The overall plan for the school has evolved in the ensuing years. Initially the environmental focus was directed toward agriculture and animal husbandry: plans called for a barn with a live-in caretaker and community gardens. But the school has expanded this outlook to embrace many aspects of environmental education, including sustainable living practices, renewable energy study, natural habitat and the protection and development of ecosystems. One area has not changed and that is the school’s mission to provide all students with the academic and life skills needed to excel once they have left the Academy.

One of the hallmarks of the school is its 62-acre campus that features outdoor stations where you’ll find students learning year-round:

• The vegetable garden –with a greenhouse for late fall/early spring gardening – helps supply the lunchroom’s salad bar, stock a summer Farmer’s Market, and provides hands-on lessons for all students.
• There’s a mud oven where students bake everything from pizza to stone ground cornbread.
• The new boardwalk, situated along the edge of the pond, gives students an excellent vantage point to study water life.
• Every few years students, with the supervision of the DNR and the Walker Fire Department, conduct a prairie burn to restore the native prairie.
• Late in the winter students tap the sugar maples and learn about syrup-making.
• Chickens and roosters provide background sounds all over the campus.
• Each summer the school hosts camps and nature sessions where students of all ages from throughout West Michigan come to learn about things like edible plants, native animals, wetlands, and more.

This past summer West Michigan Academy’s authorizer, Central Michigan University, renewed the Academy’s charter contract for an additional five years. The Academy Board of Directors has also embarked on phase two of their strategic planning, with the aim to further strengthen student academic achievement. And environmental programs continue to grow strong as the school prepares its students to be at the forefront of advancements and innovations in energy and green industry.