001It is 7:25. I am calling the board back to order to begin our next interview. >> Good evening. On behalf of Wayne Westland Community Schools, I would like to welcome Alex Oily back for this second interview for the position of superintendent. Dr. Oily is assistant superintendent of human resources for Wayne Westland Community Schools. I will take just a moment to describe our format. Good evening. The interview may take up to 75 minutes. It will begin with a presentation on the topic provided by the board. Following your presentation, there will be 14 questions. Toward the end of the interview, time permitting, we will give you an opportunity to ask questions of the board and make closing remarks. We will indicate if time is becoming an issue and there is a need to pick up the pace
002of your responses. Again, for those present for this interview, we welcome and encourage your feedback. Rather than making public comments about our candidates, we ask that you use the QR code provided for this purpose. Although the task of choosing our next superintendent is the responsibility of the board of education as the elected representatives of our community, we value and serious seriously consider the input of our stakeholders in the process. Dr. Oily, you may begin your presentation on the following topic. How will you grow the district with a focus on full utilization of the career tech center? >> Thank you. President is the cler. We should have had music for when they walked. >> Okay. I would like to first start off by thanking the board of education for their this approach in um the interview
003process. I would also like to thank all the stakeholders that are in attendance today because this, as I said in my first interview, is a very important decision for the entire school district. And I want to also start off by saying that I believe that the best leaders listen, reflect, and learn. And the reason why I'm saying that, part of what I did the first time when I was being interviewed is I asked the board some very targeted questions. And I took the feedback from what I heard, and I'm going to share some of that feedback as I present today. In the picture right there, you guys see the for William D. Ford Career Technical Center and Trusty Cox referred to it as the diamond of trade schools. I believe that the William D. Ford
004Techn Career Technical Center is going to be a unifying school for the community. And in this picture, you also see a couple of people that I'm going to point out. We have Tanya Carpinsky, who is the UNISER director that represents four different collective bargaining groups. You have the NBA president Steve Khan who is the uh he's been a teacher for a long time and he now is the head of the NBA and we have Bob Schindler who is the attorney for legal counsel for the district that represent represents legal matters and he comes from Miller Johnson. There's a lot of conversation around how we work as a leadership team with the unions. And as you guys can see last week, I was in attendance for the Wayne Westland Education Foundation Uncorked and Untapped event. And
005at that moment, you guys saw unification right there. And part of what's going to happen from the William D4 Career Tech Center, we're going to bring the community in. Last week I was talking to the board and they mentioned something and it came from uh trustee Roshan. He talked about the importance of the three C's community, collaboration and comm communication. And I believe that's going to be the Wayne Westland advantage. That's how we're going to bring people in and grow as a school district. Trusty Hines talked about the importance of using the uh uh CTC as a community hub. And I believe that we're going to be able to have community members come into the school through our adult education. And the way that we're going to fund that is through tuition and from federal
006uh funds to cover operating costs. The other important piece is collaboration. As we look at all of the things that we offer across the uh Ford Career Tech Center, we need to expand those offerings. and the way that we're going to do it because what I heard from the community is the importance of them being a part of the discussion. So through collaboration, we're going to determine which offerings we're going to have and we're going to expand those offerings and I'll talk about what that looks like shortly. And then trustee or President May discuss the importance of strategically promoting things through two-way communication. So if we focus on community collaboration and communication, we're going to be able to grow the Ford Career Tech Center. Now, one thing that I think everyone needs to understand is
007the power of our comm community communication is going to come through the people. In this picture, we have Jenny Johnson. Jenny Johnson is our director of communication and she has a child that has come through the career tech center and is now a teacher in the school district. And one of the things that she said about the career tech center is parents should talk to their kids about their options. Students can be on the collegebound route and go into trades straight into the workforce. There's truly something for everyone here. When you talk about the Wayne Westland advantage, it starts with the people. Jenny Johnson is a product of uh Wayne Wesland. Her kids are a product of Wayne Westland and her child is now a teacher in the district. The first thing that we have
