students could develop their own curricula by drawing on experiences and resource people throughout the community. Although the concept was new to Ann Arbor, planners took inspiration from similar innovative programs then springing up in other cities, including the Chicago High School for Metropolitan Studies (est. 1969), Philadelphia's Parkway High School, and Washington, D.C.'s School Without Walls (est. 1971). Reflecting the liberal educational philosophy of the period, other goals in the early CHS proposals were "to provide an opportunity for a heterogeneous group of students and faculty to learn and work together and to combat prejudices based on race, sex, age, lifestyle, and school achievement," and "to foster the development of identity and responsibility." The plan emphasized placing students of all grades in the same classes and programs, and had at its heart the Community Resources Program and the Forum Program, small units of students integrated by age, sex and race which would provide home bases for counseling and cultural-studies work. CHS opened in September 1972, after a $100,000 renovation to an empty downtown building (constructed in 1925) that had formerly housed Jones Elementary School, a majority African-American school which was closed in 1965 due to re-districting for racial-desegregation purposes. Although members of the school board proposed naming classrooms after Ann Arborites who had been killed in the Vietnam War, these plans angered local citizens and teachers who opposed the war, and were never implemented. The school's first dean, Dean Bodley, told the Ann Arbor News that the school's only formal rules would be two safety precautions: "no smoking except in the student-teacher lounge and persons must wear shoes" – although even these were quickly abandoned. The first commencement, held at the nearby St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, banished caps and gowns, valedictorians and salutorians of traditional graduation ceremonies. The community-based education concept flourished during CHS's first several years, with students developing 569 Community Resource courses in the Ann Arbor community during the fall of 1974 alone. Within the school itself, unorthodox course offerings included subjects as diverse as dream analysis and Eastern philosophy. A 1974 analysis of the school by University of Michigan researchers noted that "[o]verall autonomy in CHS is high," and concluded that "CHS is an organization dedicated to the development of humanistic principles... 'Maximum individuality within maximum community' could well be its banner." Through the 1970s, enrollment remained in the high 300s. Dr. R. Wiley Brownlee, a