City High School and Paulo Freire Freedom Schools are hitting a big milestone this weekend.
Saturday April 26 is the 20th Anniversary Celebration of City High School and Paulo Freire Freedom Schools in downtown where students, alumni and teachers will share their stories about the impact over the last two decades.
The event will be from 5:00-7:30 P.M. in City High School's downtown community space on 47 E Pennington St.
There will be performances and showcases celebrating the creativity of students through music and art.
JoAnn Groh, Paulo Freire Freedom Schools Co-Founder and Director of Professional Learning says she excited to honor their legacy.
“To come together as a community and feel good about the work that has been done and there was a lot of work over the years and also to be excited about kinda looking forward and seeing that you know, we made a transition," said Groh. "We've worked really hard to make sure that our organization was sustainable and that the new generation and of leadership and teachers, and having alumni come back and talk about what it meant for them."
Tickets are $46 and Jessica Melrose, City High School principal, says anyone who wants to support is invited.
“The proceeds go toward our annual fund which helps keep our staff to student ratio as low as it is," Melrose said.
Food and drinks will be provided by neighboring local businesses.
Groh says City High School and Paulo Freire Freedom Schools were formed by public school teachers.
"Who wanted to create a vision of their school where the community really knew each other and cared for the whole child, and was a place based education, so students were grounded in the history and the learning of all the different things that are happening in Tucson downtown," Groh said.
"And then the Paulo Freire Freedom middle schools were also started by public school education that wanted to focus similarly on similar things, but also focusing on the needs of the young adult learner. Those middle school kids who are lovely and have their own special needs."
Melrose is in her 12th year at City High School and says being a part of the rich history really means something.
"So from just the historic building, all the upgrades that we've made, the founders have all, for the most part, moved on, but they're still very much a part of the mission and vision of the school," Melrose said. "So, thinking about their philosophies and their their reasoning for starting this organization, and just being able to continue that work for them in their absence is really special to me."
City High School founders are: Eve Rifkin, Carrie Brennan, and Brett Goble.
Paulo Freire Freedom School founders are: Santo Nicotera and JoAnn Groh.
If you would like to buy tickets to attend the event, you can find them here or if you can't make it and would still like to donate to the school, you can here.
