Dearborn Superintendent To Co-Chair Michigan Education Work Group

DEARBORN, MI — Dearborn Schools Superintendent Dr. Glenn Mayeyko will co-chair one of three work groups established to help provide input on determining how and when Michigan schools return to in-person sessions.

Maleyko will co-chair the urban-focused work group convened by Michigan Department of Education Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice. Maleyko will co-chair the group with Michigan Deputy State Superintendent Dr. Sue Carnell, who formerly was the superintendent of Westwood Schools.

“To be clear, the task force will decide how schools will look when they reopen in the fall,” Maleyko said. “Our goal in the work group is to consider various options and then offer input from the schools’ perspectives in order to provide recommendations to the state superintendent and the governor’s task force. We will also help shape MDE’s recommendations for how to implement those changes.”

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Michigan has reported over 54,000 cases of the coronavirus as of Monday. The virus has prompted to closure of businesses across the state, some of which are allowed to reopen as soon as Tuesday.

In March, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all schools to close to slow the spread of the coronavirus, later extending that closure through the rest of this school year.

Whitmer announced May 15 she would form a Return To Learn Task Force to help determine how Michigan schools would reopen during the next school year.

The Return to Learn Task Force will include members of the MDE, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and health experts. Whitmer is also taking applications for a Return to Learn Advisory Council that could provide suggestions to the task force.

Dearborn Public Schools has also formed its own reopening committee to look at the particulars of how its schools will operate in the fall. That committee is chaired by Maysam Alie-Bazzi, executive director of staff and student services; Jane Mazza, president of the Dearborn Federation of Teachers union; and David Higgins, principal at William Ford Elementary and president of the Association of Dearborn School Administrators.

Dearborn Schools cannot release a plan for school reopening until it receives direction from the state, Maleyko said. For example, state law spells out that students need to attend class in person 180 days a year for districts to receive their state funding. While schools can get waivers for some students to attend online, it would take a change at the state level to permit students to attend school entirely online or even to develop a hybrid of half in-class and half online learning, Maleyko said.

The Return to Learn Task Force would be the ones to make such a recommendation. In announcing the creation of the task force, Whitmer said the group would develop “recommendations on how to safely, equitably and efficiently return to school in the fall.”

“I am pleased to head this work group and to be able to offer our input on how to implement whatever plans the state determines are necessary for minimizing the health risk to our students and staff as we resume school next year," Maleyko said.