Heat. Heat. Hey now. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat.
Hey. Down here. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, dance.
Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, come on. Hey. Hey. Hey. W oh wo wo wo. Wo
wo wo wo oh wo wo wo wo oh oh wo wo wo
wo oh oh wo wo W. Whoa. W. Woah. Woah. W oh wo
wo oh oh wo wo wo wo oh oh wo wo Oh, hey. Hey, hey, hey.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Derban public school special meeting.
It's April 23. It's 6:07 p.m. Uh, we call the meeting to order. >> Roll call, please. >> Trusty Bazzy >> here. The microphone's on. >> Okay. Trusty Bazzy, sorry.
>> Here. >> Trusty Drosio >> here. >> Trusty Mos >> here. >> Trusty Pelich here. >> Trusty So >> here. >> Trusty Zaher here. President Ji >> here. Next item, please. >> Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Right. The next item >> uh the next item is a discussion item. Tonight we have two superintendent
second interviews. The first one is with Mr. Micah Sy, executive director of special populations in Dearborn Public Schools. All right, welcome Mike Ailei. Um, good evening everyone.
On behalf of the Derban public school, I would like to welcome Mike Ailei back for the second interview for the position of superintendent. Mr. Ailei is executive director of special population for the Derban public schools. I will just take a few minutes to
describe our format. The interview the interview might take up to 75 minutes. We're expected to track your time on the monitor at the table. It will begin with the It will begin with a presentation of the topic provided by the board. Following your
present presentation, there will be a 15 minute 15 questions. Toward the end of the interview time permitt, we will give you an opportunity to ask question of the board and make closing remarks. For those present for the interview, we
welcome and encourage your feedback. We have provided a QR code that will take you to an online feedback form. Although the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of the board, as the elected representative
of our community, we value and seriously consider the input of our stakeholder in this process. In saying that, Mr. Cely um you might begin with your presentation on the following topic. Present, present your
vision for Deburn public school. What will the district look like under your leadership after 90 days, one year, and three years, including but not limited to what you will do to address the decline in literacy rate? Thank you so much, President Aljah, and
members of the board. I'm so excited and honored to be here again. Uh I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank my family who's here. Uh they've had a very long week. I think they've had a little bit more anxiety than I have. uh I don't know what's going on. And I'd also like to thank the entire community for showing
up as well. Uh I know they've been extremely involved in the process and it's such a wonderful thing when our community is involved. Um just as you said, President Aljahi, I'm going to take you through how we're going to improve literacy in the district under my superintendency in addition to what
my superintendency will look like after 90 days, one year, and hopefully three years. I think first it strongs with a starts with a strong vision and we have to um go by the fact that literacy is a civil right. When we talk about literacy we
think about four domains. Uh we think about listening, speaking, writing and reading. It is imperative that we continue to be a languagerich district in each and every single classroom uh in Dearborn public schools. So let let me
let me start by talking a little bit about why it's important to be languager rich or literacy rich. Uh for starters we know that 82% of our students um are economically disadvantaged. 45% of our students are also multilingual learners.
Uh providing them access to both um listening, speaking, reading and writing is critical. And then if you think about it from this perspective, how we listen is the way we start speaking. The way we speak is how we
write. And then reading gives us access. Reading is going to give our students access to their instructional material, to their first job or their first career. It's going to give them access to information. And reading will eventually help them change the world. With that being said, missions and
visions are great. without substance they're just that. So the very first thing that I think we have to do is we have to look at what's going on here in central office. Uh we have to make sure that we are evaluating all of our systems and making sure that our systems are aligned and rowing in the same
direction. I just read something very interesting last week that our most marginalized of learners are the ones who are most dependent on the systems that we provide to the entire district. our systems end up trickling down to schools and into classroom. As I
mentioned in our last interview, we have a lot of amazing things going on departmentally around central office. One quick fix that we can do is we can all start rowing in the same direction and be interconnected. One voice, one vision. Sometimes what happens is we get
what we call initiative fatigue because so many departments are doing things. When you're talking about a marginalized learner, whether it's an EL learner, economically disadvantaged, or special education learner, everybody has to be allin in order for us to start seeing
progress with our with our students. I'm going to take you through the eyes of my or through the vision of my superintendent to see through the eyes of a student. Now, this is a makeelieve student. Her name is Nora. Uh Nora is respectful, polite, and she's on the honor roll. Uh Norah is also beginning
middle school this fall. Her parents are involved. They go to parent teacher conferences, open house. Uh Norah is also identified as at risk. Uh she's had some trauma in her life and we suspect some mental health issues. In the third grade, Nora read proficiently. Uh this
year, however, she was not proficient on the MSTEP. According to some of our trend data, what we can predict is this is Norah's going to go through middle school, graduate high school with a good GPA, but when she gets into college, she's going to have to take remedial reading courses because she's not a
proficient reader yet. Unfortunately, Nora is not alone and this is why systems are so important. As you look at some of our trend data, there are some positives. If you look at the fifth grade per se, we have been for the last 3 to four years increasing in
percentage points in the number of prof proficient readers that we have in the school district. Uh that can be attributed to a solid tier one instruction. It could be attributed to uh better behavioral mental health systems. It could be attributed to better professional development. But we
still see a huge gap. And where is the gap? When our students are losing leaving elementary and going into middle school, we're seeing a huge decline. Last week, I spoke to you a little bit about how um instructional text becomes more difficult for our students, but
also instead of just reading and having to comprehend, they're starting to have to read, think critically about the text, and analyze. And those are some of the things that our EL or ML learners and our economically disadvantaged learners struggle with the most. So,
it's imperative that we develop systems that help support our students. uh some things that I discussed during my last interview were understanding how the brain learns and how it's impacting some of our subgroups students as well. With that, let's begin with the end in
mind. Uh when you develop a very strong system at central office uh that becomes districtwide, what can you anticipate all over the district? You'll anticipate one system with one voice. You create one district and you're going to ensure
that every single child, no matter the classroom, no matter the school, has access to the best quality education possible. In addition to that, and this is such a critical piece, alignment all the way from preschool to postsecary,
I call each level a subsystem. If something goes wrong in any one of the subsystems, whether it's preschool, elementary, middle, or high school, it's going to impact the whole system and can possibly disrupt the trajectory of the proficiency of a child. And then
finally, uh it's an equitable model and that's exactly what we need to continue to strive for. So let's talk about central office again. We are a very datarich school district. We have a ton of different data that we can use and we can analyze
all the time. One of my visions for central office is we become a data center. What do I mean by that? I'm just going to start talking about our Tuesdays. Right now, our Tuesdays, we're spending about four to five hours together. That's very, very valuable time. I'm going to have a rule. If we
can answer it in an email, that's where it's going to be answered. If not, we're going to talk about instruction and data and how to support our buildings and our teachers. And then in addition to that, we're going to continue to have all voices on the table. So we make sure that we're not missing a beat. We
simplify things for our staff and then our outcomes will in turn be produced because of that. What does this mean? Um when I look at it, I look at how it can impact every single subsystem. Again, when I talk about subsystem, I talk about our preschool program. I talk about our
elementary program. I talk about our middle school program and our high school post-secary program. If you look at that green arrow, I have some goals. Those are the goals of what you want each and every level to leave. When when students leave at every level, what you want them doing. Uh preschool, it's
about all about discovery. Let's get them excited for learning. Let's get them in literacy environments. Let's get them excited to read. Um let's teach them how to be learners. Also, let's coordinate with our kindergarten teachers and our preschool staff to ensure that all of our students who
leave preschool are kindergarten ready. In addition to that, it's also about community outreach. It starts far before they're four years old, as early as maybe two. Let's let's partner with different organizations and coalitions so we can provide opportunities for our
youngest of children in this community to be introduced to literacy rich environments whether it's storytelling time or whatever the situation may be. All of that matters and all of that will contribute to the success of our students. Elementary we all know about
the dyslexia law and we all know the importance about being a proficient reader in the third grade. that continues to be on the forefront, but it's even deeper than that. When we start seeing gaps, it is imperative that we address the gaps almost immediately. That's why it's so important to have a
very strong multi-ter system of support to where not only do you have a strong tier one instructional resource, but whenever you see the gap, we are we are intervening quickly and we are also closing the gap when it's small.
Because what happens when learning when you start getting reading gaps that become larger and larger the older students get the much harder it gets to close that gap. We have to intervene early. I also spoke about the brain research and how the brain learns and the impact that the brain has on some of
our subgroups. Uh we have to start figuring out a way how to make sure that our teachers understand this and are equipped with the right resources to help support our students. I mentioned the letters training. letters is a researchbased training that also includes some of the brainbased um
learning in it. In addition to that, it was um I believe it was adopted in Mississippi. Mississippi was probably reading at about 45th 46th in the state. I believe they're a top 10 state right now in reading just by adopting the letters program. There are other things
we can do as well because I understand um how timeconuming and how intensive letters is. Uh you can look at different programs like uh universal design for learning. All of them are brainbased and all of them will support our students. Uh we have done an awesome thing this year when we we have adopted a tier one
instructional resource at elementary that includes the science of reading. That's not enough. We must ensure that we continue to provide our teachers highquality professional development in the resource so they can execute the resource. It's got to be ongoing. Um,
one thing we cannot do is we can't say this resource didn't work two years later after we didn't invest training in it and then go on to a different resource. That is, I believe, um, one of the most challenging things that can happen for a district and students as well. You have to be true to who you are
and you have to invest in what you do. In addition to that, um, I see the arts, I see music, I see athletics to continue to play a critical role in our elementary. Um, I had a very, very heartwarming conversation with one of our music teachers last week. And it
wasn't just about continuing to invest in the arts and music. It was about how music can help assist the brain with some of the functions that I speak about for our students to become better learners. Now, this is what I talk about when I say sometimes we're siloed.
Imagine we're all together in instructional cabinet with that perspective as well. what is the power that we can provide for our teachers which is going to trickle down to our students as well. Um, middle school, middle school is very near and dear to me. Some of you may or may not know I was hired as a middle school teacher.
Um, I know a lot of people don't like teaching middle school. I absolutely love it. Um, but when I was hired as a middle school teacher, there was the true middle school model. What was the middle school model? We had a true team approach. Um, middle school is supposed to be the in between.
They're not necessarily mature, old enough to have that high school model, but they are too old and mature to have more of that self-contained elementary model. I think it would be a critical thing to bring back the true middle school concept. And right now with some of our data and how it's dipping at the
middle school, it may be the right time to look into that and see if it's going to work uh for what we have right now as well. A couple other things. Let's make sure we continue to introduce them to different avenues. Find out what their interests are and find out what their
strengths are. Whether it's CTE or otherwise. I don't want any middle schooler leaving us without us knowing specifically what their strengths are, what their interests are, and then talk about visionary. Let's develop that into a specific pathway for them in high
school before they even step foot through Dearborn High, Zel Ford or Fortson. And we always talk about visionary leadership. Where I think we need the most visionary leadership right now is our high school. Uh in education, we tend to try to get students to fit
into our systems. It's time we adapt our systems to make sure they're meeting the needs of our students. And right now we're seeing a huge decline with not a huge decline. We're seeing a small decline with some of our enrollment with our high school students. How is a way that you can combat that? You keep them
interested. You give them what they want and you build on their passions. Whether it's CTE, whether it's expansion of CTE, whether it's the early college, whether it's dual enrollment that has a specific pathway uh that you can see an end in mind with. These are all things we can
build on. Remember, this board also oversees Henry Ford College. The partnership and the opportunities and the possibilities are limitless. I believe you just have to have a will and a way to do it. And then when you do that, I have a feeling that some of our students will stay here because they're
going to be engaged and it's going to be meaningful to them. What's all this look like? Okay, so um my first 90 days, this is where we designed this plan. And this is where I do a lot of listening and learning. However, as an internal candidate, I do
believe that I will have a very unique perspective that I can probably hit the ground running and hit the ground running really fast. It's more about looking at that puzzle, figuring out what pieces are missing, what pieces we have to readjust so we can all be moving in one one system. And it may look like
restructuring um some things that we're very used to that maybe benefited us a few years ago but now no longer are of benefit to us. Uh year one is where this starts coming into fruition. You start the implementation of it. Um and hopefully you'll start seeing the
outcomes quickly. However, I'm also a realist and know that things do take time to change but you have to be bold enough to make to flip the switch. uh by year three, that's where all these systems are aligned hopefully and we're starting to see some some very positive
outcomes for our students. But the work doesn't stop there. You continue to evaluate, you continue to look at the data, and you continue to improve. And that's when you have a true continuous improvement model, and this is how you create a model district. I was telling some administrators yesterday that I'm a
very competitive person. Um I want to be the best. We have to be the best. Our community deserves the best. Let's check on Nora again. I know some of you may forgot about her. So, Nora, three years later, where is she now? She's in high school. Um, she's actually, we found
out, in middle school, um, because her parents were much more involved in the middle school process. Uh, she's very empathetic, she's very kind, and she's very caring. As a result, before she went into her high school, we hooked her up at the early college, and she's in
the teaching and learning program where she's going to become an educator. But it doesn't just stop with Nora. We have created all different pathways for all students and they're engaged and they're excited to learn. Uh we have some students who are doing uh career technical education. We have some
students who are enrolled in dual enrollment. We also have some students in the traditional path and our virtual model has expanded and it's meeting the needs of all of our learners without necessarily taking away any of the rigor.
