A year and a half ago, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, forcing Kamala Harris to carry on the campaign for its final 107 days. Voters across the country expressed frustration at the lack of a primary to choose the Democratic nominee, insisting that Harris had been pushed into the spotlight without voters’ choosing her. Now our Board of Education (BOE) did the same thing in selecting Grosse Pointe Public School System’s (GPPSS) new superintendent; the only difference is that the Democrats did not have time for a primary, but we have months to select a superintendent. By unnecessarily condensing a 14-week process into two, the BOE majority is silencing the voices of the community and the minority of the board.
When current superintendent Dr. Andrea Tuttle announced her resignation, she purposefully made it take effect on Aug. 31 to “allow for thoughtful planning and a smooth, positive transition for our district and community.” The board is robbing us of this process, using its 5/7 majority to skip the search process and directly vote to appoint Deputy Superintendent Dr. Roy Bishop to the position. Board trustees Ginny Jeup and Sean Cotton even brought forward a motion asking for just a public interview before hiring him: rejected by the majority. When Tuttle applied, she, among other applicants, faced multiple rounds of public interviews before a decision was made; why isn’t Bishop held to the same standard? This streamlined, closed-door process goes strongly against the Michigan Association of School Boards’ standards, and it is incomprehensible to think that a board, which has failed to hold on to stable leadership for a better part of a decade, thinks that it is in a position to say it knows better than the rest of us. It’s shown time and time again, it isn’t.
Tuttle, who had decades of superintendent experience coming into the district, was one of over 50 applicants, according to a sitting board member who was part of that search. By foregoing a process, the BOE is actively turning away dozens of qualified candidates who, at a minimum, deserve an interview. How can the board be confident with their hire before at least seeing who else is interested in the position? Is 20+ years of experience not enough to warrant consideration? There are other qualified people within our district alone, and it is a slap in the face to not even give them a chance to apply. Dr. Roy Bishop is an outstanding candidate who has long proved he can lead this district, but he should have to stand before Grosse Pointe and make his case for the job. If anything, he would come out of those interviews looking even stronger, as if he had won a primary. Instead, just as half the country viewed Harris’s nomination with an asterisk next to it, many in the community will see Bishop’s in the same light, which he does not deserve.
Trustee Valerie St. John, along with the board majority, defended their actions, saying the district will save time and money skipping the search when they already have a favorite candidate in mind. However, how did the board come to the consensus that he was the best choice? They certainly did not do it in public, like they were elected to do. How did they even know Bishop wanted the job without a formal application? These things simply can not be decided in secret. This choice wasn’t a fiscal one, but one about power and control. The majority is sacrificing transparency just to crowd Jeup and Cotton out of the process, despite both showing public support of Bishop’s leadership.
As always, the BOE’s main issue remains a lack of trust with citizens of Grosse Pointe, which they can only blame themselves for. Dr. Bishop is a phenomenal individual and absolutely the right person to lead our district, but not under these circumstances. In the words of Valerie St. John, “the fix was in,” and we should expect better from our elected officials. If we can not expect better now, let’s demand better on election day.
Updated on: March 23, 2026
