Premier High School opened in 2001, giving all students who are chosen through an interview process that live in Arizona in grades 9-12 the opportunity to attend.

This high school is a charter school. What’s a charter school, you may ask? It means that it is a state-funded school that is tuition-free and offers certain programs. Charter schools provide students with more one-on-one time with teachers because usually classes are smaller than a public school. Premier also has an accelerated credit earning process, with each term lasting only 6 weeks. With that being said, students can graduate at a quicker pace rather versus a regular school. This is really a bonus because some students like me would like to just get high school over with.

Premier High School also requires a green shirt uniform policy. The students must wear a dark green collared shirt while school is in session. By students wearing this green shirt, it may help decrease violence and theft around the school and stop students from wearing gang-related colors. Also, another thing that the green shirt helps with is helping school staff and students identify people who may be trespassing or intruding at the school, according to Premier’s website. In my opinion, the green shirts are a drag, but they do have a positive purpose.

The graduation requirement for Premier is 20 credits, but broken down it is 4 English credits, 3 math credits, 2 science credits, 2.5 social Studies credits, 1 fine art credit and 7.5 elective credits. In order to be eligible for a diploma you must have passed your reading, writing, and math AIMS exams. I agree with these requirements, they are very reasonable.

Attending a charter school like Premier has made graduating possible for students who have children of their own, students who are working, or even older students that may feel looked down upon by traditional schools because of their age. Many students here have had situations such as fights, arguments, or just having trouble fitting in at a larger school, but here at Premier all students feel welcomed, despite their differences or past situations.

Coming to Premier has been one of the best choices I could have ever made, I extremely recommend any student interested in Premier to just go for it and give it a try.