So what's this look like? Uh this isn't going to be necessarily my favorite part to talk about, but what does this look like? First 90 days. What will the first 90 days look like under my superintendency? Well, I think first and foremost, um while I do have a perspective and I have a very strong perspective, I want to make sure that I
understand everyone's perspective. So that's meeting with the board individually. That's meeting with different community and stakeholder groups all across the community. That's also meeting with our teachers, making sure that I have teacher voice, making sure that I understand what their challenges are so we can support them.
Meeting with our students becomes imperative as well. All the all while all this is happening, I know we all may have a bond as well on the ballot in November. So, starting to work on the bond, whether it's putting together an advocacy group, anformational campaign, whatever the situation may be, I'm going
to be prepared to lead it. And then finally, after all of that is done, I plan to report all this out to the board. Uh so I can keep you informed as well. 90 days to one year. This is where you really start seeing the seeing the impact of some of our plans. Uh so the
first thing I'm going to talk about is the bond. After 90 days, the bond is going to be is going to be on the ballot really really soon. November is going to be right around the corner. That's where we're all gas, no breaks. uh to make sure that we are informing the community
about the bond and the importance of it. In addition to that, we also have a prime opportunity this year with our strategic plan which is up for renewal at uh I believe at the end of this school year. We start working on the strategic plan. However, you will no longer have goal 1A literacy and 1B
mental health and well-being. Our goal will be the outcomes. the outcomes that we want in everything that we do, whether it's behavioral health, mental health, any department is going to roll into how they're going to support to make sure that our proficiency rates and
our outcomes continue to increase. That's what I talk about when I say one district all rowing in the same direction. Year 1 to three, we continue to build on that work. Um at this time hopefully uh our strategic plan will be out there.
Everything that we do within the strategic plan is going to drive us. It's going to be our constitution. Um in addition to that, the bond would have passed by then. You'll start seeing construction projects all over the community. Uh the community will be excited about the new Dearborn Public
School facilities that are going to be hopefully up and the remodeling of some of the existing facilities. Um I do want to go back. My apologies. I did miss one thing in the first 90 days. Uh, one thing I do plan on doing within my first 90 days, and it was in my 90-day plan as
well, is we're going to do a com a a thorough review of all budget line items. And what we're going to do is we're going to ask specific departments of the outcomes of those budget line items. And we're going to have to maybe either expand some things that are working really well or make some
difficult decisions. Everything we do has to be um connected to having better outcomes for a district. Finally, why me? Um I'm committed to this district. I'm
going to be data driven. I'm also capable of building a team and building a trust all across the community. Uh no matter which part, I'm a empathetic leader. I'm a clear comm community communicator and I have zero issue
having difficult conversations and holding people accountable when necessary. Now, with that said, I also want to make something crystal clear. I will always lead with integrity. And that sign right there, the Dearbornne Public Schools, nobody will be bigger
than that sign, especially me. I'm done with the presentation. All right, >> they're cutting in time. >> Get going. >> You're You're taking away from his time. >> All right. Uh
>> they're taking away my precious time. You reclaim your time. >> I did. I did. >> Uh >> I think when I put the finger up, they thought I was trying to be Roman Reigns or something. >> So, we're going to start off with the first question. Mr. Steely, since deciding to become a candidate and
participating in the search process, what has reinforced your aspiration to be the next superintendent of Dearborn Public Schools? I think it's this uh I think it's the amount of support and the belief that people have really had in me to lead this district um has been truly
humbling. Um and I I don't believe it's it's support that's um bought I believe people see something in me and as a very humble individual uh to be honest with you it's very very hard sometimes to reflect and be like oh yeah I'm this or
I'm that. Uh so I say without a doubt it's the wonderful support of the community. It's over here answering some of these questions uh how they click and what's been reinforced is the vision that I've had the vision to ensure that our school
system not only that it's second to none uh but that all of our students have the opportunity to succeed and will succeed. >> Good evening Mr. Sy. Um, you touched on this in your presentation, but maybe you can flesh it out a little bit more with this question.
Frequently, visual and performing arts are targeted for budget cuts, and arts programs have been reduced or eliminated in many districts statewide and nationally. In your opinion, what essential skills do arts programs build and nurture in our students? and what
specific actions would you take to ensure robust, equitable access to arts opportunities for every student? So, my day yesterday is going to help me answer this question. And I'm going to start out by when I was visiting one of the schools yesterday and a student
raised their hand when I asked them what do they want to see in their next superintendent and they were frustrated that the middle school they were going to uh didn't have a specific program that's related to the arts that they were really passionate about. And I can't tell you how that broke my heart. We know right now that we have a chronic
absenteeism issue in the district. Uh we know that's something that we're trying to solve. We also know that sometimes we're having a hard time keeping students engaged. The arts, athletics, that's what does it for some of our kids. Uh, as important as reading and
math are, we also have a a obligation to make sure that we are offering students everything that we can to maximize their potential whatever way that it is. It's time we start looking at things holistically. And I understand, you know, the state has mandates, the
federal government has mandates. we have to be proficient in this and proficient in that. But I think it's time that we look at a problem a little bit differently. Stop throwing more of the same at a problem and start thinking at it from a different lens. As I mentioned earlier in my presentation, the arts can
play a critical role in raising some of our proficiency scores. We have to link those two things together and we have to continue to move in one direction. Another another aha moment for me was over here when I had the community feedback with uh one of our amazing music teachers who asked me that same
exact question. Well, I can't make promises of what's going to be cut and what's not going to be cut because I can't predict the future. I can tell you this. I will look at everything and every single line item um with the with the perspective that my own child loves
what we're about to cut to ensure that we're protecting as many things as we can that are important to our community and our kids. Mr. Saley, welcome. Question number three, uh, meeting every student where they are is a priority for our district. How will you evaluate and enhance our
special education programs to ensure we provide a truly balanced approach to least in restrictive environment, ensuring both inclusive practices and targeted support. >> Yeah. Uh, thank you, Trustee Bassy. That's that's one thing that we're very proud of within the special education department district. I think I could
speak to that a little bit is our LRE rates are probably the best I know in Wayne County if not the entire state. In fact, we were highlighted at the board of ed of education because of our least restrictive environment efforts. Uh but I think there's also twofold. It's one
thing to say a child is fully inclusive. It's another thing to say are they learning in that environment? Now obviously in an LRE we know the social emotional impacts it has for our children. It builds them it builds confidence. uh they feel like they're a part of something bigger than
themselves. These are all wonderful things, but we also have to ask are they learning and what is the impact sometimes on their behavior of all other students and our teachers and I think that's where the challenge becomes. You have to continually train but also it's a mindset thing and I'm going to share a
story. Uh one time I was having a discussion um with an educator and what we do sometimes in education sometimes is we tend to look at students as a subgroup instead of look at them as an individual and I think one thing that
you're going to have my commitment is that kids are going to be kids no matter what subgroup they're from no matter um what their their strengths are or their weaknesses. Uh we have to make sure as adults and as a system we continue to look at our students as general
education students first. Give them all the supports they deserve as general education students and then whatever additional supports that they're entitled to whether it's special education whether it's e we provide those as well. >> Welcome sir.
>> Uh question four here. >> Yep. Some stakeholders cite challenges in student achievement and special education during the prior administration and see your candidacy as a continuation of the status quo within
your first 12 to 18 months as you lead the entire district rather than a particular department. What specific bold actions would you take to close the achievement gap and improve outcomes in core academics for all students
including students with with special needs? >> Thank you so much for asking this question. I I I truly appreciate it. Um I I think first and foremost I spoke a lot about in my presentation about systems about overhauling systems and
overhauling structures. I think one of the dangerous most dangerous things we can do in education is when you have marginalized learners or subgroups of learners believe that it's one person's responsibility to move the needle.
Our students are extremely precious. We need an all-in approach. We need everybody contributing to help resolve some issues we have whether it's with subgroups or with the achievement gap. Uh so one of the very first couple first
things that I'm going to do is one we are going to do a deep budget review to ensure that all every single dollar spent is helping all of our students achieve outcomes. The second thing we're going to do is we're going to look at the structures currently of central office. Are there structures helping us
all flow in one direction to support students from every single angle or are they dividing us and allowing us to have separate voices which is causing initiative fatigue at our school level and it's causing some of our uh administrators and teachers to be pulled in a thousand directions. I think those
are some of the things we can do immediately and you have my commitment that we will be doing some of those things immediately as well. >> Richard, good evening Mr. What is your plan to address declining student enrollment?
>> I I believe I addressed that as well. Um so first hopefully the bond passes. I believe if the bond passes you're going to have more families move into the community. I think that's one thing that can um obviously help with declining enrollment. But another thing too is we can't do band-aid approaches anymore. We
have to really figure out why is our school are our schools engaging our community? Are we doing the right things? Are we tapping into the passions of our community and our students? And how do we do that? I believe, you know, we can always say that we're going to survey the community and find some things out. While there's value to that,
we also have to talk to people. We have to reach out to people who are leaving and we have to figure out why some of the some of the people are leaving. In addition to that though, we can't have a system of status quo and think that people are just going to stay. What I mean by that is we have to
look at every single system and every single subsystem that we have within the Dearborn public schools right now and evaluate its effectiveness. And if we need to adapt it, we we have to adapt it. And one system right now that I believe we have a lot of work to do with and we have um although it's well
intended and I know some of this work has already started is looking at how we envision our high schools and I think if we can reimagine our high schools uh we can ensure that every single child has the correct pathway they need to continue to be successful I think that's where you can keep some of our students.
>> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Good evening Mr. Sy. If selected as Dearborn's next superintendent, you will be facing new challenges immediately. What approaches will you take to assist you in transitioning to these new
responsibilities? So, I I believe the first thing I'm going to want to do is understand why the problem exists. And a way that you can understand why a problem exists is by speaking to people. Whether it's speaking to some of the board members, uh speaking to some of the cabinet members. In addition to that, if it's
problems with people, you address it one way. Uh something that I believe that I take a lot of pride in throughout my entire career is I've always been able to bridge the gap no matter what the what the problem is. Uh for example, I always look at an issue. I know that in
education all stakeholders want what's best for students. And if you take it from there, okay, everybody wants what's best for students. That's a great building point. So then what you have to do is you have to figure out a way how to get there with the different stakeholders. And a lot of that is
listening. Uh sometimes it's compromise. Uh as long as it's not impacting the outcome or impacting the individual student. Um but to kind of wrap it up, how do you what approach do you take? I think the same approach I took whenever I moved from one job to another. It's
listening. It's developing it my own beliefs and it's problem solving. Welcome, Mr. Saley. We are on question number seven. Chronic absenteeism is a complex issue that often reflects deeper barriers within a
student's home or school life. Beyond standard truency letters, what datadriven or community-based solutions have you successfully implemented or would you propose to improve daily attendance and re-engage our most disconnected students? Thank you, uh,
Trusty Soap. So, I I was part of a team that developed a MTSS process to help resolve truency. Now, those are strategies whether they're home visits, whether they're frequent contacts with parents, um you know, things along those lines
and I think those may work sometimes on your very surface level issues. But I think for the deeper issues, uh you have to really figure out why. Uh I'll give you a prime example. We had a student who had some very very severe anxiety and as a result did not want to come to
school. Uh this was a mental health issue that was causing a student not to come to school. So some things that we did was uh we started a wraparound process. Uh we connected the family with some mental health resources and supports but we also used a gradual process with trusting individuals who
started working with the student at home and then we transitioned them back into school. And the way we transitioned them back was not all at once. It was 15 minutes a day. Then we added another 15 minutes till the time that the child was comfortable enough and trusted people
enough to return to school. Uh, I think that's why things like what Trusty Zar asked me about the arts and things along those lines, understanding also students passions and making sure that we always keep those in the forefront and we treat those as important as everything else in
a school system as well. >> All right, thank you. Question number eight. The board is seeking a transformational change to improve students outcome. What aspect of the current system do you believe do you believe must change and
how will you ensure your leadership remain independent and not influenced by existing practice or relationship so that you could strengthen accountability, transparency and trust across the district. >> One second. This is a loaded question.
