CEO to take over academics of four East Detroit schools
The state will appoint a chief executive officer to oversee four chronically low-performing schools in East Detroit Public Schools.
It's an aggressive move by the State School Reform Office — and the biggest since Gov. Rick Snyder removed the office from the Michigan Department of Education to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
The CEO, to be appointed by the end of this school year, will have full authority over academics for three years and be ultimately responsible for ensuring achievement improves at those schools. The four schools are Bellview Elementary, Pleasantview Elementary, Kelly Middle and East Detroit High.
The appointment of the CEO in East Detroit is part of the reform office's urgent mission.
"We've been largely focused on rapid school turnaround," said Natasha Baker, the state school reform officer. "Our mission is to turn priority schools into the highest-performing schools in the state."
Schools whose academic performance ranks among the bottom 5% in the state are identified as priority schools.
The state made the announcement today while also noting that 30 of the 88 schools named priority schools in 2012 are being removed from the list because they met annual goals in reading and math, plus met a goal of testing 95% of their students.Twenty-three of those schools have closed since 2012.
Snyder announced the move of the school reform office in March. At the time, he said the state needed a more proactive approach to fixing the worst-performing schools in the state. The move was largely seen as a way for Snyder to have direct control over the office. The MDE is overseen by an elected State Board of Education that is controlled by Democrats. The DTMB office is led by a Snyder appointee.
All four of the East Detroit schools named are priority schools.
East Detroit Superintendent Ryan McLeod said in a statement that while he's aware of the announcement of a CEO, "we are not clear what this additional intervention means."
But he reiterated what officials with the Macomb Intermediate School District said in a news release today:
"I believe there is no one better prepared to turn our district around than we are, in partnership with Macomb Intermediate School District," he said.
In 2015, the district emerged from years of financial distress, eliminating an $8.5 million deficit over five years.The current school year is the first in a while that the CEO to take over academics of four East Detroit schools:
