GOP lead state legislature and Governor Gretchen recently announcing a bi-partisan initiative to eliminate the student funding gap, meaning every student in the state of Michigan will receive the same amount of money, Patton says the district will finally have the resources it needs to address systemic issues that have long plagued the school.