>> We're always to repeat the questions. >> Oh no, I'm good. They're they're up here. So that's very very helpful today actually. Okay. So I'm going to ask I'm going to answer this in many parts. The first part that I'm going to talk about is how do I ensure uh that I remain independent
and not influenced. I think you have to understand as the role of superintendent or as the role of any administrator, the job is bigger than you. It's not about your ego. It's not about your friends. This is about taking care of the community. And in
order to take care of the community, you have to make sure you're putting the best people on the bus that are going to care about the community like you do and that are going to do everything they can to help our students. That's first and foremost. Um, I think another thing that we can do is I spoke a lot about
systemic change that I believe needs to happen. The systemic change doesn't need to happen because of anybody's fault. We have some systems that have been in place maybe for more than a decade. And maybe when they were implemented, they were implemented for a specific reason. Different different times uh are going
to mean different things for different people. And you have to change things based on what the times are. And right now, we have to strengthen our systems. And one of the ways that I believe you strengthen the system first is by making it all grow in one direction and making it one system with one voice. That's something I believe that we can do
immediately. As far as the accountability perspective, I think I spoke about this a lot in my first interview. We have to hold ourselves accountable in central office and that starts with me. We have to hold ourselves accountable to the systems and we have to hold ourselves accountable that we're doing everything we can to
support our buildings. And once we do that, uh, and everything is set up and done the right way, that's when you be able to start holding individuals accountable if they're not producing the results that we aspire to as a board. Um, at every single level, whether I was
a teacher, whether I was an assistant principal, whether I was a coordinator, whether I was a director, whether I was executive director, I've always held people accountable. Whether it was students, teachers, or administrators, I have no issue with holding people accountable. But before we do that, we have to hold ourselves accountable and ensure that our systems are meeting the
needs of all of our learners. Uh, as far as trust, it's a brick-by- brick approach. Um, it's relationships. You build trust based on actions, not words. I know that. I've learned that the very very hard way early on in my career and it's something that embodies me. Uh
that's why I asked, you know, yesterday I got a specific question about follow through. And the way that I answered it was this. I'm not going to answer that question for you because I can just say anything right now that sounds good. Although I didn't say that. That's what I was thinking. I said ask people who have worked with me. And I believe
that's how you develop trust is by your actions. And what you're going to get from me is you're going to get actions full of integrity that are always student centered. Um, I've been vilified from time to time, but I've been vilified for the right reasons. And you know what? I I don't I can sleep at
night knowing that we're doing what's right for kids. And I promise you that. And I again, I know I'm just saying words right now, but please speak to people who have worked with me. >> Sorry, I know I'm next. Okay, Mr. Sy Dearbornne routinely faces
public attacks and inflammatory rhetoric associated with being a predominantly Arab and Muslim American community. Our students hear the rhetoric and feel those attacks. What aspects of your background, experience, and skills make you well suited to represent and protect
the district in such circumstances? I believe that's one of the reasons why I'm sitting here in front of you today. I have zero issue speaking up for marginalized populations. Okay? Now, obviously, I haven't done it as a grand scale like this question is
referring to. Uh but I've done it time and time again. It is imperative in our roles uh that we speak up when we see injustice. Now, for this question specifically, if there was something to go on in the community, the first thing I want to do is I want to ensure the
safety of all of our stakeholders. That's number one, first and foremost. The second thing I would like to do is I would like to communicate directly with the community and be direct and be honest with our communication and how we feel. Uh, Dearborn is an absolutely beautiful community. It is a very
diverse community in many different aspects, in many different ways. I understand that a lot of times we're under attack, but we are truly a model community. But sometimes we're going to have to stand up for it. And I would have zero issue doing that. And I believe in my entire career, it's what
I've proved to do time in and time again. A critical metric of our success is our four-year cohort graduation rate. What specific systemic strategies would you implement to identify at risk 9th graders early and support them through
to a successful 12th grade graduation? >> Thank you, Trusty Bazzy. In in my presentation, uh I mentioned a little bit about how we have to know the specific skill sets and strengths of each eighth grader before they get into nth grade. I believe that'll help with this situation as well. When you know
the ninth graders you're getting, you develop a specific pathway for them and you set them up for success. Uh now I'll talk about specifically ninth graders and what I've done in my current role right now. Uh so when our ninth graders fall behind it's just like any other gap that we're dealing with whether it's
literacy, math, whatever the situation may be. I think it's extremely important we catch that gap and we catch it quickly. Some things we're doing right now with our special education students as we're offering them credit recovery over the summer with special education support. How do we duplicate that model? Now obviously I know we have credit
recovery right now in the high school. Uh but I also think you have to you have to attack this as soon as it happens. In addition to that when you start fixing all these subsystems uh by providing the right systems so our teachers can be
successful with their students you'll start getting less and less students that are going into the nth grade that aren't ready. And this is where that vertical articulation piece becomes so critical. This is where it becomes important that our middle school teachers truly understand the expectations of what it takes to be a
high schooler. If you remember the green arrow in my PowerPoint, I had an end goal for every single level and I believe the end goal for eighth graders is they have to be able to analyze. Now, I understand some of the challenges that are going to come with that, and I understand there's going to be a need
for intervention, but the more we can strengthen the systems before they get into high school, the less likely we're going to have issues when they are in high school as well. >> This is question 11. How would you lead a successful bond campaign for the district? Describe your strategy to
build broad community support and secure passage. Also explain what external funding sources, state or federal programs and nonprofit foundations or partnerships you would pursue to supplement boden proceeds and support
facilities, capital projects, and overall district needs. >> Thank you. That's a that's that's a lengthy question, so I'm going to break it down a little bit. So first for the bond I think it's imperative that we are running a transparent campaign. I think
from the school district theformational campaign has to be very very transparent. Uh before that though whatever bond proposal we put out there we have to make sure we have buyin from the community. Uh I understand people want to be directly touched by the bond. That may not always
happen. I'll give you an example of myself as a child. When I went to Oakman Elementary, I was one of the very first students to get to eat in their brand new cafeteria. That bond was passed well before um some of the students that were the parents that passed that bond, some of their students were already out of
the building. So, they understood the concept of paying it forward. And I think you can keep continue to try to drill into the community as much as you can that strong schools means strong community means higher property values. I think the community understands it, but I believe you also have to do
different things as well. Um, I know that I was talking to a member of city council where there was a very unique idea. Uh, that just got me wondering if we're going out and asking the community for whether it's millions or even $1.5 billion, how can we in reinvest some of
that money into the community? Um, now I understand that you have a um a bidding process that has to be legal, but I'm wondering if there's avenues where you can try to get more community stakeholder involvement by reinvesting again within the community. I think
that's that's another thing that you can possibly look into. Now, I don't know the legalities if it'll be 100% um legal in the Dearborn public school system, but I do know that city council and other areas have done something such as that as well. Um, another thing too is
you have to meet with community stakeholders and you have to build trust. People want to trust uh whoever it is that they're giving the money to. We have a very generous community. Look at all the nonprofits we have going on in the community. It's a wonderful thing and they're all successful. Our
community wants to give. They want to give for their children, but they want to make sure they're giving it uh to an entity that they can trust and that's going to follow through with whatever is promised. Um now, as far as the the bond and the grants, as executive director, I've been responsible for receiving more
than $20 million in grants. I know right now also we're working with Ford Motor Company on a grant to hopefully expand our CTE facility at the Michael Berry Center. uh career technical education jobs in that market. They're in extreme shortage right now. I wonder if you go
to these larger organizations and where you can tell them, hey, we're going to develop a pipeline from school to career ready whether they would be willing to invest in the school district. I think a lot of them will because the reality is the job market and the job shortage out there um is not very is not very good
right now, especially for some of those career fields and what Mr. Cely, how would you go about evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum assessments and the teaching methods in
the in the district? >> So, I think this is a multiaceted approach. I I think it's going to be very hard to look at one specific strategy, method, or whatever you're investing on and determine whether it's effective or not. Uh but I believe what
you need to do is you need to garner teacher voice. You need to listen to the teachers and you need to hear what is going on at the ground level with them as far as some of the initiatives. You gather that information. The second thing you do, I already spoke about the possible restructuring of how our some of our cabinet meetings are going to
look like to really talk more about outcomes and data. I think it's very important that you have department heads, our assessment director, our curriculum director, um, present on some of these initiatives that we're having and make sure that we're having thoughtful, honest conversation and we
continue when we maintain that conversation, continue to be grounded around kids and around outcomes. You also look at data. Uh, you have to look at the data. You have to look at our standardized assessments. You have to look at our local benchmarks. You have to look at all of those and you have to figure out, okay, is this initiative
where we're investing in really providing some of the outcomes that we thought that it would. There's been some initiatives that we've had in this district that have been around for more than 20 years, longer than I' than I've been a public school teacher. I'm going to ask those very difficult questions. Okay, I want to know and I want to
understand, is this really helping the bottom line? Is this helping our kids? And if the answer is no or the answer is I don't know, we're going to have to get some more concrete data to figure it out. Um because although we have a $480 million budget, uh we have a very large district and that $480 million does not
take us as far as some people think that it can. >> Mr. Silly, when is that on? Okay. When problems arise or mistakes are made, how will you handle communication with the board, school employees, and the general public? >> Okay. So, I promised in my first
interview, and I'm going to keep my promise, no surprises. Uh, so whenever I find anything out, um, I'm going to make sure the board is informed. I know obviously right now we have an incident report system where you guys are getting incident reports, you're reading them. Um, I'm going to have a conversation with all of you. Do we want to continue
that or is there a different way that we can communicate some of these situations? Now, as far as school employees are concerned, um, I believe from observing over the last couple years, it is critical that we get communication out. We get it communication out quickly and we continue to communicate. It's ongoing
communication. Um, you know, we don't want to keep people or employees wondering and guessing. When people wonder and guess, that's when rumors start and it may cause bigger issues. So, I think communicating honestly and openly, uh, through whatever platform it may be, whether it's email, um, whether
it's a a video message, however it may be, let's get that information out there. Same goes for the public. Now, sometimes with the public, because of privacy situations, we can't communicate the full story. But what we have to do is communicate what we can and we have to make sure that the important things
are communicated like hey I guarantee you your child is safe or hey there was no risk to your child at all during this specific time and I think those are the things that are going to be important but ongoing communication as well. Don't think that that one communication suffices. You may have to do multiple
communications just off of one issue depending on how large it is. >> Skipped. >> Oh, sorry. Um, question 14. As a district, we have a unique and powerful relationship with Henry Ford College. Given the shifting landscape of student
demand, ranging from traditional degrees to dual enrollment and technical certifications, how would you specifically improve the collaboration between these two entities? Please address how you align resources and coordinate academic pathways to ensure that we are maximizing student opportunities while remaining fiscally
responsible. >> Thank you. I I know I've addressed this question, but I want to be very very specific in the way that I address it right now. Okay. So, I I'm I'm going to start I'm going to start talking about dual enrollment. Um I think a place where we can improve with dual enrollment right
now is to have an end in mind with dual enrollment. Sometimes we have students taking dual enrollment just to get college credits. What do those college credits mean? I know they're a nice thing. They give us a head start when we want to start university or whatever their next path may be after they leave us. But I think we can be a little bit
more specific as to the college credits or courses that they're taking. As far as career technical education, we have to expand opportunities. Yesterday, I just received an email about a cosmetology expansion possibly uh through the local local barber. We have a many local businesses within the
community. How can we partner with them to give our students more opportunities? Not every child wants to be a doctor. Not every child wants to be a lawyer despite whatever their parents want. But they do have specific passions. We have to figure out how to tap into their passions. A way we do that is through
interest and through understanding what their strengths are. And we start that within middle school. Uh as far as aligning resources, I believe that's going to be a priority that I have from day one is how do we align everything so it can make sense? Uh and how do I work
with our new college president to ensure that we're maximizing opportunities as well. I know just through some conversations with the college this year with my with the role as being the lead of the Henry Ford College partnership, there are many individuals in the college who want to expand the
partnership and who can see the value in a possible partnership expansion to give more opportunities to our students. Um, one of the most frustrating parts of my job is when I have to talk to Mr. Salamy, our early college uh president about the lottery with early college.