008to do is talk about building on our success from programs to pathways. So presently we have state-of-the-art facilities, cutting edge tools and resources. I've been in the district for four years, but yesterday I had an opportunity to go to seven different buildings and the career tech center was one of them. I had an amazing tour that was led by Josh Reiki and he walked me through and showed me some things that were really special that make our play uh the Wayne Westland extremely special. We have regional partners with 18 school districts. That's great that we have people coming in, but I'm going to talk about what what it can look like in the future. We also have 21 distinct programs that we offer. We have industry experienced uh teachers that lead those classes and that's
009exactly what we need to show off. We also have students that earn college credit and industry credentials when they go through the Ford Career Tech Center. Now, the way that we're going to be able to expand the Ford Career Tech Center is by having a satellite campus. Now, you might ask, what does that look like? We've already started doing work with Plant Moran and they've been able to take a look at the underutilized and empty buildings before we make an expansion. We need to have a conversation with the community about what that looks like. So, we'll have data that really guides some of those discussions and we can go beyond what we already have. We have a lot of great offerings, but now we can talk about how to expand those offerings to have another
010building so we can have new pathways. As I started thinking about what some of those new pathways might be, I know that I have uh done some research across the industry and some of the things that I would suggest, but they don't that might not be where we land is digital technology. Right now, a lot of kids love AI. There's lots of opportunities to make a lot of money through social media and marketing. We have a lot of kids that want to go and become YouTubers or content creators, and that's something that's a wave of the future. But we also have people that want to do things like aviation, supply chain, being becoming a pilot, becoming an airplane repair technician and logistics. When I was giving my getting my tour at John Glenn, one of
011the students, his name was Leighton, he said he wants to be an electrician. And I asked him, "Why do you want to be an electrician?" He said, "Because I'll never be without a job and I can make a lot of money." And we all know that's a true statement. And if Leighton had an opportunity to go through the become an electrician through the Ford Career Tech Center, that would be another way for us to promote that work. Another thing that I think could be a career pathway would be human care services with cosmetology. When you talk to a lot of students, some of them are already cutting hair right now as we speak. Some are braiding hair. What I would like to promote is people becoming a salon owner or a barber shop owner. And
012these are the types of things that I think would keep kids home here in Wing Westland. The other thing that we have to do is make sure that we're providing training opportunities for our parents for the new adult education opportunities. We've done it in the past, but the challenge that we experienced was some of our families didn't know about it or they weren't what they were looking for. As a school district, we have to talk to them about what those offerings look like. And that's when we're to get parents to understand the importance of the Ford Career Tech Center. And then the next piece to the four career tech center I think is the next evolution of it is expanding our early middle college I think we call early college now and that's our teacher
013preparation. When you guys ask me what are some of the challenges that we're going to see in the future one of the biggest challenges is losing teachers. Many of them are retiring and when you look across the nation teacher career programs are going down because the lack of enrollment. So, what I would suggest is I met with a group of uh representatives from talented together and what they shared with me is they're looking for a school district to really work through their early middle college and what that would look like would be we would have teachers that or I'm sorry students that are interested in becoming future teachers. They'd get their associates in uh through the early middle college which will be housed in career tech center. They then become pair professionals for us and
014as they're be pair professionals the talented together program would pay for them to get their bachelors. We would be able to build our pipeline through career tech center and that would be another pathway that we're promoting. So here's the current reality. We know that there's a regional demand here in Wayne Westland and across the county for a career tech center. There's a high demand for existing CTC seats and it's led to its building capacity. So well done to anyone that has anything to do with career tech center. But the other piece to that is current enrollment has many shared time students. What that means we have students that are coming from all over the county, all over the region or I'm sorry, all over this portion of the state that are taking up 50% of
