Professional Services, Donations and Student Achievements Discussed at Board Meeting

After several students from Dearborn Schools’ Montessori preschool led board members and a relatively sparse audience in the Pledge of Allegiance during Monday night's meeting, the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education made a number of decisions that will set the tone for the 18,500-student district for the next several months.

The board voted to purchase a specialized literacy program from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called the Rigby Leveled Reader books, for $21,831. The readers are designed to supplement an existing literacy intervention program for students attending Maples Elementary.

In addition, the district also agreed to a number of personnel actions, including hiring teachers to replace those who have retired or resigned.

But perhaps the best news out of the meeting was the fact that the district accepted 13 donations this month–several of them coming from the Dearborn Education Foundation, which is a primary local fund-raising nonprofit for the district. Donations accepted Monday evening included computers, a Christmas tree, 857 books, bags, puzzles, 47 percussion instruments and $11,416 in cash to be used at various schools.

“The foundation was founded in the mid-1990s and has given about $1.2 million to the schools for things we would otherwise not be able to afford,” said David Mustofen, the district’s spokesman, of the DEF.

“The money is used in the classrooms to pay for equipment and to pay for transportations and other expenses. It’s been an asset to our district.”

The board also announced that they had received nine bids for legal work, which will be debated further by the finance committee to make sure the district is getting a good deal when it hires a firm.

“I don’t think we can have a situation where we put out an RFP (request for proposal), then hire someone,” said Trustee Pamela Adams. “Now that people are looking for business, we have people coming to us.”

She added that an analysis by the finance committee could save the district money down the line.

One exception could be the attorneys working on the negotiations between the district and the 1,200-member Dearborn Federation of Teachers, who have not ironed out a collective bargaining agreement. Trustee Hussien Berry said they should be allowed to continue until that process has played out.

In a separate note, Berry also said he would like to see an overview of how and why students are suspended.

“I would like to know more about suspensions in the district because if we have a student that is suspended for 10 days, what happens after that?” he said. “I know we have intervention programs, but what happens after that?”

Negotiations did not come up during the meeting, but members of the teacher’s union did attend the meeting, with faculty of talking about their school's accomplishments.

Dearborn Federation of Teachers President Chris Sipperley did say a negotiation session last Monday between the district and the union went well, because both sides had a chance to examine the fact finder’s report that was commissioned to clarify the outstanding concerns of the district and union and make recommendations.

“Things went better than they did before, and I think they have a better understanding about what we need,” she said. “We have another session scheduled for Friday.

Mustofen would only say that the district is taking the report under advisement, and that he hopes an agreement can be inked soon.

The board will meet again at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 at the e's Mazzara Services and Conference Center for their regular HFCC meeting. The next regular board meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Dearborn Administrative Service Center, with an executive session preceding at 6 p.m.