It's frustrating because we only have limited seats. How can we expand that to where if students qualify for a specific program, we give them that opportunity? I think we can do it creatively by looking at the resources, what we're spending on right now, what is working,
what is producing outcomes, and in addition to that, if it's not producing outcomes, how do we use that money to truly transform the vision of our school district moving forward? All right. Um, Dearborn Schools serve a large English language learner population.
How would you ensure accurate identific identification, proper tracking, and measurable academic progress for for ELELLL students? And what specific goals and accountability measures would you put in place to ensure those outcomes
are achieved? Thank you, Trusty. So, so I think this this is a multiaceted approach. I think um for starters, a lot of our students are coming into the EL program uh just because of you know how the designation is has has started from the state level.
So I think we have to advocate and we have to figure out okay what is going on in that facet. I think secondly when I talk about alignment of systems this is exactly what I'm talking about. Uh we sometimes feel and believe that it's one person one individual or one department's responsibility. Our e
learners one we have to make sure that we are creating literacy richch environments. Um like I mentioned uh the way they listen is going to be the way they speak. the way they speak is going to be the way they write and that's going to help them become better readers and they have to be proficient readers.
So we have to have very literacy richch environments. I know when I first started in this district we were very very heavy on SCOP. 45% of our students are English language learners. That's almost any classroom you walk into half of them are EL learners. We have to make sure that you can see the EL strategies
in every single classroom. I think uh a second thing you can do is we have to make sure that we're providing goals on a strategic plan and we continuously monitor those goals. Uh it can't be uh an activity that we do once in a while or periodically. It has to be ongoing
and it starts with us in central office and if we're starting to see some declines, whatever the subgroup is, whether it's E or whoever it may be, we have to make sure that we're addressing the decline and we're adapting almost immediately. Uh, one thing that we do see is we are exiting some students at
the elementary level. Where it's becoming challenging is when they're getting into middle school. We're having a very very hard time exiting students. And I've already mentioned how we know that text becomes harder to navigate when they're in middle school. But also the skill set needed uh to when you're
in middle school is very very different than when you're in elementary school. And I think it's a multiaceted approach to where you have languagerich environments. But you also have other strategies such as how the brain learns, how the brain works, and you have to
combine them. And that's when you start maximizing some of your outcomes as well. Um, we have to make sure that we're we're serious about this work. We're continually monitoring the work and when we have to adjust any of the work, we we adjust.
You know what? One more point. I I did remember this and um it's a prime example of what I'm talking about. When I was at a conference as a special education director, I remember the state special education director addressing the entire special education director group and talking about how our
department's responsibility is compliance and not outcomes. I want you to know that I strongly disagreed with that statement. But as I reflect, I think what she was trying to say is we have to make sure that all of our
systems are aligned to support all of our students. And if all of our systems aren't aligned to support all of our students, it becomes very very challenging to move the needle one way or another. And that's why I say when we think of a strategic goal or we think of
a strategic plan goal, if literacy is our goal, that should be our goal. And everything we do, whether it's for EL, whether it's behavioral mental health, whether it's for special education, should fall under that goal. So our students are reaping the benefits of all the supports we have to offer here in
Dearborn Schools. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um would you like to take a few minutes now to provide um we we would like to take a few minutes now to provide you with an opportunity to ask any questions
you might have for the board. >> You know, I I don't know if this is good interview practice, but I really I I don't I don't have any questions. I know you guys have an incredibly long uh month, and I don't think uh you want to probably answer my question, all kidding aside. Um, but I just, um, no questions
at this time. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, would you like to make any closing remarks? >> Um, you know, the last time I was here, I had a pretty long closing remark. Um, I'm not going to do anything uh such that today. Uh, but what I am going to
tell you is that I do feel that I'm prepared. No, no, no, not I do feel. I know I am ready and prepared to lead this district in the role of superintendency. I believe I have the right vision. I believe I have the right skill set and I believe I have a right understanding of the current systems we
have in place and what they need to be improved to ensure we're maximizing outcomes for students. I would be more than honored to serve this district as your next superintendent. With that, I wish you all the very best and I understand the enormity and the
difficulty of this decision you have on May 4th. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> I just want to read my script. >> They they >> did it again. I didn't follow the rules. I'm sorry.
It's it's great. Uh thank you, Mr. We sincerely appreciate your time and continued interest in being the next superintendent of Durban public schools. We plan to make our final determination on Monday, May 4th, and we will let you know of our decision immediately
afterward. Thank you for being here with us again today. Thank you. All right. >> Well, let me make a motion to adjurnn first. >> Yeah. >> You want to say >> Oh, I just was going to make >> after the interviews are done.
>> No, I want to make a motion to adjourn. >> Oh, to I think >> to to sorry to recess. >> Ollie, do you want to present the pictures? Whatever you said. >> Do you guys want to do it? >> What is it? >> It's up to you. So, we were thinking of taking a picture, a photo with both of our candidates here to show, you know,
our community is united behind both both of these leaders. So, I think Mr. Hamco will come out and uh in just a moment. Um, and I thank both of them for for for doing this. Um, so I think we just wait a moment and be able to do that.
>> You could make >> and it's Henry Ford College blue, so it's okay. There you go. >> So, I'll make Oh, sorry. I'll make a motion to recess until 7:25. That's when the next meeting starts. >> I'll support. Okay. >> All in favor say I.
>> No objection. Motion is approved. >> Right now. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, Hey hey hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat.
Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Oh, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Oh, I feel Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Show me. So, so Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey.
Hey. Hey. I'm burn. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. What? Hey. Hey,
hey, hey. Heat. Heat. All right. Good evening everyone. And on behalf of the Derban Public School, I would like to welcome Musa Ham back for the second interview for the position of superintendent. Mr. Hama is
assistant superintendent of human resource for Gross Point Public School. I will take just a few minutes to describe our format. The interview might take up to 75 minutes. You're expected to track your time on the monitor at the
table. It will begin with a presentation on the topic provided by the board. Following your presentation, there will be 15 questions. Toward the end of the interview time permitt, we will give you an opportunity to ask questions of the board and make
closing remarks. For those present for the interview, we welcome and encourage your feedback. We have provided a QR code that will take you to the online feedback form. Although the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of
the board as the elected representative of our community, we value and seriously consider the input of our stakeholder in the process. Mr. Ham, you might begin with your presentation on the following topic.
Present your vision for public schools. What will the district look like under your leadership after 90 days, one year, and three years, including but not limited to, what will you do to address the decline in literacy rate?
>> Well, good evening everybody. Thank you for having me. It's an honor. It's a pleasure to be back here in front of the board of education. I appreciate the civic engagement by our community. I had a really good time yesterday engaging with our administrators, our teachers
and the community meet and greet and my tours to the school were just absolutely wonderful and I hope I have opportunity to expand upon what I saw. So when I think of my vision for Dearborn public schools, what I first want to talk a little bit about is what
Dearbornne already is. Where are we? We want to know where we're going. Let's get a good baseline of where we're at. We're a district of innovation, opportunity, and access. We're a district that has already laid important groundwork through the strategic plan
and building improvement work. As I said before, we have best of brand my kip processes and our data dashboard is second to none. But what this moment requires, based on recent data and community feedback, we know there's some
real concerns about literacy, academic performance, student behavior, staff morale, and certainly our infrastructure. This moment calls for honesty, open dialogue with our stakeholders, and
a clear path forward that strengthens our outcome and our trust. what we can become an exemplar for academic achievement and character development in a district where excellence and empathy go hand in hand.
So what I'm sharing here tonight is a clear direction but certainly not a fixed blueprint. It would be refined through the input of this board and certainly our stakeholders but I had to give it a shot on my own. So when I think of our schools and what they mean
to us, I started way back. Each of us has a story, an immigrant story of how we came to this country. And this picture represents my family. The airplane, my father came here in the 70s from Lebanon as a
student. My mother-in-law came here from Lebanon as well. The bottom right, you see that vintage ship that represents the Mayflower. I'm actually a direct descendant of the Mayflower. My mother is a mixed European, mainly Polish and
Irish sitting right here. And then the steamship represents my father-in-law who came here from the island of Malta right after World War II. When I think about why did they come to America,
three words resonated with me. Hope, opportunity, and courage. They came here for the hope of a better life, that their children would be safe, the opportunity to live without fear,
with no war, that pursued the American dream, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And it took a lot of courage to leave your homeland and come here. So when I think of our schools, what do
our schools provide? Why do we exist as an institution? And what is it that we do for our students at our essence beyond educating kids? Those three words resonated with me. For students and families, we provide them hope. Hope for
a brighter future. Hope that their children will live I hope she's okay. Hope that their children will live a better life than they did. That upward mobility. But our schools also provide opportunity. Opportunity to be
challenged. Opportunity to find your joy, to explore passions, whatever they might be. And our schools also provide opportunity for our students to be courageous, to take risks, to fail forward, to learn, and to
grow. And for the great staff that we have, our schools provide hope. hope that one day at the end of their career they'll look back and say I had a life of meaning the opportunity to touch hearts and
shape minds opportunity to learn and grow professionally and then also the courage for our teachers to take risks to speak up and be heard. So when I present my vision to you today
those three words resonated with me. So phase one is hope, phase two is opportunity, phase three is courage. So hope I would build hope by listening, learning, and engaging our stakeholders.
As I shared in that 100 day plan, audience can scan that QR code. Uh what I want after that 100 day plan is I want our community, our staff, our stakeholders to feel heard. I want them to feel respected. I want them to feel
more informed. I want them to feel that our district is more aligned. And I want them to be hopeful that our district has a clear and steady path forward. What I will do, I'll follow my transition plan that I shared with you with Fidelity. We'll
strengthen that board superintendent alignment and we will cultivate a relationship based on trust. We will work hand in hand together. I will be visible in the community and our schools. But the biggest component to this is listening and learning by
meeting with our stakeholders, hearing from them, hearing from our staff and our students, our parents, our community partners, the booster clubs, the fine and performing arts, visiting every school to see how each segment of our community experiences our system
differently. And then we certainly have to work on the bond. That's something that's going to permeate through everything that we do. And what will be underway is a thorough review of our systems, our processes, uh, and we'll be defining a clear vision so that way we
launch the start of the school year with staff knowing, feeling confident that we have a clear direction. The opportunity comes through thoughtful reflection, through objective analysis and collaboration to identify the
opportunities that we have to strengthen our schools. We have to elevate our staff voice. Our educators must be respected. They must be empowered, supported, and honored for the work they do.
This means creating conditions where teachers have voice, autonomy, and agency to lead. The analogy I use is I'm driving the car, my hands are on the steering wheel with the board. They're the engine. They're the heart of this
organization. Without them, we're going nowhere. So, here's what I did. I reviewed every building my kit plan. I printed them out, all 37. I dissected them. I went through an analysis of what's in there. I went through every
one of their comprehensive needs uh analysis and I went through their initiative inventories to see what we're doing in every building across the district. Here's what I saw. Strong framework for improvement, a strong focus on explicit
instruction. We have great systems that we've already talked about. Um, so what that meant to me, and I've shared this before, is we don't need to start over. We have the building blocks to build a strong framework for the future. What I saw that's most aligned,
we have explicit instruction strategies, specifically the opportunity to respond, explicit vocabulary, modeling, small groupoup interventions permeating throughout every building in our district. Kudos to the team who put that
who's put that in place. We have a lot of walkthroughs as monitoring tools. We have the PLC's and common assessments. We have clear efforts across the board to attend uh address our attendance and our truency. We have strong attention to all
multilingual learners. But here's where I saw some opportunities. We have inconsistent application of tier one expectations and execution. We have one building principal who wrote in their plan, we need help with tier one.
We had another principal who wrote, we still are not filling out our attendance myar with fidelity. We need to get better at that. Our administrators were really honest in their analysis. We need a tighter literacy playbook by
level grounded in the reading of SC uh science of reading. One bright spot I saw, one of our schools, only one, had an ELA enrichment lab for special needs students. So, we need to have stronger supports for students with disabilities
across all our buildings. That was at one of our middle schools, should be at all of them. We need more consistent behavior and cultural expectations. I saw buildings with different tardy policies. We need to review our high school attendance policy. Hopefully, I'll have
a chance to talk about that later. And then uh we have inconsistent implementation of several strategies from Anita Archer's work around explicit instruction. I mentioned them there. But then there's seven or eight strategies that are not found anywhere in any of
the plans. So there's opportunity for growth. It's only one way from here and that is up. So elevating our staff. Like I said, they're the experts. I keep I'm going to keep saying this. I've developed this plan in isolation, but their voice will be important. But what
does this mean for our multilingual learners? We need to strengthen our content and language object objectives. We have to really look at what we're doing in tier one. We need to ensure speaking and writing practices are intentionally incorporated into lesson
design. There's a program called UFly. I had the opportunity to see it in action at Salina, but it's not being put into place at all of our buildings. We have to ensure that's happening for our students with disabilities
and I'm I'm not talking about how I'm talking about our general uh students who are mainstreamed. I see a lot of identification of gaps but I don't see specific strategies to address it listed in our plans. That is a tremendous opportunity.