015our seats. That's not a bad thing, but my goal is to make sure the priority goes to kids that are full-time students here in Wayne Wesland. Many of the programs are very popular but may not have industry relevancy and become obsolete in the future. So what we're going to do is we're going to do a deep dive into the programs that we're offering and we're going to make sure the ones that are super popular are expanded and the ones that might not be as popular, we'll have a conversation about that. But I want to be very clear with the community those decisions won't be made in isolation. When we're talking about what we offer and what we're going to do in the future is going to be through that two-way conversation that uh President May
016was talking about. Right now, our recruitment efforts take place in 10th grade and in middle school. That's not bad because the kids are finding out about it. But I want to talk to you guys about what what it looks like in the future. The Wayne West Wayne Westland Advantage, which is the Ford Career Tech Center, would have future pathways. And what that's going to look like is instead of us having conversations at the secondary level about the career tech center, we're going to start those conversations early on when kids are coming to Stole Meer. We're going to give them exposure to what a career could look like when they start off their journey in Wayne Westland instead of waiting until they're high school students. We're going to provide priority placement for full-time students above the
017kids that are in other uh districts and other communities. We're going to let our kids know about what the electives look like. They're going to be real world training and internships and experiences. So, a kid's going to understand if I go through the career tech center, I'm going to do something that's real world uh training that's going to prepare me for my future. And then, as I said before, we're going to expand our early middle college, offering a stronger pipeline for future teachers, and that's going to ensure that we continue to build from within. When it comes to promoting Wayne Westland, the best storytellers are the students. When I went on my tour to John Glenn, I had a chance to meet a couple of students that talked about what their experience was and it
018was better than any paid actor that you could have. They talked about what it looks like to be a part of the school district. And here's an example of Sam Hart who says that the FIRE program is very welcoming. It's family. We grow very close throughout the year. I like how we have students from different schools and cities because it gives us diversity and opinions and experiences. We need the faces of the district to be the ones that tell the story. This is Trevor. Trevor was part of the auto body class of 24 and he said, "You get to do what you want to do. Setting yourself up for a career you want. You have a say in what you're learning and your future." Again, when we talk about those three C's, the communication is
019going to come from the kids and the teachers in career tech center. So to for us to start strong and talk about career success, we're going to generate excitement and curiosity for our youngest learners and families by exposing them to career pathways. In my last interview, I talked about capturing kids hearts. The reason why that's important, many of our teachers that are in the career tech center weren't formally trained teachers. They're people with industry experience. And when we provide that training for all of our teachers through capturing kids hearts, we're going to be able to bridge that gap from our earliest teachers and our earliest students to the people that are going to be at the secondary space. We're going to reframe how stakeholders have conversations. Instead of talking about what we offer, we're going
020to talk about how our offerings connect and prepare students for success and in demand careers. And we're going to make sure that we're having age appropriate pathway exposure at each transition to create a natural progression. It's important what we're showing our kids in Stoutmire is going to look a little bit different than what we show our kids at the uh elementary and at the middle school and at the high school. But we're all going to be very intentional about showing them what the Career Tech Center looks like because it is a special place. When we look at our mobility report, we lose the most of our students at the middle stages in middle school. So, we're going to be very intentional about offering additional central office and building administrative support to help weave the pathway
021from elementary to middle school. And the way we're going to do that is we're going to provide tours for our kids so they get a chance to see what's going on in the uh Career Tech Center. And as your superintendent, I would be providing parent student presentations. I'll be the one that's going to be at the forefront of talking about what the Career Tech Center has to offer along with people that are in that space. So, they'll be able to show the kids what it looks like to become electrician, what it might look like to become a firefighter, and they'll have an opportunity to go over there and have hands-on experiences. And then we're also going to work closely with the people in the middle school. So, when we're having those capstone projects and celebrations,
