Three Ann Arbor schools administrators to retire by the end of June
This story has been updated to reflect that Sharman Spieser will continue working for the district on a part-time basis during the 2011-12 school year.
The end of June will be a time of upheaval in the Ann Arbor Public Schools’ Balas Administration Building — three administrators are set to retire on June 30 and new superintendent Patricia Green arrives July 1.
Among the administrators retiring will be interim deputy superintendent for instruction LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley, who has been in the district for 38 years. Joining Dickinson-Kelley in retirement will be Ruth Williams, interim assistant superintendent of elementary education and Michele Madden, elementary curriculum coordinator.
Dickinson-Kelley said she’s been spending portions of the last few weeks preparing district officials for the transition. She said she’s been blessed to spend her career in Ann Arbor.
“It feels less like work and more like being in the right place at the right time,” she said. “My job chose me as much as I chose it. It’s truly very satisfying and I’m glad I’ve been able to affect the lives of children for all these years. That’s what’s sustaining and fulfilling.”
With Dickinson-Kelley, Williams and Madden all leaving the district at the same time Green enters, the new superintendent will have some important hires right as she joins the district.
District spokesperson Liz Margolis said interim Superintendent Robert Allen has kept Green abreast of happenings in the district in weekly discussions. Margolis said the position of deputy superintendent for instruction will be posted shortly and the district will go through the hiring process with Green becoming involved, and ultimately making the decision, once she comes on board.
Margolis said she was not aware of an immediate plan to fill the other positions left vacant by Williams and Madden. It will be hard losing all of the administrators who are retiring, but Margolis said the district is prepared.
“The people that we’re losing we’re going to really miss, but there’s some good people out there too,” she said. “You’ve gotta have hope and keep moving forward.”
Margolis said Williams had retired last year but returned to help fill Dickinson-Kelley’s old position as the head of elementary curriculum after previous Superintendent Todd Roberts left the district. Madden had also previously retired and was working on a part-time basis.
Spieser was one of 32 AAPS employees who had accepted the one-year extension of the retirement package offered by the state of Michigan at the end of the 2009-10 school year.
School board President Deb Mexicotte said the district is going through a time of transition but she believes AAPS will be able to handle the arrival of Green, the return of Allen to his role as deputy superintendent for operations and the loss of the four administrators.
“It’s my job to try and make Dr. Green’s transition as seamless as possible and support Robert Allen back into his deputy superintendent for operations role, and all of the remaining administrators,” she said. “It’s a time of transition for the district but it’s been a time of transition for the district,” emphasizing the word "been."
Dickinson-Kelley said she wanted to do her best to keep her retirement quiet to not be a distraction for the district near the end of the school year. She’s planning to spend her retirement being “Grammy” for her 2-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter and spending more time with her family.
During the past school year,Dickinson-Kelley was involved in starting several major initiatives in the district, including the Mitchell/Scarlett-University of Michigan Partnership and the Ann Arbor Language Partnership with U-M. She said she was confident the leadership in both programs would allow them to continue without major disruption following her departure.
She said she’s been working with Kevin Karr, the incoming principal at Mitchell Elementary School, and Gerald Vazquez, principal at Scarlett Middle School, recently to prepare them for her departure. She’s also met with various members on the district and U-M sides of the partnership and she’s very confident both programs will continue as planned.
“It would not be in my nature to leave anything that had loose ends and was not well-cared for,” she said.
Losing Dickinson-Kelley and her knowledge of the Ann Arbor schools will be a tough pill to swallow, the school board president said.
“It’s certainly a well-deserved retirement. Her retirement is a huge loss to the district and she has been tireless in her pursuit of achievement for our students,” Mexicotte said. “She loves her work in a way only the most passionate educators do.”
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Tony Dearing
Sun, Jun 19, 2011 : noon
A number of off-topic comments were removed and commenting on this story has been closed.
Kyle Feldscher
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 11:52 p.m.
I posted this as a reply to another comment but I wanted to make sure it was readily available for everyone to see. This website shows current enrollment information for Dicken, which has actually increased enrollment steadily since 2007. <a href="http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MI/schools/0282004010/school.aspx" rel='nofollow'>http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MI/schools/0282004010/school.aspx</a> Here is a link to the state's MEAP results for Dicken. <a href="https://oeaa.state.mi.us/oeaa/directory/index.asp?DCode=81010&BCode=00915" rel='nofollow'>https://oeaa.state.mi.us/oeaa/directory/index.asp?DCode=81010&BCode=00915</a>
lynel
Sun, Jun 19, 2011 : 2:39 a.m.
Again, Kyle, you are trying to confuse us with facts!
motheroffour
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 6:48 p.m.
Agree with you Momma and MD Man. Nobody can can be effective in an administrative role at Balas without Green resolving the problems. Everyone knows the exact problem. You would begin to question those that want a high profile job like these administrative openings (and high pay) and being self confident that can be successful with a couple of bad situations they inherit. It would be wise for Green to remedy the situation before moving forward with replacing the administrators. Green is a good manager and it makes good management sense to help those you hire be successful. Start fresh and level the playing field. Our students deserve an opportunity to again be in one of the best schools in the country.
Momma G
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 6:06 p.m.
