Contention is common for the Grosse Pointe Board of Education (BOE). It certainly was the case with the board’s recent decision to appoint Dr. Roy Bishop as the next superintendent of GPPSS.
It wasn’t so much the BOE’s decision as it was the process. At the Feb. 23 board meeting – the Board held a closed process, rare for a district of Grosse Pointe’s size, withdrawing from its usual process of reviewing applicants and interviewing candidates The BOE has since been hit with heavy backlash from the community, most significantly from supporters of the two board members who voted in opposition to the process and the initial decision to appoint Bishop as superintendent: Trustees Sean Cotton and Ginny Jeup. Intense criticism also came from the opposing board members themselves.
‘Idiots’ is how Cotton referred to the five majority trustees, adding that they are “ends justify the means’ people” in an interview with The Tower. Additionally, both Jeup and former BOE president Ahmed Ismail posted comments on FaceBook regarding the matter. Ismail wrote that the board’s process had flaws that “even the most casual of school board observers” could notice.
“I have almost zero respect for these trustees now,” Cotton said. “I lost all respect for them. [Bishop’s appointment] makes zero sense. In an organization like the school board, process matters so much. I mean, it’s a hundred-million-dollar budget. You need discipline, you need organization to run a premier school district – and just throwing out process? You just don’t do it.”
In the past, the board has reviewed upwards of 40 applications for superintendent and gathered information from over 850 community survey respondents. This was not the case for Bishop’s appointment, as the board’s new policy only required one applicant, with no other methods of sourcing having been used.
“We need a long transition process with our current superintendent, who has helped stabilize the district,” Derringer said at the Feb. 23 board meeting, advocating for this year’s process of selection. “Spending time on a search process minimizes the overlap time for transition. That would be a bad decision.”
In the midst of the debate, the result of the March 9 board meeting came as a surprise to GPPSS citizens from both sides on the controversy: The board not only appointed Bishop as superintendent, but did so in a 7-0 unanimous vote. The reason for this change of heart? Both sides of the board credit Bishop, specifically, the meetings he scheduled with each board member prior to his appointment to discuss numerous goals and expectations for themselves along with Bishop, the board and the district.
“I hope to work with our community to build an environment where we can disagree with civility and keep our focus on what is right for students,” Bishop wrote in an email to The Tower. “I am ready to continue the work Dr. Tuttle has started. I am ready to listen. And I am ready to lead alongside this board and this community.”
