Schools of the Week: College Grove Elementary, Renaissance High

Published January 19, 2022

The Schools of the Week spotlight is shining on College Grove Elementary and Renaissance High. We asked the principals of both schools to share a few things that make their schools special.

College Grove Elementary

• College Grove Elementary's enrollment has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
• CGES has a school garden, where students have the opportunity to grow vegetables.
• In the past five years, 16 rooms have been added to the school building.

College Grove Elementary students are bringing the snow inside the library.

After reading Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, students created snowflakes of their own on their Chromebooks using different shapes. 

"We saw that snowflakes weren't all the same," said CGES student Rylan Schafer. "They can have similarities, but they can be very different, too. It was really fun."

Renaissance High

• Renaissance High is an open-zoned school in downtown Franklin serving creative ninth through twelfth grade students across the district.
• All students at RNHS join one of three Creative Academies: Apps, Audio or Arts.
• The school only has about 170 students and has a tight-knit community because of it.

Students in Renaissance High art teacher Colleen Thornbrugh's class are getting the opportunity to put their artistic minds to the test.

For their latest art project, students are creating paper sculptures inspired by artist Frank Stella. The only major requirements of the project were that the sculptures must have dimension and must be able to be hung on the wall. Aluminum foil, construction paper and cardboard are just a few of the materials students incorporated into their work.

"The students have really enjoyed this project," said Thornbrugh. "They have been so focused and excited. I originally planned for it to be due at the end of the week, but I was happy to give them the extra time after seeing their work."