022it's going to spark interest in the career tech center. One of the things that's really important for us to make sure that we emphasize that high school is not the final destination. We want to make sure that a 100% of our career tech students will not will have work-based learning experiences. It's really important for every kid that graduates from there to have that experience, not just a small section or a small uh piece of those students. And by doing that, we're going to be able to build and establish more local youth apprenticeships experiences and strengthen our school community partnership. This is going to be the way that we bridge the gap between the community and the school. We're going to also as kids go through the program, they're going to have the Wayne Westland branded
023credential stacks that are industry approved. So when you go through the career tech center, we're going to be able to make sure that we work closely with the people that uh from the state that to show that they are industry approved uh credentials and we're going to also work closely with local workforces uh within the community and the school district. So, as we're building our teachers through the early middle college, we're also building people that are going to go back into the workforce and they're going to be a part of the school district and the community. And again, if you want to capture the hearts of people, you have to show the faces. This is Olivia. She was a graduate that went to Valareerezo. She came through the health occupations program and is now a
024nurse. And she speaks very highly of her experience over at the Career Tech Center. Trustee Hines made a comment that really resonated with me when she said that the community wants in. And if we're going to offer offerings at the Career Tech Center, one of the things that's really important for us to do is think about what's needed and it has to be a variety of offerings. One of those offerings might be having GED exam preparation. There's a lot of people in our community that might not have finished their uh educational experience and we can provide those opportunities and it will be a hub for everyone that's in the district. We have a lot of immigrant families that are now coming to the district. I had an opportunity to speak to one of our parents
025at the uh uh forum earlier today and she talked about she loves what we're doing for the kids, but she would love if we can provide additional training for her. This would allow our non-native speakers to improve their English skills, their grammar, their writing, and their speaking by providing those training. We would also be able to provide personal enrichment through public speaking, resume writing, and life skills and retirement planning. We want to offer everything to everyone in the district and we're going to do it well, but we're going to ask them what they need. So, these are just suggestions, but again, these are things that I think would make sense. We would also be able to offer creative classes such as photography, painting, cooking, and music. Many of these things we're already offering to our
026kids. It would be great if we could offer it to our community members as well. This is a picture of Mara. She is not only a graduate of the district, she's someone that works for us right now. And she said, "I help students find their niche and their passion, whether that's photography or something else. I want to see them show them what's possible in creative fields so I can bring in professionals for them to learn from and network with them. These are the people that will tell our story. Now, what does success look like from a community standpoint? A stronger school community partnership assessed through enrollment statistics and survey data. When we create some of these uh offerings, the way that we're going to know if they're improving is by the data and the the
027enrollment uh getting stronger. And we're also looking for this to be a financial profit for the district when we're offering it to the community. We're going to have stronger community awareness of our CTC offerings for adults and students measured through increased yearto-year demand. So each year we want to build on and it's not going to be something that's high initially, but in due time as we talk more about it and we emphasize that communication, we're going to see a rise in in in interest. and then we've already established a uh communication plan with uh one of these local industries or local um uh businesses and we're going to be able to measure the marketing campaign by impressions, clicks, and views. And then last but not least, the most important thing is student enrollment is going
028to improve. The way that we're going to know that we're doing what we need to do through the Career Tech Center is there's going to be a yearly net increase in student enrollment. And in those areas where we're losing students, specifically the transition from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school, we'll see a drop off there. And then there's going to be a higher percentage of WWCS students that are in the that career tech center. I love the fact that we have people that are coming from all over the place. But what I don't like to hear is a student that's in the district that didn't get a seat because there weren't enough seats. They get priority seating when it comes to the career tech center. And then last but not least,
029Trusty Cox said, "We're a diamond of trade schools." My goal is not for us to be a diamond of trade schools in the county. It's to be a diamond of trade schools across the country. And we can't be a hidden gem in Wayne County. So, if we're going to do that, we need to show the faces of the people that are in the program. And I just want to read to you one statement that came from uh Britney Johnson, who's the daughter of Jenny Johnson, and she says, "I love how hands-on it was. I was able to form relationships with kids and get a taste of what career as a teacher could be like. This is our marketing campaign and it came from the feedback from the uh board of education. So I thank you
