Friday, May 17, 2024
Campus Director Marsha Grissom.
Premier High School is a tuition-free, open enrollment Charter school located in Granbury run by Campus Director Marsha Grissom.
Grissom was formerly the principal of Granbury High School before retiring in 2010 after being with GISD since 1974. This charter school appealed to Grissom to come out of retirement because instead of working nearly 80 hours a week, she now gets to stay in education with less hours due to school having no extracurricular activities.
“What we try to help our kids do is to become lifelong learners. So, when they leave us, they know they have left an environment where they were safe, where they were cared for and got the knowledge base they needed to take that next step in life. Our kids can do anything when they graduate from here. It just depends on what do you want to do,” Grissom said.
The school opened in 2010 with 65 students. Now they have had over 600 graduates walk across the stage with the previous spring class being the largest at 95 students.
The school’s curriculum is based on the state Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills and solely focuses on education with no extracurricular activities.
In May the school was notified that they were named one of the National Showcase School’s in the United States. There are 486 schools that were awarded this year in the United States for K-12.
Grissom described the most rewarding part of the job as, “being able to see students walk across the stage. Seeing them be successful, seeing them walking through the door. You get to know the kids and build relationships with the kids. The building relationship compared to my time in public school is just getting to know the kids better.”
This past school year was the start of the “Powered for Life” program under the sponsorship of Forward Training. The program helps students prepare for jobs by holding mock interviews and creating resumes. 16 students successfully completed this program thus far.
“One of the main differences instructional wise is we don’t lockstep kids. We don’t stand up and lecture kids. It’s strictly self-motivation. They’re motivated to get work done and they may work ahead by putting in more hours. Our kids can earn up to 10 credits a year whereas in a traditional school the max they can work is seven,” Grissom said.
The school runs Monday through Friday and is separated by “Junior Varsity and Varsity” students. Grades nine and 10 go to school from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and grades 11 and 12 go from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
