School District Agreements Give Students More Options

Two agreements recently inked by the Dearborn Board of Education will give students more vocational options, but some board members wonder if students have been made aware of the options.

The Wayne-Westland School District, which operates a vocational school called the William D. Ford Center, and the Michigan Institute of Aviation and Technology in Canton, will now be able to accept students from Dearborn Public Schools who wish to study a variety of vocational programs, including several offerings at William Ford, and aircraft maintenance and repair at MIAT.

Dearborn also has its own vocational school, the Michael Berry Career Center, which houses vocational programs for medical careers, culinary arts, computer careers and several others. Many of the same programs are offered at William Ford; the only programs not offered in Dearborn are construction technology and child care management.

Cosmetology classes are offered at William Ford, but the school will discontinue those classes at the end of this school year.

Dearborn Schools spokesman David Mustonen said the agreements are not new, but must be in place in case a student decides he or she would like to attend either school.

“We didn’t have anyone attending classes at Wayne-Westland this year, and we had one last year,” he said. “But if one of their programs is a better fit for whatever reason, then the agreements are necessary.”

Charlotte Sherman, the deputy superintendent of Wayne-Westland Community Schools, said enrolling a student from a district that has a large vocational program is rare.

“Many of the students that we receive attend smaller school districts that don’t have the kind of program we have,” she said. “But every now and then, a student from a larger district like Dearborn or Plymouth-Canton does enroll.”

At a recent school board meeting, trustee Hussein Berry wondered if students were aware of the partnerships.

“Are we doing anything to market this?” he asked.

Michael Shelton, the director of special education, oversees all interdistrict agreements. He said students are made aware of these options though their counselor, but added that most students now choose to attend the Berry Center.

“With the opening of the Berry Center, that’s the direction most students are moving in,” he said.

There is a financial incentive for the schools to keep as many vocational students in-district as possible, too. When a district sends a student to another district for classes, it must share its state per-pupil allowance with the other district on a pro-rated basis.

Dearborn Superintendent Brian Whiston said, however, sending students to other districts makes sense in some cases–especially when they're interested in a program DPS doesn't offer.

“It’s not cost effective to have a program that only a few students are interested in,” he said. “But we can still get them into the program they’re interested in because of agreements with other districts.”