I see a lot of co-eing but we need to pair the co-eing with the co-planning. That way the teachers have the same prep hour off so that way they can facilitate those conversations. For behavior and culture we need to
ensure students feel safe, connected and belong and have that sense of belonging. We need to clarify schoolwide expectations for student behavior and adult responses. We have to address student accountability concerns. That is something that is permeating
throughout our community. We have to address it and we have to revise our attendance policy to reflect our vision and our values. For our staff, we need to work with them to review the current initiative landscape and focus
on a small number of high leveraged strategies. We are doing too much. Initiative overload. I opened up that document. I was overwhelmed. We need to work collaboratively with the DFT, our union, and our curriculum
leaders. We need to crosswalk explicit instruction and the Danielson rubric. Let me explain what I mean by that. The Danielson rubric has 22 domains. That's what we evaluate teachers on. Explicit instruction has 16 strategies. However, they each have unique look fors
for when an administrator goes into the classroom. So, one of the domains is discussion and questioning techniques. The look fors in each of those are different. How do we crosswalk that where our teachers don't feel like they're doing another thing? That's what we call system coherence, right? So that
way things complement each other instead of feeling like it's one more piece. Um, so I'd want to work collaboratively with them to do that crosswalk. We'd want to align an evidence-based instructional look for a small number of annual instructional focus areas. What we did
in Gross Point one year is we told teachers, we're going to focus on three things. Sense of belonging, student engagement, and discussion and questioning techniques. Hadtie's research shows that that has the largest effect size on student improvement. And
we know our teachers can't do everything at once. You have to build that road map out in small digestible chunks. And then we want to develop a three-year implementation timeline for professional learning coaching. Anita Archer has those 16 strategies. What are the three
or four we do in year one? What are those three or four in year two? And what are the three or four in in the subsequent year? That way people feel like it's manageable and it's doable. We cannot do it all at once. And then we have to explore ways for staff, agency, clarity, and morale by listening and
responding. I know you guys asked about literacy. I know I touched on that in my first uh interview. We need a unified framework grounded in the science of reading that every school implements with fidelity. We need common screening and
interventions and we need to establish a limited set of high lever practices for the district to focus on. I mentioned the UFly piece earlier and I think we need to expand that parent university in community outreach. My son had the opportunity to go to River Oaks. He's
three years old and they participated in that. And that's where you close those gaps, right? It's not just an academic gap. There's an opportunity gap in parent university and the programs that we can do in our local community schools. We only had it in three schools. I wish we could do it in more
places. Get the community into the school. Help plug those gaps. my son was mixing um you know different things for pancake and then it was what they were really working on the skill was your your tactile fine motor skills right and so there was a tremendous level of
engagement with that but part of this literacy plan everyone needs to get trained in letters training it's long it's comprehensive it could take up to two years for a staff member we need to put that in place I know that the state is looking at mandating it we can lead in that we can mandate that from now and
we can look for ways to compensate and honor our teachers for the time they're going to put in. But you can't just have PD. You have to pay pair the PD with the support. And that's where the coaching comes in. We need guaranteeing coaching
cycles in every classroom in pre preK through three. Every classroom. Right now it's optional. We have reading specialists. We have instructional coaches. We have to make that mandatory in all of our classrooms. Then we need more job embedded modeling,
observation, and feedback. I wish I could get into the funding. Uh if it passes, uh we'd be able to lower class sizes, but right now it's kind of stuck in the house. I'll maybe talk about that later, but here's what we learned from Mississippi.
Many districts, many states tried and they failed. They didn't. They could not see it through. So, we need to be courageous if that's what we want to do. We need strong training. We need more immediate intervention in the classroom through
formative assessments, interventions in the moment, not pull outs. But we need to build our tier one. All right. Phase three, courage. What courage means to me, ensuring that
strong practice is experienced more consistently across our buildings and our levels. There's times where it looks like we have pockets and silos. We have to address barriers that create uneven implementation and we have to make tough decisions around resources
and staffing. We have to see initiatives through not just start them and we have to address sensitive issues and topics that sometimes we avoid. to what courage would look like is full implementation of the literacy plan AC
accountability across the system beginning with myself and a shift from implementation outcomes to measurable outcomes. If we look at the plans as they're currently written, many of them are just implementation. That's how we're measuring our progress. We have to move away from that. We have to
strategically do less to reduce initiative overload. We have to elevate our staff voice, but we also have to elevate our expectations. We have to address student behavior while balancing empathy and accountability.
What I would say candidly is this has to be a community effort. A district this large and complex needs focused leadership. It needs ownership. It needs experience. But it also needs family partnership. And it needs board
alignment. We all need to work together. I know I look through all the plans. I know you guys have a lot of data and my color scheme is not showing up on the screen. Maybe it's showing up on that screen, but not on there. But I crosswalked our achievement
um with our proficiency. And in the top right, what you'll see, we have high growth and high proficiency. The bottom left, we have low growth and low proficiency, which we already know. The issue is the the schools here at the bottom left are continually to falling
behind. The gap continues to grow and I took the names of these schools off right to make this uh more palatable but we could talk about that later. That's something we need to address as a system.
I also crosswalked our absenteeism with proficiency. We see on the right we see the high schools and we see dramatic relation between attendance and proficiency rates. But something interesting popped up that part of the
first graph high absenteeism but they're generally still proficient. They all the color scheme says those are all elementary schools. We need to intervene early. We still have a chance at that point. moving on beyond that
they fall behind and it's starting to compound. So I see a lot of effort at our high schools. We have to really help our elementary schools in addressing this last part. This is going to be a hard part to bring up to the board uh to the
community. Uh just the idea to float out here. I looked at the review. We have strong people. We have a a great feeder track structure with real strengths. But at the same time, key parts of our curriculum, instruction, coaching,
assessment are supported and distributed across multiple leaders. Our executive directors each have a chunk of this that makes system coherence very hard. We would need to evaluate together the board, myself and the stakeholders
whether we need a structure that's more unified to address academic leadership potentially including a chief academic officer. So literacy, curriculum and instruction are a primary focus of what we do. I look at our structure. I know
we take safety seriously. We have a director of safety who oversees our curriculum and instruction with laser focus. That's a question we need to answer. And why this matters? Well, our structure
needs to align with our priorities. And I think the feeder track model had a lot has a lot of promise. But we also have to ask the hard question. Did student achievement increase since we have implemented that model or not?
So by year three, if we're going to look at what success would look like, we're going to have improved outcomes, more consistent application of tier one and improvement of our subgroup outcomes. I guess I'm writing my evaluation here on this slide. We'd have improved attendance and engagement. We'd have
fewer repeated behaviors. We'd have a stronger sense of belonging in our schools. We'd have an enhanced perception of our schools, both with our staff and our community. And our code of conduct would be enforced with empathy and fidelity. Those two are not mutually
exclusive. We can do both. Lastly, we'd have coherence across all our pieces. That way, things don't feel like they're independent items. They're really all working hand in hand. And again, in the background, we're going to have that bond. We have to have that
bond through all of our phases. So, if I'm fortunate enough to serve as the next superintendent of schools, you'll find me a hopeful leader who will work to inspire others, a thoughtful and reflective leader committed to collaboratively identifying
opportunities to enhance our district, and a courageous leader who will make the needed changes to move us forward. Thank you so much. We'll we'll start with the first question. Thank you for the presentation. Mr. Mr. Ham, since
deciding to become candidate and participating in the search process, what has reinforced your aspiration to be the next superintendent of Dearborn Public Schools? Community participation has been intense.
Uh, but I think it also talks about how deeply we care about our schools. And so I think that's that's exciting because I think if we can establish a clear vision, we can get the community behind us. But I tell you the one thing that resonated with me the most was my visit
to Salina Elementary yesterday. Such an amazing school. I am so glad I went there. I think Salina represents the best of us. It's truly an exemplar of when you have
the right leader, the right staff, and everyone's heart is in the right place, what you could achieve. The culture in that building was amazing. And the grit and the resilience of that community. I was down there and I know
they're put they're redoing all their playscapes and all the the green works that's happening. And they were telling me how proud they are that they raised all that money privately. That was uplifting at times. There's some entitlement. What can the district
give me? They were going after it, getting what they needed. And you know when my uncles first came to this country and they lived in the south end, right? I remember the dust on the cars. And so there you are juxapos juxtapositioned, right? You have this factory, but then you have this
beautiful school that we built. And then it was a I we got to take every community member to Salina that shows when you build a building with intention and purpose what it could look like and how it could function. That's going to
help us sell that bond. So I I think Salina was just it was heartening. And then the kids the kids came up to me and they hugged me. Uh I would greet them. they would they would talk to me in Arabic and coming from Gross Point, you know, no one talks to me in Arabic. So,
it was wonderful. Um, but I think it's a it's it's a great uh reminder of what we can become. >> Okay, Mr. Hamco, welcome. Um, frequently visual and performing arts are targeted for budget cuts and
arts programs have been reduced or eliminated in many districts statewide and nationally. In your opinion, what essential skills do arts programs build and nurture in our students? And what specific actions would you take to ensure robust, equitable access to arts
opportunities for every student? The arts are so important. They play a pivotal role in the lives of our students in many regards. First, it helps our students become well-rounded, right? That's something we all want our
students to become, but it also helps with sense of belonging. For some of our kids, they go to school for the musical. They go to school to be in the band or the orchestra. that is their hook to school. That is how they feel connected.
For me, it was sports, right? And so I we know that when we can get students engaged in our school, get them excited and they can find their joy, they'll keep showing up for us. And in Gross Point, we have committed many resources
to the to the arts. But we know we we can't do it alone. So, we had to work with community partners to help fund our programs to buy instruments and we have district-wide fundraising campaigns. Um, and so that's something that we'd have to do. There are budget cuts, but there
are decisions that we can make. And just like Salina, I built those playgrounds. We can fund the music. We have to ask, we have to find the partners. Um, for my daughters, my daughters, one plays the violin. She played violin. One played
the flute. N she taught herself during co and then my daughter Huda plays the piano. I like to sit with a cup of coffee and let her play the interstellar theme song. That's my my moment of relaxation, right? Um but what we know uh there's actually research that says
if you play an instrument, I think it was piano specifically and you learn a foreign language, right, what it does for your neurons in your brain and your future achievement. We know that achievement in music are actually tied and there's studies that have been done that students who play a musical
instrument have the highest mathematical aptitude. So there's a lot of research out there and so when we're talking about those opportunities, I think it's incumbent upon us if we don't have the resources to go out there and get them.
>> Mr. Ham, welcome. Question number three. Meeting every student where they are is a priority for our district. How will you evaluate and enhance our special education programs to ensure we provide a truly balanced approach to least restrictive environment, ensuring both inclusive practices and targeted
support. Our special ed students are so important to us. Helping our most vulnerable students is an obligation that each of us have. In Arabic, we use the word wu, right? This is incumbent upon us. That
is our primary duty. Um, so we need to analyze where our programs are at. We need to hear from our parents. We need to hear from our students and we need to hear from our parents what their experiences is and
that can give us some building blocks on how we can move forward. When I went over to how ele how that is the opposite case of salina. You see those adaptive devices in the
hallway and you can't walk through and we need to take students to the bathroom. The ADA bathroom is all the way across the building. When you go in there, I don't think there's a community member who would walk through and wouldn't say the first priority on the bond is how elementary
school. And so I think there there are those things that we need to do. But I want to talk a little bit about my experience with special education as well. So, you know, I spent a lot of time in my role in HR these last two years. One of my
primary pieces is helping HR uh helping special ed with staffing, with our parapro shortage, with our teacher shortage, with recruitment. So much of that has to be a team effort outside of our special ed department. They need help and we know that. But what we did
in Gross Point, we started unified basketball at both of our high schools. That's something that we take great pride in. When I was a principal at Gross Point, the only county funded program we had for specials is is adaptive PE, physical education. Out of
our building budget, I uh funded adaptive music. so our students could participate in choir and and fully see themselves on stage and they would be part of our performances. We also created a pushin
uh to support our special ed students. Often times we look at a co-eing model where we're sending a a special ed teacher into a gened class. What we did is I actually took an English teacher and pushed the English teacher into the LRC to help build the skills and work on
their reading goals. Uh we also developed a food and life skills class where we opened up our food uh classroom for our students with special needs so they could learn life skills especially for our students on the autism spectrum disorder ASD students so they could
learn some of those life skills. We have a greenhouse at Gross Point just like all of our high schools and Dearborn and it wasn't being used. So we started a micro green project where our students grow micro greens and then they sell them to local restaurants to use in
garnishing uh with our food. And again they take great pride they take they take care of the plants they sell them. They deliver them and then what they were doing is that was money they were raising to go to their summer camp as well. Um we have um a transition program
for our post high school students and right now we're working collaboratively with some of our community partners in multi-million dollar facilities being built and we're partnering with them to see what that opportunity is like to put our students into that space. Um we've done the polar plunge. We've done so
many things to ensure that those students see themselves in the fabric of our community. But I want to tell you a little bit about why this is important to me. I'm going to try not to get choked up. Every time I tell this story, I get choked up.
