History of North Point Academy

In 1915 the St. Benedict Parish was established, as Highland Park MI, continued to grow. By the 20s the parish had built a church and school on the site both sit today. Just years earlier in 1918, Highland Park was established as a city, as populations grew to its peak into the 30s. Later in the century the school would see serve enrollment drops, and by the early 2000s it was not in the best interest of the parish to continue the school. St. Benedict Elementary would close in 2005, however that same summer the Highland Park School District, authorized it as a charter school. It would collect 3% fee on the schools state foundation allowance. Allowing the financially distressed Highland Park School District to collect small sums of money, in exchange for academy's legal compliance and academic performance. When it opened in 2005 North Point served students K-8, with enrollment numbers by 2008-2010 in the range of 281 to 301 students. The school allowed for Highland Park residents to enroll students a charter school inside the city, when other schools around the same period such as Liberty, Career Academy, and Ford closed. By 2012 North Point began to see deep financial distress itself. However in 2012, music teacher Joe Vercellino joined North Point, and would help the school excel in music. He established an after school music, audio engineering, and rap group composed of Northpointe students, which they collaboratively named "Beasts of the Beat". In late 2013, Beasts of the Beat traveled to Cobo Hall in downtown Detroit to perform live in front of thousands of educators at the Michigan Charter School Conference, after students collaboratively recorded and released a full length original album featuring their compositions. However the financial issues never ended, and in 2015 when Highland Park decided to consolidate all schools into one K-8 building, they decided to not authorize or renew their contact with North Point. Forcing the school to close in 2015. One parent named Danielle Floyd that lived near and put her kids into North Point said “It feels like we don't have much control over our kids' education and how they're being educated. We don't really have a say, we don't know what's going on, and we're just down here. They're playing the fiddles”. Joe Vercellino would go on to teach in Detroit, and to this day still teaches music education.