030guys for the opportunity to talk about the career tech center and I do believe that the start is those three C's, community, collaboration and communication. So thank you uh Trustee Roshan because I do appreciate you saying that and that's my presentation about the Ford Career Tech Center. >> Thank you. Dr. Since deciding to become a candidate and participating in the search process, what has reinforced your aspiration to be the next superintendent of Wayne Westland Community Schools? >> So, when I first started thinking about being the superintendent of Wayne Westland, uh my first thought was I want to have a greater impact on this community. I've been here for the past four years and I've done some really great things and I've been able to connect with people on a very powerful level. But what it
031forced me to do is start talking to more people about what are you looking for in a superintendent? And what became very obvious to me is that this community cares deeply about the success of Wayne Westland. And I'm a very competitive person. I see people that want to have a flagship school district and I think we're primed to do something special. So, the more I talk to community members, the more I talk to staff members, the more I talk to um people in my own department, they want to be a family. They want to grow as an organization and they need someone that cares as much about Wayne Westland as they do. So when I look at all of the great offerings that we have, when I look at all of the amazing people that
032we have and all the students that are looking for a special place to be a part of, I want to lead an organization like that. So I've become more invested in the success of Wayne Westland because I know that our community wants the best and I want to be a part of something special. And I've been able to be in different spaces over the course of my career where we've grown together and I see a board that wants a superintendent that wants the best for the school district. So working closely with the board, working closely with people that truly want to be a part of a family, I think this is a special time and I think I've had the experiences that will allow me to do something that would the community would be proud
033of. >> Thank you. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> How would you ensure that our district spending is aligned with our priorities? It's very important for the superintendent to make sure that they're having conversations with all members of the school district. And the reason why it's important for the superintendent to have quite conversations with all members of the school district is because there's everyone has a hand in how we're spending money and everyone has a hand in what the priorities are. What I would do is what I would continue to what I can currently do and I'd continue to do that and that's work closely with our CFO and our business office to make sure that we're looking at every line item and making sure that the money is being is is that where it
034was assigned to it's being spent appropriately. And if we see any areas where there the changes need to be made, those conversations are going to take place not only with members in this uh uh business office, but with the board and members of the entire community. So this is something that we do routinely right now as a school district, but the problem that we've run into in the past is when we notice changes that need to occur, we're not having those open conversations with everyone outside of the school district so they understand what has to take place. So, as the superintendent, the way that I'm going to make sure that things are aligned is I'm going to make sure that the money that's being spent lines up with our strategic plan and it lines up
035with the goals that the board has for the school district. And if it doesn't, the conversations I'm going to have, not only with the board and with the community are ones of honesty. So, we're going to talk about why changes need to be made and how we're going to go about making those changes. And the changes are going to be changes that that aren't specific to our school improvement plan. >> Thank you, Mr. Cox. >> Dr. Oily, how do you expect the advent of artificial intelligence to change classroom instruction and student learning? And what actions should our district take now to prepare? >> Thank you, Trusty Cox. We have an AI task force that's already in place. Um, and there's a lot of school districts that want to do cutting edge things with AI, but
036the reality of AI is it continues to evolve. So, the most important thing for us as a school district is to continue to be well read on what's taking place and be flexible. We have to be nimble because one day we might think that AI is going in one direction and then another day something changes, but the reality is it's not going anywhere. When I talked about a pathway through the career tech center, the reason why I was talking about AI or digital technology being one of them is because that is something that a lot of districts are exploring. So I would tell you that most of the school districts that want to be competitive, they understand that kids are interested and the world is moving towards those type of technical pathways. So, as a