I believe in special ed, not because of something I read in a book. When I was younger and I was in elementary school, um, you know, the boys would take the swing, twirl it, get stuck at the top. Uh, the swings were made out of metal or
they made out of wood. The bell for recess rang. My sister went to run inside at William Ford Elementary. Boy swung the swing. It hit her in the head. She had a traumatic brain injury. Her left side partially paralyzed and
she certainly had um you know some mental health issues that are part of that. Today I'm her I'm her guardian, co-guardian. I'm a conservator. So, this is some this is who I am, not what I do.
>> Sir Ham, uh, you have you have deep roots in Dearborn. You live in the community, send your your children to our district. You also have many longstanding personal and professional relationships
throughout the district. As superintendent, how will you prevent those relationships from creating clicks, favoritism, or nepoism? Describe specific practices, transparency measures, and conflict of
interest safeguards you would use to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all employees. One of the things I take great pride in from Gross Point, if you talk to any of the teachers, any of the administrators,
they will tell you Musa follows policy. And I think that's our greatest defense. You follow the policy, you follow your procedures, you follow it consistently across all aspects of what we do. You
need to be consistent with your decision- making. Our moral compass is the most important thing that we have. When someone calls us, they're a neighbor, they're a friend. I'm going to go back to what does the policy say and
are we enforcing it consistently. I do want to talk about one specific practice and that's hiring. That's a big topic in every community and it's a topic in Gross Point that's also very large. What I can tell you I've done, especially with our
administrative hires, we are under the microscope. So, I've developed a hiring memo that outlines step by step what we will do, who will do it, how it will be done, how the communication will look.
That is shared with the board and with the superintendent. And we follow the process very openly and very transparently. We make sure we have stakeholders in every single part of the process. And there have been
times where there have been concerns about nepotism, favoritism. We've brought the board to be a part of board president or a representative to be a part of every step of the way. The other part is I need to know myself.
There's going to be times where I'm going to have to recuse myself, where I will have to say there is a conflict of interest. I can't weigh in on that, right? I have relatives who work in the district,
right? I have a relative who would apply to be in the district and so I have to be very mindful of that. Um that is something that um I would not accept at all. I think that is a big concern that is in
our community right now. Um there is a perception currently that our district is clicky and filled with favoritism. And so you get hired based on your merits. If you look at our, you
know, our interviews, everything is rubric based, credential based. I'll leave it at that. I don't know. We got to watch the time. >> Declining student enrollment. >> We need a multiaceted approach to this.
I think first I want to talk about Penn Foster. I you know bane of all of our existence. Um you look at why people are going to pen foster besides it being really easy right? I think what it also offers is asynchron uh uh asynchronous
learning. Our current virtual program is synchronous. It's live meaning you tune in and you hear instruction. I think a lot of our students want flexibility. They might be working. So that asynchronous option where it's pre-recorded, you can log in at any time at any place. There's a potential to
expand our current online offering to asynchronous to meet the needs of those students. Uh the second thing I would look at is this is a tough one to talk about. Um we have a community that at times does
not want to send their female students to schools. What if we created a female academy? We are here to meet the needs of our community. We could do a needs assessment. There are other communities
that have such programs. We could explore it. Maybe we could do a a a dual lingua linguistic program where you go through a program. Maybe it's a school within a school like at Fortune when we had Academy of Engineering and
Technology. You have a dual lingual program where now you're becoming proficient and competent in two languages. Many uh MDE actually supports that. I've sent my daughters to Arabic school on the weekends. They have a private tutor.
A lot of our parents have great interest in having their students be bilingual. Is that something that the community would want? Let's let's put out a survey. But what we also did in Gross Point is we we listened to our parents.
We reached out to every parent who left our district. Personal phone call and emails to everyone who left to understand why they left. We went and knocked on doors to talk to people because like just like
Dearbornne, we've we've lost people. So, we have to continue to to to look at how we're meeting the mark with that. Um the other part we need to look at is are we meeting the needs of all students? We talk a lot about our low-end
students. How about our gifted and talented? We used to have an Ignite program. Can we have some enrichment? I grew up in east in the east end of Dearbornne. We were not rich, but we still had Ignite and Enrichment.
The two are not mutually exclusive. You can have both. Right now in Gross Point, we're actually expanding our magnet program. We have one on the north end, one on the south end. We're trying to put one right in the middle. Um that's based on demand from our community. The other part is when we look at why the
bond failed, there was a large community group. One of the things they talked about is where we weren't building anything innovative. There was nothing with STEM. There was nothing with drones. There was none of that. How can we maybe embed that into every one of our K8 buildings?
We really need to figure out why people are leaving by listening to them and seeing how we can adapt and adjust. It's my turn. Sorry. If selected as Dearborn's next superintendent, you will be, excuse me,
I'm having difficulty today. You will be facing new challenges immediately. What approaches will you take to assist you in transitioning to these new responsibilities? >> I think the first thing, as I mentioned before, is the listening and learning and approaching it with an open mind and
an open heart to really hear from people. I think that's going to help us chart our map forward. The other part is meeting with the board. I need a briefing from the board of education. What are we working on? What are those
top priorities? I work for this board of education. I would serve at the leisure of this board collectively. So, we need to have some retreats. If we talk about, you know, Michigan Association School Board, they offer those retreats, they offer the
onboarding. Um, there's some workshops that we could do together to ensure that we're moving forward with a unified front. But the bigger piece is meeting with the cabinet, understanding what they're working on, how I can support them, what initiatives are currently in
place, and then how can I enhance that? What do they need from me as superintendent to be successful? >> Welcome, Mr. Hamco. Chronic absenteeism is a complex issue that often reflects deeper barriers within a student's home or school life.
Beyond standard truency letters, what datadriven or community-based solutions have you successfully implemented or would you propose to improve daily attendance and re-engage our most disconnected students? We need to talk to them.
We need to hear from them. And if we can't reach them, we need to go to their homes, do home visits. We've done that in Gross Point. Why aren't they coming to school? Is there a social emotional support that we need to help with? What are those wraparound
services? Uh we need to have discussions around engagement. If students are engaged and they see meaning in what we're doing in the classroom and if they see that joy, they're more likely to attend. We talked about the fine arts, we also probably
need to talk about athletics and clubs in Gross Point. I was surprised that when I got there, we have a Dungeons and Dragons club. They have 20 to 30 high school kids get together weekly and they do Dungeons and Dragons. A lot of those kids are not connected in our school,
but you know what? they get they're so pumped for Dungeons and Dragons, right? So, we have to find what those hooks are to get our kids to school. I think there are there is an opportunity there's some data-driven pieces. Uh when you look at like uh some parent communication tools,
I know one of them is being piloted at Smith Parent Square. Um when you look at the frequency of what we can do and sending those communications out, I'd also you know have targeted interventions if students are chronically absent, right? let's say the
year before or in the first semester. We should not be waiting till the 10th absence to send the letter. There's research that uh out of Connecticut, they had a really interesting program using one of those communication apps that after the second absence, they would send a text message, but the text
message wasn't automated. It was from a success coach in the building. So that way they could build a relationship with. And so I think that is something that could help if we have that frequent communication. That's my mom's Irish roots. >> My timer's running. Can we go to the
next one? >> You're good though. >> I'm the next one. Sorry. How would you >> I told you she's Irish. See? >> Sorry. um Scottish, >> how would you ensure that the hiring and leadership promotions such as assistant
principal to principles are based on demonstrated effectiveness, qualification, and readiness? Yeah. >> Describe the system and oversight structure you would require to maintain consistent accountable decisions.
I shared with you earlier that memo that I put out. I want to talk a little bit how I implemented that. But right now in Gross Point, we have a lot of new administrators just like in Dearborn. And so I think what we when we one of the best practices we use in the
classroom, Anita Archer talks about I do, we do, you do, which is called gradual release. We need to model that with our adults. And so what I did is we have a principal who for the first time is get has the opportunity to hire her
own assistant principal. And she's really excited. My job is to ensure that the processes are in place which I've already built. But the next part is coaching being that thought partner. So I invited her in. We sat shouldertosh
shoulder. We went through the whole memo. I have it for you. I'll share it with you. It is very detailed. Every step of the process. We talked about what it would look like. She understood what her parts were. She understood what my responsibilities were. every step of
the process was guided. And so I think working with them, I often times people don't meet our expectations, but the problem isn't with them. It's usually with us. We didn't communicate them effectively and we
didn't take the time to sit down with somebody and walk them through it and then check for understanding to make sure that they were clear on what we wanted. over here. Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. Um,
Mr. Hama, Dearbornne routinely faces public attacks and inflammatory rhetoric associated with being a predominantly Arab and Muslim American community. Our students hear the rhetoric and feel those attacks. What aspects of your background, experience, and skills make
you well suited to represent and protected protect the district in such circumstances? This is such a a sensitive topic for us. We're always in the limelight. Um, I think
my background, my history at Gross Point South, I have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to upholding justice, an unwavering commitment to addressing bigotry and intolerance. I
think I shared in the first interview several examples of doing that. And I think why that's important is I did it with a community that was not my community. I did that for students who didn't look like me. I did it for students who don't
have names like Musa or Jamal. And so that demonstrates my strong moral conviction and my moral compass. I will certainly do it for my own community as
well. Um, I think I'm also very diverse. As I shared with you, my mom, there's more than meets the eye with people. And I think that can also help bridge those gaps. I think when people learn more
about me and learn more about our community, they realize there's a lot more than what the the cover of the book is, so to speak. But, um, I'll make sure that people know our story and I'll make sure I defend our students.
A critical metric of our success is our four-year cohort graduation rate. What specific and systematic excuse me, what specific and systematic strategies would you implement to identify at risk nth graders early and support them through a
successful 12th grade graduation? This is a tough topic because we all know we test too much in our schools. But if you don't have the diagnostic, you really can't address the problem. And so I think we do need to look at
what our students are doing with proficiency specifically in the eighth grade. So we need to look at what we're doing with NWA. We can also look at our common assessments and what we do in Gross Point is we also give the PSAT as well.
I think that can give us a comprehensive picture of who is at risk and who isn't. And then we have to look at the programming. What do we have available for them? We have to look at what what schools those programs are available in
because each school might have a different program. So that's something that we have to look at. We have to strengthen our tier one interventions. The most the research that is out there says if you strengthen your tier one interventions, you get coaches into the
classrooms, use those instructional coaches to improve the teaching and learning in the moment, that is most effective. Now, as I shared earlier, there's things that we've done in Gross Point where we had to push in a gened teacher into the LRC classroom. We have
to get creative that way to ensure that we're meeting their needs. But we also need to talk to them about what their future holds. What pathway do they want? Some of our students, they know I am not
going to college. We have to support them. What could it look like to go into a skilled trades? And so when we think of some of our atrisisk students and I'm really big on academic achievement, but we have to take a step
back and say what is their goal? What is their plan? Because sometimes when we go so hard on our students, we actually alienate them. But we know that they have other skills. And so is there a way to identify what those skills are and
get them hooked, right? get them into other pathways that way they could have a successful life. You you look right now Ford Motor Company, Bill Far, you know, Jim Farley had that interview. He said there's about 500,000 jobs right now that they can't fill in the trades.
Many of them paying over 150,000 a year. And so we have to look at uh what those what those uh opportunities are for our students. How would you lead a successful bond campaign for the district? Dri describe your strategy to build broad community
support and secure passage. Also explain what external funding sources, state or federal programs and nonprofit foundations or partnerships you would pursue to supplement bond
proceeds and support facilities, capital projects, and overall district needs. Well, if we're looking at building this bond, right, I talked about that word hope.
And so, if we want hope, uh, what we need to do is really talk to the community. We need to engage with them. We have some difficult decisions. You know, people are talking about, do we consolidate into a campus like
Plymouth Canton? that strikes a nerve with a lot of people in our community who love our community schools. And when you look at the opportunities it creates, we also have to talk about what it does to that sense of community as well.
