Community High School

Winning the Lottery

The first time CHS counselor Mike Mouradian reads a student’s name, he says the last name first and attaches a number that seals their fate for the next four years. 

“Here we go,” he says. He sits holding a colorful plastic blue bowl containing numbers and another jar labeled “Utz Party Mix” that is filled with names typed on purple slips. 310 applicants have applied for Community this year, and only 120 of them will be accepted. 

“This is a lot like a public hanging,” John Boshoven shakes his head bitterly. “ I hate it that 2/3 of these kids can’t come… [There are] some neat kids that I’m just not going to meet.”

Dean Peter Ways throws the first number at Mouradian, and Boshoven hands him a name slip. Mouradian reads the name and the number to the secretary Karen Schleh and PTSO mother Marla who write it down, staples the two together and throws them in the center of the table. The mood is tense, especially as name two is read: 294, the first student in the class of 2011 rejected.

This year the administration crowd at Community is interested in what they jokingly call the pinecone affect – how the new Skyline High School will impact Community admissions. Mouradian thinks that since the schools will still be large regardless, students will continue to seek Community’s alternative experience. It disappoints him, though, that with approximately two hundred freshman rejected from the school each year, Ann Arbor is still building another giant high school for students to get lost in.

The lottery gang lightens the serious task at hand with humor, although sometimes sarcastic. As Mouradian fumbles over a name with the number 301, Boshoven jokes, “At least we won’t have to learn to pronounce that one.” When one sibling gets in and the other does not, he says, “Oops, we split the family.”

But most of these quips are told with the slightest bit of regret. Each applicant with a number over 150 is probably a student the counselors will never meet.

Applications may rise even more over the next year since Pfizer closes. Mouradian explains that many families will be living off one income instead of two. Those who could afford to send their children to private high schools such as Greenhills may now find that they can’t spare the money. Most likely those parents will search out a small school, and Community does provide that option.

Halfway through the barrel of names, the lottery drawing begins to drag. There is more talking and less focus on the pairing of names, and secretary Schleh almost writes down 204 instead of 205 for an applicant. 

“We have to focus,” she tells the rest of the crew. “I will not relax until the last one comes out.”

The numbers have to be completely accurate so they can be paired with a student number and posted outside Community at 3:00 this afternoon, where anxious eighth graders will be waiting. 

Mouradian and Boshoven plan to be on the back lawn for any students who may be emotional when they see the results.

*See photos by Allison Correll of students who received their lottery results on Feb. 21st.*

View lottery results on the official CHS website.