Gwinn Area Community Schools is a public school district in Marquette County, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It serves Gwinn, K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, the townships of Forsyth, Skandia, and West Branch, and parts of the townships of Marquette and Sands.
William Gwinn Mather, president of the mining company that founded the town, designed Gwinn as a planned community around 1906. Maher's intentions for an idyllic town earned it the nickname the "Model Town," and "Modeltowners" became the name of Gwinn Schools' sports teams. The first class (consisting of one student named Jane Pepin) graduated from Gwinn High School in 1909. A new school was built that same year and expanded in 1915.
The current Gwinn High School opened in fall 1963. With K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base a major presence in the town, construction was funded by the United States Office of Education. Gwinn Middle School opened in November 1967 on the site of the old Gwinn School.
In 1988, a natural gas leak under the street seeped into the high school's basement weight room. The spark of a light switch ignited a small explosion, injuring twenty students and staff.
The air force base, which had contributed to district enrollment through service membersâ children, closed in 1995.