I agree, do they really need to replace these administrators? Give the money to the children in AAPS. If they do replace Mrs. Dickinson-Kelley, I hope that the new one will do their best to "evaluate" the principals and discipline/fire when necessary rather than keep them on year after year when they don't do their "job(s)." The wasted dollars that AAPS has spent on these types of people is unbelievable.
Amy Lesemann
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 8:48 p.m.
Actually, while I think that there are too many administrators overall, Ms. Dickinson Kelly worked hard and helped a good deal. She is actually a real loss. Can't necessarily say the same for everyone else....
Stephen Landes
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 4:46 p.m.
I recommend that these four administrators not be replaced; that all responsibilities be reassigned in a reorganization of the District offices. This recommendation is NOT a slam of the four individuals. However, their retirements need to be taken as an opportunity to reduce District administrative costs relative to actual instruction costs.
tmo
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 1:49 p.m.
I'd like to know more about what these administrators do and how much they make.
John B.
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 4:04 p.m.
I'd like to know more about what y'all do and how much y'all make.
limmy
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 1:35 p.m.
1 request.......hire from within this district. Give the opportunities to the talented and hard working staff here instead of searching elsewhere.
Brad
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 12:54 p.m.
A "time of upheaval" even though there are no current plans to fill three of the four soon-to-be-vacated positions? Yeah, the salary that they're going to pay the incoming super makes me think about some "upheaval".
Greg Gunner
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 12:43 p.m.
"No parent of sound mind would ever encourage their children to enroll in a teacher preparation program. The teaching profession is dead!" I couldn't agree more. Our younger teaching staff was advised to seriously consider leaving education for a profession that would better enable them to support themselves and their families. Teaching has never paid a salary comparable to the private sector inspite of the Republican ranting. With attacks on working conditions (lack of supplies, huge class sizes, etc.), benefits, and job security, why would anyone want to be a teacher? Teachers love their jobs, but loving your job won't pay your mortgage payment.
Basic Bob
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 3:50 p.m.
Teachers painted the target on their own backs. A little foresight during contract negotiations would have avoided the harsh response from the people that they serve - the Public. Incoming teachers have already found that the field is closed to them due to a surplus of tenured and tired teachers.
xmo
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 12:39 p.m.
The question I want to ask is: Do we really need to replace the four retirees? Why not leave their positions unfilled and have more money for the students. With the pending budget cuts to he schools, I am sure that the students need the money a lot more than some old administrators! Also, after $700,000 plus spent on health care for ineligible dependents last year the students need a break!
Lac Court Orilles
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 11:48 a.m.
These people had to retire in order for the school system to be able to afford the new higher superintendent salary starting this summer. In addition, with the Republican teacher bashers increasing their efforts to shift education from public schools to their own businesses called charter schools, who would blame anyone for retiring now. This is all very unfortunate that Republicans have been so successful at ruining careers in education. No parent of sound mind would ever encourage their children to enroll in a teacher preparation program. The teaching profession is dead!
ViSHa
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 1:28 p.m.
Oh good, we got that out of the way. Let me add, Slick Rick, Slickster, TeapubliKans, etc... Now we can get back to actually making comments relevant to the story. Seems like these are some big holes left in elementary curriculum. I am surprised Ms. Dickinson-Kelley wants to leave now when her pet project, PEG & Singleton are supposedly getting on the right track.
Bulldog
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 11:16 a.m.
What a loss for the district to lose LeeAnn. The curriculum position was filled in February.
DonBee
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 11:10 a.m.
Let's hope the new adult education coordinator gets a real program running. For years AAPS has projected $200,000 as the gross income from adult education. This is about 10 percent of several other districts of the same size. It may be that all the adults in the AAPS school district are well educated and don't need any adult education, but on the other hand if that were true, I would suspect that we would not have an issue with parent involvement in schools.
KJMClark
Sun, Jun 19, 2011 : 2:21 a.m.
"It may be that all the adults in the AAPS school district are well educated and don't need any adult education, but on the other hand if that were true, I would suspect that we would not have an issue with parent involvement in schools." I'm sure there's a bit of logic intended in that, but I'm not getting it, and I work with logic for a living. Wouldn't "people are very busy" explain both?
CLX
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 11:01 a.m.
Let's hope that the new administrators bring with them a new attitude. The Mitchell-Scarlett initiative is a classic example of AAPS trying to push through a huge change without giving parents enough notice or, worse yet, bothering to include them in the process and decision. I hope AAPS learns that parents want notice and involvement. Playing musical chairs with our principals is another example. Several long-standing principals were removed from their schools with no notice and no explanation. Teachers who were told that they would be moving positions have gotten absolutely no indication of where they might land and when they might find out. They have gotten no word whatsoever from this administration about what the process will be like and when it might even begin. So much for giving them time to prepare for a new school year, especially when most expect to teach a new grade level and a new subject. And that attitude trickles down to individual principals. Deny and hide.
Amdman1953
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 7:38 p.m.
The Dicken Lunch Bunch and admin cover-up would rate a very close second.
Carole
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 12:34 p.m.
That seems to be the way AAPS works -- hopefully the new superintendent will realize the importance of "good communication and timely communication".
15crown00
Sat, Jun 18, 2011 : 10:35 a.m.
got out while the gettins good.