037leader in the school district, I would make sure that I'm doing research and I'm going to districts that might be a little bit further along in their journey with AI and I'd bring it back. And again, any decision that we're making that's going to impact the entire community is going to be done as a team. I'd continue to do that work with that task force. I'd have our technical experts that are in our technology department and our curriculum department working collectively with me as the superintendent. And I would make sure that I'm having conversations with the board and the community about what we're learning so we can collectively make that decision. >> What are your top three priorities for our district over the next 12 months? And how will you assess your progress on achieving
038these priorities? >> Trusty Weaver, did you say the next 12 months? >> Yes. As I've been going around um talking to different uh groups, stakeholders about what they need and what they want from the superintendent. The one thing that was very refreshing is a lot of people were saying, Dr. Oily, I appreciate you asking these questions. I appreciate getting to see you in a different light because I've heard a lot of things about the district leaders and I would tell you my number one priority initially would be to get out and connect with people. I think it's very important for people to feel comfortable with me as a superintendent and be able to ask me questions about what my vision is and what my goals are, not only over the next 12 months, but over
039the next 12 years if I'm the superintendent. So for me, my number one priority is to get out and connect, ask questions, and find out what the community members, all stakeholders are looking for from the superintendent and from the work that's already taking place. One of the joys of being in the district for the past four years, I know some of the things that are already in motion and I'll be able to tell our community members what some of that some of some of that work is. And I think that's another way that you're able to connect because you're going to be teaching and learning at the same time. Then my next priority is to make sure that we're looking at and communicating some of the changes in personnel. So around this time of the
040year, we have our retirees and we have our projections around enrollment and that's going to drive what our staffing looks like and depend and as as everyone knows, we've lost a lot of enrollment. So, that's going to impact depending on who's retired and who has um who's uh uh the the staffing projections for the year, that's going to dictate what next year's staffing numbers are. So, I want to make sure that I explain to our community, and when I say community, I'm not just talking about people outside the community, but people within the community, what those projections are, the implications on our staff as a whole. So, first we start with me connecting. Then we start talking about staffing for the future because that really impacts the bottom line and the us being fiscally responsible.
041And then next it's working on our identity. As I showed you guys before, we have a lot of people that are in the community that love Wayne West Wesland dearly. And what one of the things that I have to do is find ways to bring those people in because they're going to be part of the marketing campaign that we're using to talk about the story of Wayne Wesland. This place truly is a family and it's very important for me to connect the dots and to have people come in and be part of the story that we're telling about our identity because enrollment is key for Wayne Wesley right now. >> Thank you, Mr. Rashelle. >> Good evening, Dr. Aily. How do you how do you think various stakeholders such as parents, staff members, and community
042members should be involved in our planning process and in setting direction for the district. >> Thank you, Trusty Roshan. Um, as I have had a chance to talk to parents about their role in Wayne Westland, many of them have deep ties to this community and they're looking to be a part of any of the big ticket decisions that we're making. In my first interview, I talked about the importance of a task force and establishing those task forces with the board of education to say, what direction are we going in? Once we establish what task force we have, the next thing is tapping parents on the shoulder so they're a part of it along with our students, along with our teachers, along with um any community member that wants to be a part of it and
043having those opportunities and I call them access points where as we're working on those task forces, sharing them with the community so they understand what's taking place and letting them have dialogue with us because that then creates a team approach to school improvement. It's not a new formula to move a district along, but the problem that districts run into is that decisions are being made in isolation. And I've heard loud and clear that parents want to be part of the experience. So, what I would do for any major decisions that's taking place, whether it's improving our enrollment, improving the climate and culture, improving the student achievement, finding those opportunities for parents and other stakeholders to be a part of those conversations. And as we're having those conversations, providing updates on the work that's taking place.