And so there's a balance there. How do we hear from our community? How do we get their input? So I'd I'd form a blue ribbon committee. It'd be comprised of stakeholders from a variety of uh areas in our our district. It would be parents.
It would be staff, administrators, we'd get the local businesses involved as well. And then we'd have a facilitated series of sessions. This is what we did in Gross Point to understand how what
mill rate is is palatable to the community. how much are we willing to pay and then what are we willing to do? And so we need to get their voice. I think in the first part I talked about giving the community agency. In our last $120
million bond, the community had $60 million to decide what they wanted to see in our schools. That brought buyin. What it felt like to the community is not it wasn't that we were doing it to them. it was we were doing it with them
shouldertosh shoulder and I think we have to invite them in to be a part of the process that requires patience because that means you have to go slower and so that's just something that we have to realize uh if we want support at
times we have to adjust our pace as well um regarding the external funding sources you know we look at what we did at Henry Ford College I know we had a grant to help with that welcome center we worked with our our state reps. You know, I know I've talked to Alab Farhat every
year we have opportunities to get grants in Gross Point, Senator Herell. Every year gives us about a million or two dollars to implement how we want. So, we have to leverage those pieces and we have to write the grants that are out there. There's plenty of grants. As I
said, Salina is a great example of what we can do when we write those grants and reach out to those uh foundations. We also have a very generous community. We have very successful business people. Couple of years ago there was a
individual in our community. He started he had started a 3D printing company uh and he specialized in metal 3D 3D printing and he printed parts for manufacturing. I want to say he sold the company for
$200 million. If we told him we needed some, you know, 3D printers for some of our STEM facilities, I'm confident he would donate. I think there are people out there who are willing to help. I think
we have to get this uh the voice of our community uh into this. Let me make sure I'm reading this. We have to work with the city. We have to see what they're willing to commit to as well. I think that's a big part of this. Look, working with our local
municipality. We have the cso uh millillage from our sewer and our water that's falling off. Could we work with them to ensure that there's no uh raise in the millage rate and then we could do something creatively?
So, partnering with our our community. >> Mr. Hanka, how would you go about evaluating the effectiveness of the curriculum, assessments, and teaching methods in the district. >> When you walk into the classrooms,
you can see the magic when it's happening. You can see the student engagement. You can see the joy. That is part of it. part of what we see, part of that experience that we want
with our students. But we also need to talk about formative assessments, right? Teaching in the moment. What does that look like? What do our teachers use to diagnose whether the student understood the material? And it could be so simple. Sometimes it's
just a little exit ticket out the door where you're reflecting on something you learned, right? Sometimes it's it's turn and talk and sharing with a partner. There's various ways that we can elicit responses from our students to know whether they're receiving that
curriculum. But if we want to evaluate the effectiveness, I think what we really need to do is monitor that. And we have to look at the data and we have to look at outcomes. And when we're looking at the methods in our district, we have to focus on the coaching that I
discussed earlier. If we are going to truly implement all of those 16 strategies of explicit instruction, we need the coaching and to support to make that happen in our district. We also need to talk to our teachers.
We also need to sit down and talk to our principles. When something isn't meeting our expectations or we're not getting the results that we need, we have to step back. We need to get curious. We have to ask a lot of questions.
Why are we not meeting the mark? Are we not meeting the mark because it was an implementation issue? We're not implementing with fidelity. In in such case, maybe we need more professional development. Are we not meeting the mark because we have the wrong resources? Do we need a
behavior specialist to help some of our students with their behavior? Or is it a program issue? Do we have outdated curriculum? Last year we were looking at some of our books in Gross Point. Our social studies books were 20 years old. A lot has
happened in the last 20 years that's relevant to the world of social studies. And so we have to examine the resources we're we're using, how upto-date they are, um, and make sure that everything in our system is connecting together.
>> Mr. Hanka, when problems arise or mistakes are made, how will you handle communication with the board, school employees, and the general public? With honesty and transparency? And I think with the board, the first
piece is no surprises. I don't want any surprises, and I'm confident that this board of education does not want any surprises. And so I'd work hand inand with you to talk about our protocols for communication. Currently what we do in Gross Point is
before we send anything out the the board gets eyes on it. They understand what's happening. They can provide us feedback. Um so make sure that you're always in the know. Um and I think there's a delicate balance. We want to be honest with our community.
We want to let them know when mistakes are made. But we also need to provide hope. What did we learn from it? How are we going to adjust moving forward? And I think that's the part that most parents are and stakeholders are concerned about
mistakes will always happen. How do you own it? How do you reflect? And then how do you improve moving forward so that way it doesn't happen again? I found more often than not that our parents and our community is very forgiving if they
know we're learning and growing just like we are with our students, right? And so I think we just need to be be very open and we need to be very transparent and we also need to be very consistent. I think that's the piece and we got to
draw everything we're doing back to our board policies. All right, next question. As a district, we have a unique and powerful relationship with Henry Ford College. Given the shifting landscape of student demand, ranging from traditional
degrees to dual enrollment and technical certifications, how would you specifically improve the collaboration between these two entities? Please address how you would align resources and coordinate academic pathways to ensure we are maximizing student opportunities while remaining fiscally
responsible. I'm reading this. Sorry, it's a long question. I had the opportunity to call David the other day and congratulate him on getting the job. And one of the things that we we talked about is if I'm so fortunate to get this position that we
would need to collaborate. Historically, I think there have been some walls between the K12 and our community college. I'll give you an example. My daughter, my oldest daughter, when she went to the Henry Ford Early College, took a
chemistry class. They had no lab because the building, the old building they were in, didn't have a chemistry lab. But Henry Ford College had dozens of chemistry labs, some sitting empty during the hour that she had chemistry.
But at that time, there was a wall. And so, if we're truly talking about putting students first, I think David and I can lead the way and we can make sure that we're working together. Our resources are tight
and so we have to get creative. How do we not double up on some of the resources? How can we work together? Because now we just built another building and we we put the chemistry labs and we did all the things we needed to do. But in the future when more pieces arise, how can
we work together? You know, we know that there's a lot of discussion about the Michael Berry Center. I hear discussions about the the auto facilities. Whether the bond, you know, whatever happens with the bond or not, Henry Ford has
amazing facilities. Henry Ford is under the toutelage of this same board. I think we can get creative with ways to also share spaces. That's something that we we need to discuss. Um so building that relationship with David
When we talk about th those pathways, we have to be mindful. So, I'm going to say this. There is a level of concern with what's happening to some of our traditional schools. There's a level of concern with what's
happening to Fortune. For example, if you take all your students, your advanced students, and you send them to dual enrollment, some of your top kids are gone for half the day. Take some of your students and you send
them to DCMS for half the day, you've siphoned off another chunk of your students. If you take the auto program out of Fortson and you move it, you have a segment of your population that was engaged. And now what have you done?
You've taken them off. And so what's happening more and more without us realizing is our high schools are becoming just the core primary instruction. And some of those pieces that hook our kids aren't there as much. And that's something we have to grapple
with. I think there's some difficult decisions that we have to make. You know, a having a robust AP program and having a robust dual enrollment program is really hard. So, if I'm a student, should I take AP Calc or should I take
dual enrollment calculus? And when you when you take students away from your building, you're actually changing the culture. Those students are leaders. those students are contributors.
And so that's something we also have to wrestle with when we create doors of opportunity. Sometimes there's an unintended impact on the other end. And then you have students who can't travel, who don't have a car to do dual enrollment, who maybe want those
opportunities. And so I think those these are all discussions that that we need to have as a community and as a board. We really need to talk to our building principles to understand how does all of this segue with like themies that we have at
Fortune as well. >> Right. Next question. Um the school serves a large English language learner population. How would you ensure accurate identification, proper tracking, and measurable academic
progress for ELS students? And what specific goals and accountability measures would you put in place to ensure th those outcomes are achieved? I think anyone who looks at our data understands that we have a large number
of EEL students that are not exiting our programs. That is probably the most glaring metric and we have to ask ourselves why. What are the barriers that are stopping our students from exiting? And as I went
back and I talked about earlier, is there an issue with instruction? Do we need PD? Is there an issue with resources? And we need to have coaches, smaller class sizes, or is there an issue with
our programming? Do we need to do it differently? We need to analyze how much pull out are we doing with our students? Do we pull them out of primary core classes or do we keep them in
there? How how do we push into those situations? What is our tier one instruction look like? Are we using our UFly curriculum? I think there's there's a lot of discussions that need to be had with the experts,
right? Um and so we we need to talk about what those metrics are. Do we need different metrics? But we also need to talk to our parents. I think if you talk to some of our parents, there's a sentiment at times that it's hard to get out of out of the
program. And I know there's many students who wanted to get out of the program and were discouraged to get out of the program and they've gotten out of the program and they became quite successful. I I have some family members that that happened to. And then there's a
resounding wondering, why did that happen? right? Why did we keep them in there? And so is that an adult-driven decision or is that a student driven decision? Uh so I think we we have to look at
those metrics. Uh but we also have to be committed. If what we're doing isn't working, get curious, get the experts into the room and say, "What can we do differently to shake things up?
Thank you so much. That's all the questions. So, uh, would you like to take a few minutes now to provide We would like to take a few minutes now to provide you with an opportunity to ask any question you might have for the board. And we're
at seven minutes for the audience. >> Yeah. Uh, wow. This was a more intense than the first one. So, thank you for having me here and I appreciate the questions being up on the screen. They were multiaceted and they were long. Um, first, you know, a couple of I don't
have any questions. There's a few things I would like to address maybe to the community, right? Um, so maybe my closing statements here. I you know, during the meet and greet, a lot of people ask me why Dearborn and why now? Are you just coming here to be the
superintendent? Are you chasing a position? And as I've said before, I'm long rooted in Dearbornne and I've chosen to stay here. And now what I want the community to know is I've applied three times to
come to Dearborn for three executive director positions and twice I was the runner up. So I made it to the finals and I was the runner up. This is the third time I'm in the finals. Maybe third time is the charm. What I want everyone to know is that I am committed to Dearborn. And each time I went
through that process, my conviction to come back home just grew stronger. My conviction to serve is just that more resounded in me. And so I want everyone to know I'm not chasing a position in this case. And this is a place I'm going
to come and I'm going to stay and I'm going to finish my career. My son is three years old. So just so everyone knows, I've got a lot longer to go as well. So, um, the other part is as I was a if I were a board member, I'd be looking saying he only has two years of
central office experience. That might be a question that comes forward or that community members have asked. And coming from a smaller district, I've had the opportunity to wear many hats. Our HR department is only three people.
Our curriculum department is only four people, much smaller than Dearborn. So what that means is we have to do a lot more and that's given me exposure into so many areas and facets of operation both at the executive level but also at
the building level. I'd also say I held probably the most important position in any district, a building principal. As a building principal, you are the boots on the ground. you're the frontline uh administrator dealing with parents, with
students and kids. And to do that successfully for 10 years, it hones your skill set. Um, but I what I've seen firsthand as a principal that would help me in this role is I have direct insight into how policy
impacts operation. And I know firsthand how district vision and the priorities set by the board in our structures impact our outcomes.
I always say HR is the knot that ties everything together. I work with our special ed department to ensure that they they have the resources they need. I work with the curriculum department. I work closely with the finance department and and I have learned so much by
working with our maintenance and our operations folks. And so HR touches every facet of operations. So what I could tell you is that skill set has honed me and I'm ready. I'm ready to lead and I'm ready to lead Dearbornne in
my systems thinking in my systemsbased approach is going to help me scale up. So th those are a few of the questions that I got that I you know want to put out there for everyone to hear. Um but in closing I've really enjoyed this
process. I've tried to share uh with you not only what I would do but also to share with you and get vulnerable as to who I am, where my heart is, where my values are. And so I've appreciated this opportunity to engage.
Dearborn has a shared uh has shaped me as a student, as a parent, as an educator, and as a community member. I believe deeply in the power of our educational system to transform lives. to strengthen our families and shape the future of the community. If I'm
fortunate enough to serve as the next superintendent of Dearborn public schools, you'll find in me a hopeful leader who inspires others, a thoughtful leader who listens with humility and reflects thoughtfully to identify those
opportunities to enhance our district for growth, and a courageous leader who will champion the changes needed to help us move forward. I'd be honored to serve this community as the next superintendent. Thank you very much for this amazing
opportunity. Uh and in the packet you'll see a few things. There's a sample of uh what I talked about with my hiring protocols that will will demonstrate uh some of those pieces I mentioned. There's some other components about staffing uh that will show my systems thinking. There's
another a couple of components about structures that I've built, but the other part in here, there's some communications I want you to really look at. And at the end, you'll see how I spoke to my staff, the words I used when I engaged with them, my opening letter at the beginning
of the year, and then some of the emails I would just send to them on a consistent basis. I think they reflect who I am as a human being. Thank you. So, Mr. H Mr. Ham, we sincerely appreciate
your time and continued interest in being the next superintendent of Dearborn Public School. We plan to make our final determination on Monday, May 4th, and we'll let you know of our decision immediately after. Thank you for being
here with us again today. Thank you. Thank you. >> Our pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. meeting still going on. >> It's okay. It's It's no It's no worry at all. >> All right.
