Building Profile
History
O.W. Best Middle School was opened in 1966. The construction supervisor for the middle school was Remo Porchia, who later became Assistant Principal and Principal. The school was named after Oakley W. Best, who was a superintendent in the school district’s growth years; the 1950’s and 1960’s.
The name of the school was actually transferred from the original location of the school where Annapolis High School is now located. The land on which the school is located was previously part of the Nolan Farm.
Originally, School District #7 did not include a high school. The Oakley W. Best Junior High was located in the building that now houses Annapolis High School. When the State of Michigan required that all school districts have their own high school, the voters decided to build a junior high school on the corner of Powers and Pardee. After numerous changes in grade configuration and additions to the main structure, the school became a middle school servicing grades six, seven and eight.
Profile
Oakley W. Best Middle School serves a population of approximately 700 students in grades six through eight. There are 31 general education teachers in addition to four special education instructors, a library media specialist, two counselors, a Dean of Students, and two administrators. There are also other professional positions such as a school psychologist and social worker that are shared with other schools in the district. Students may participate in a variety of athletics and club offerings. 96% of O. W. Best students attend school on a daily basis.
The school day consists of six hours of instruction along with specialty times for reading and announcements. Teachers work in teams within the core subjects. Teams collaborate in the following ways:
- Correlate curricular goals with academic outcomes
- Develop uses of community resources and volunteers
- Facilitate the use of technology to improve learning
- Increase career awareness
- Spearhead school improvement efforts
- Oversee student and staff development plans and progress
- Oversee documentation of our standards and benchmarks.
Parent Involvement
Working in collaboration with our parents, the staff at O. W. Best believes that schools work best when partnerships are developed with parents and students. A parent’s involvement in their child’s education is perhaps one of the most important indicators of student success. Best Middle School encourages our parents to get involved. The rewards and satisfaction are tremendous!
Approximately 71% of parents attended the fall parent/teacher conferences, while 48% of the parents attended the spring conferences.