044So when we're having our board meetings, I love the fact that we're able to have parents uh come and share uh their input. I love the fact that we're able to have uh principles share the highlights that are taking place. What I would make it a point to do as a superintendent is to provide updates from the task force and it's going to be different people that are going to be sharing out along with me throughout the course of the year. So, I think the big role that a superintendent has is teaching. And the way that you go about teaching is providing updates and providing um uh progress on the things that we're working towards. And that's how I would do it by establishing task forces and having our parents be a part of that
045so they feel like they're part of everything that's taking place in the district. >> Thank you. competition to tra to traditional public schools in the form of school of choice, charter schools, private schools, and virtual programs has significantly increased. How, in your opinion, can we remain the district of choice for students and families within our district boundaries? Thank you, Trusty Ambrose. Um, the first thing that we have to do is make sure that we're being very open and marketing the great offerings that we have. And I again I I I want to continue to reiterate that the people that tell the story the best are the people that are doing the work. So that's the teachers, our administrators, our um our kids, and then we were very intentional about spending money on transportation. We have
046buses right now where kids are I mean we're fully staffed. If we need to be more strategic in the way that we're offering transportation to make sure that we're allowing kids that are around neighboring uh school districts to come to Wayne Westland, I think that's something that we should do because right now when you see a lot of school districts that are having uh more students come into their spaces, they're being very intentional and strategic about how how they're running their buses. So for me, as someone that oversees our transportation department, I would want to sit down with our building principles. I'd want to sit down with um our transportation with the board to make sure that we come up with a plan. So, we're having strategic stops across the Metro Detroit area to bring
047kids in because I think that's very important if we're being intentional about having kids come. And I also want to talk about the fact that we have a lot of people that have graduated from Wayne Westland that are doing very successful things. A lot of parents want to know that the product of Wayne Westland is a solid product. And if we have people that are in the community or people that have graduated or people that work in the district that love Wayne Westland, their story needs to be told because unfortunately sometimes the story that's out there is when something out of sorts takes place and that becomes the story that's being told at Wayne Westland. So, if we're telling positive stories, if we're having people that have graduated that are doing great things throughout the
048country come back and talk about why they're doing those great things, I think as a parent that's looking at Wayne Westland as a school option, that will make me feel proud to send my kid to school. >> Thank you. >> Um, good evening, Dr. Oily. >> Good evening. My question is, if a serious safety incident happened at the school or a school event, what would you do in the first 24 hours? Describe how you would keep students and staff safe. Work with the police and emergency responders. Tell families and the public what they need to know. and keep the school board informed while protecting privacy. All right. So, as a member of our executive team, this is something that we deal with quite a bit when it comes to how we respond when the a
049serious school event takes place. And when you have this many kids and this many adults that work in a school district, unfortunately, these types of things do happen from time to time. The first thing you have to do when a serious event takes place is understand what occurred because a lot of times there's a lot of uh rumors that are spreading. So, you have to be very accurate about what took place. And once you identify truly what what occurred, you need to alert the board of education so they're aware of it. But you also have to tend to the to the people that have been impacted, >> right? >> So if something happens to a student, the first thing the superintendent needs to do is go and check on the student or the staff member
050or the school that experienced that emergency. Once you get to that space and you identify what took place and you make sure that the families have been taken care of and the students have been taken care of, then you work with your communication department. So the communication department isn't just um uh Jenny Johnson in that in that space. It's a member of our um crisis committee. Once the crisis committee is aware of what took place and we've communicated to the appropriate families and sometimes you want to give the right amount of information because things are in motion and it's kind of a fluid process. You let them know that you're going to continue to update them as you determine what truly took place and the status of whatever the situation is. After you've started that