>> I'm taking mine home. >> Next item. >> The next >> order. Order. >> Order, please. >> Order. Mr. Chair. Thank you. Just bear with us for a few more minutes. Thank you so much. >> The next item on the agenda is next
steps in this process from Mr. John Si. >> Thank you. >> All right. So bear with me for a few minutes. I want to touch on kind of where we've been, where we are now, and where we're going from here. So it's been a lengthy process. um started long
ago and uh it probably seemed like it would be forever to get here at the beginning, but here we are. So, um Sheila and I uh she's walking Musa up, but she'll be right back. But we want to thank you for uh your approach to this process, the board, you followed this
with fidelity. Um we appreciate that. That's really what we ask at the beginning, right? Trust us, trust the process. You've done that. And I think what you've accomplished by doing so is you followed a process that's been thorough, transparent,
inclusive, and um that in and of itself helps to instill confidence in your stakeholders that you've gone about this in the right way, which in turn leads to greater confidence that you will be making the right decision. So we want to thank you for that and tell you how much
we appreciate it. Um we want to thank your stakeholders, too. participation has been outstanding. I will tell you that um I've been doing this for a very long time. I'm the most experienced search consultant in our
organization and I may well be the most experienced search consultant in the state at this point. Um I've never seen this level of participation from >> community memberselcome >> staff members. Oh, I I've worked with
you folks before, so I am not surprised at all. But I still want to tell you how much I appreciate that and how meaningful that is, what a difference it makes. Just yesterday, um, in the question and answer sessions that we had, for example, at the administrative meeting, we had 31
participants. In the staff meeting, we had 28 participants. and the one set up for parents and community and others which did end up including quite a few staff members as well. We had 75 participants. Um and then on top of that, we had additional folks come in
for the meet and greet that took place afterward. And a lot of the people who were here for the the Q&A session stuck around for that too, just as an example. But I know it's been like that all the way through the process and it's been fantastic. So we appreciate that as
well. So now you're faced with making the the big final decision. Um, and it's not an easy one. It's we all know how impactful it is and and that puts a lot of pressure on you folks. Um, so it would be, I suppose, easier
perhaps if it was as simple as saying you're getting a lot of feedback, right? That may be an understatement. Um, it might it the the easiest path I suppose might be to say, who do most people seem to support and we'll just go with that
person, right? You don't have that luxury to abdicate your responsibility. I want to pull from a statement that you've been making all the way through in these interviews. Let me get to it, but I'm going to flip it.
Although we value and seriously consider the input of our stakeholders in the process, the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of the board of education as the elected representatives of our community.
That's a true statement, right? So absolutely you value what your constituents have to tell you. You should. It's really important and critical and you you're getting a lot of feedback, right? And people are are your folks are very passionate about this and
that's a wonderful thing. But it's not as simple as just seeing kind of taking the temperature and saying well most people seem to support this person or that person. We'll just do that. You've gone through an extensive process for a reason. Right? So I want to talk a little bit about the data that you've
collected too and you've got some time now to be very reflective and to think about that. And we really encourage you to do that too. Um, even if you're walking out of here tonight with a fairly good idea as to where you're leaning at this point, there's real
merit to taking a giant step backward and kind of going back to the beginning and being very reflective and thoughtful and deliberative about this decision. Right? So, I would suggest you go all the way back to the candidate profile and remember that was developed. That
was the first time we had a lot of community engagement. um that's a reflection of what you folks and all of your stakeholders said you think are the most important traits that your new superintendent needs to bring to the table. Right? So, I encourage you
to put kind of put that back in the forefront and remember that and remember that that's a kind of a a a snapshot of the kind of person you're looking for to fill this role, right? And then in terms of the data that you have, you've got a lot. You have the the materials that we
gave you initially which include the completed application form, resume, and cover letter. The candidates themselves have given you additional materials to consider. You've been through now two interviews with each that included the presentation.
You've taken lots of notes. You have the opportunity to go back, reread your own notes, and be reflective in terms of what you've heard. Um, you've gotten a lot of feedback from your constituents as a result of the interviews. You have the opportunity to
go back and look at that, too. We had the activities that took place over the last couple of days, right? And we've gotten feedback from that, too. The building tours, the question and answer sessions, the meet and greet. Um, again, there's an opportunity there to consider the feedback that you've
gathered from those activities. Um, and again, beyond all of that, I know you just have folks who just are going to tell you what they think and why they think that and and you want to hear from them, right? I think that's valuable and you certainly want to consider that. So, there's a lot there
for you to think about and to consider, but your job now more than anything is to pick the person who you think is the best person to lead Dearborn Public Schools from this point forward as of July, right? going forward, hopefully
for many, many years to come. So when we come back together on May 4th, you it it will be important that you walk in the door and after going through all of that, you have a firm idea in mind as to who you support and and have the opportunity to speak to that. So, as
we've done every step of the way, we'll ask that each of you one at a time individually speaks to who it is that you would like to this district to select as your next superintendent to whatever extent you'd like to. It's helpful if you can speak to your why.
It's transparent for your stakeholders, but maybe more importantly, you may be even at that moment, you may be prepared to say, "Here's who I support." But even in your mind then, it may be a close call. And it's going to be important to hear from your colleagues and to hear what they think and why they think that
before you take a final vote. So, as we've done again every step of the way, we'll see where there appears to be consensus. Right. And I want to emphasize this um because I think it's important not only for you but for anybody who's watching and listening too. Um you've got two finalists to
consider. both very highly qualified, both with tremendous strengths, experiences, um, and both with a lot of support, right? Um, and that's great. That's exactly where we want you to be in this position if all goes well. Um, but we need you now to think about not
only which of those two might you support. One choice always is we don't think we found the right person yet, and I'm not saying that because of the candidates that you have left to consider. I say that to all boards. It's important that everybody knows that
you cannot and will not settle for a position that's this critical to the success of this district. So, if you were to walk in here on May 4th believing that you have not yet found the right person to lead this district, that's what you should say.
I'm going to assume that you're more likely to say, "We believed we have, and here's who I would like to select." But I want everybody to be mindful of the fact that this can't be a default decision. This has to be a proactive decision where you say we really do believe that the right person was in
this process is prepared to be our next superintendent and we're going to put our support behind that person. So each of you will speak individually. We'll see where there is four or more uh who has that level of support. Someone will make a motion that would be seconded.
There certainly could be additional discussion at that point. Again, I'll emphasize as we have all the way through, what's really critical is that we never speak in terms of why we would not like to select somebody. It's always in the affirmative and it's always about why you do think
somebody should be selected to be your next superintendent. So, once you've all been heard, we see where the support lies, you have a motion, seconded discussion, and you take a vote, you will have then selected your next superintendent. But as far as the vote goes, we mentioned this before, but it's
important to mention it again. And this is advice. This is not a mandate. But let's suppose, and it could happen, that there's not unanimity when each of you speaks to who you'd like to select. It's entirely possible that there won't be, right? Could be five of you support one
candidate, two the other, four for one, three for the other. We don't know. What's going to be important, though, is that the handwriting will be on the wall when you see who four or more of you support. We know that person is going to get at least four votes and be selected as the next superintendent. So when it
comes time to take the vote, what we encourage board members to do, those of you who spoke in favor of the other candidate, you will have already been very transparent about your thoughts, you would have said it out loud for everybody to hear. So you won't be disingenuous at this point if what you
do is vote yes on the motion. It's really beneficial if that motion gets a 70 vote because what you show is that I may have said I would prefer to select the other candidate, but now that I know the board is going to select the other
person, I'm going to immediately put my support behind the person who's going to become our next superintendent. And we are now going to operate as a unified group. You're going to show board unity and you're going to show immediate support for the person who's been selected. Again, that's advice.
You can take it or leave it, but we feel strongly that that is the right step to take and is best practice for boards. So once the vote's taken um you will have selected the person that you'd like to be your next superintendent. The last remaining step is to negotiate a
contract. Once you've successfully done so, you will have to take board action at a public meeting to approve that contract and officially hire the next superintendent. Um, and I presume all of that will happen in a timely enough manner that you'll be ready for that person to take
the helm of your district as of July 1st, which is the start of your new fiscal year. Are there any questions about any of that that we can answer for you? >> Trusty Trusty Z. >> Um, I have two questions or three actually.
Um, first, can we get the the two presentations? Can we get those emailed to us? Is that proper? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. My next question is last uh in our last meeting when we whittleled down to the um finalists. >> Yes.
>> We went around the table once and then we continued sort of more um debate after that. Is that >> um obviously that's up to us, but is that something you recommend or you see a lot or you know, how do you what do you think of that? I I I think when you're down to two finalists, that's not
as valuable and um not as beneficial. So, I would suggest that's probably not what we want to do. But, I think we have to be in the moment to be honest because we can't predict what you're going to say and what you're thinking at that time. I wouldn't want to discourage you from having any type of dialogue that you would need to. It's too important a
decision. So, I would say I I'm anticipating that you would not necessarily need to have that type of discussion, but we'll leave the door open to it. >> Okay. Okay. And my last question is your um tell me if I'm wrong, I don't remember. Your your work with us is until a
contract is signed. >> Yes. >> Or is your work done after we se select somebody? >> Well, technically I I'll tell you this. So, our work is not done until the contract is signed. where we advise districts to use the the district attorney who helps you with such matters to really work out the contract. We can
still advise as you're going through negotiations. If you have questions, things you're wondering about, you want our opinion, we're happy to weigh in on that. But even then, it's not quite done per the agreement that we have. Two things. One, um we will come back at
your request. We won't push ourselves on you, but if you would like us to return to facilitate an orientation session for the new governance team, including the new superintendent, we will do that. Typically, that's like a three-hour evening meeting, and that's already part of the contract. That's not additional
an additional fee for that. The other part of that is that we provide mentoring for your new leader in his first year on the job. So, um, and typically that would be me as the lead consultant. So I would serve in that role. Although if if your person is is
comfortable reaching out to Sheila for something too, absolutely she could be helpful. So um that relationship um is what the candidate what what this the new superintendent wants to make of it. Right. I've had some folks who take
minimal advantage of that and I've had some folks who take extensive advantage of that. it's really up to that person, but we're prepared to assist in any way that they can. And even at that, when I say the first year on the job, that's true. Um, but you know, we still hear
from people who were hired in searches we did years and years and years ago. And if it's an occasional phone call or reach out with a question, a concern, they just want somebody to bounce something off of, you know, we're we're always available for that type of thing. >> So, given that, my last question is very
quick. So, what is the normal I know that nothing's exact, but what's the normal time frame from the time of an appointment in a vote to the time a contract is finalized in your experience in superintendent positions? >> Could be two to three to four weeks. Um, >> two to three to four.
>> Yeah. So, two to four is a big >> I'm thinking out loud. >> Um, I say more often than not it can be a couple of weeks, but and this is important to say too what you should be prepared for and it's okay. you I would hope you wouldn't look at it negatively.
Um typically the board will present the the initial contract that you draft to the candidate for their consideration, right? And um it's totally appropriate for that person then to engage his own attorney for example to look at that to review it, come back with a counter
offer. So there could be some negotiation and that's where it's hard to predict exactly how long it's going to take. Sometimes that goes quickly. You come to quick agreement. Sometimes there's quite a bit of back and forth. um it takes a little bit longer. There's no right or wrong way that that
goes. The the important thing though is in terms of timing um it should happen in ample time for that person to come to agreement, you to take action, for that person if need be to give notice um and to be free to start here on July 1st. In terms of the timing of all of this is
going to work out quite well. It should. >> Please. >> Thank you so much uh for all the questions. You go ahead. I would just like to add to um John's comments that now that you know that you're going to be hiring a new superintendent and we've gone
through the interview process to reach out to the district's attorney now and start uh the development of a contract for the new superintendent in preparation for making that decision um on the fourth.
>> Okay, we'll do. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? If no other question then uh then no other business then we adjourn the meeting. Thanks everyone.