051communication chain, you want to make sure that you're thinking about the next uh day because when you deal with a a sensitive situation, it doesn't just impact the person that it happened to, it impacts the whole school at large. So, part of that communication team that I referred to are our social workers, our our crisis management team and making sure that they're alert of what's taking place and you would have a meeting with everyone that would be coming together. So we have things in motion for the following for the day for the following day where all of our staff and kids feel supported. So it's a team approach. It's constant communication where we continue to provide updates, but we want to make sure that we're not allowing rumors to spread. >> We also want to
052talk to the local law enforcement because sometimes after something tragic has occurred or something significant has occurred, there's a lot of copycat things that might want to take place. So, you want to make sure you position local law enforcement uh uh appropriately the following day. So, to kind of sum up what I said, it's important that the lines of communication stay uh uh active, the board members are aware of it, and we are having our team support the school or the area that was impacted the next day. Thank you. >> Wayne Westland Community School has experienced a period of leadership instability that has contributed to strained labor relations, cultural fragmentation, and a level of distrust among staff that will require intentional and sustained effort to repair. As you consider stepping into this role, how do
053you honestly assess your part, rather direct or indirect, in contributing to that climate? And what specific authentic actions would you take in your first year to begin rebuilding trust with staff who may be skeptical of your leadership? Thank you, President May. That is an excellent question and a question that's been asked of me several times over the course of uh the past few weeks. I want to first start off by acknowledging that that is a very true statement and I've heard a loud and clear by talking to different people across the community about the fact that they want to feel safe. They want to feel heard and they want to have a leader that has them uh be part of the any solution or any projects that we're working towards. I've been working very closely
054with union leadership over the past few months to make sure that they understand my vision to lead in Wayne Wesland. I've been working very closely with uh uh people in central office to make sure that they understand that if I'm the superintendent, it's not going to be decisions made in isolation. That's part of the reason why we started our leadership council where I explain to people when we have a situation that needs to be addressed or a problem that needs to be uh uh um corrected, it's not going to be done just by the executive leadership. It's going to be done by all of our leaders. And when we're having our next uh uh uh uh leadership council, we're going to be talking about the state of the of the school district. And we've already
055started task forces around enrollment that I'm leading where I'm having members of union leadership. We're having uh um leaders at the building level. We're having uh um people in different collective bargaining groups that are part of that task force. And the reason why I decided to do that is because people have said that they want a leader that's leading the school district that's going to have multiple people at the table. What I'm going to also do as the uh superintendent, if I receive this position, is make sure that I'm not just meeting with um district uh uh union groups in isolation. It's important that all union leaders are sitting at the table so they can hear the message at one time from the superintendent. It's also important that when we're having these conversations for between
056superintendent and the union leaders that we're making it transparent for the community to know they're taking it's taking place. I want to make sure that everyone understands that my leadership approach is going to be one of collaboration. It's going to be one of honesty and it's going to be one of um uh um I'm not going to shy away from difficult conversations, but I'm also going to make sure that we arrive at u solutions as a as a unit. So, I think the way that I'm going to be able to rebuild any trust that's been broken is make sure that I make decisions that are still student centered, but they're going to be done as a group. And when we have those conversations, I'm going to make sure that I'm providing updates not only to
057the community, but to the board and to everyone that's a part of Wayne Westland because the goal is for us to work as a family. >> Thank you. When you have an administrative team that may have differences of opinions, how do you reconcile those differences and get everyone moving in the same direction? Well, let me start by saying I believe differences of opinion are a good thing. When you have a lot of uh people that are saying yes and just not in agreement, that's when you have blind spots. I think there's a healthy excuse me dynamic when you have people that are challenging thoughts, but it's also the leader responsibility. You know, I when I say leader, we're all leaders um uh in our own rights, but as the superintendent, you want to make sure
058that you're listening to what's being said. You're asking people to explain why they have that position, but then you have to make sure that um as the superintendent ultimately, we have to land in one spot. And there's some decisions that are going to be done collaboratively, and everyone's opinion is going to uh uh uh drive the decision. There going to be some decisions that as a superintendent I'm going to have to say this is where we're landing and here's the reason why. But there's got it's got to be done in a respectful way. It's got to be done in an honest way and people have to understand how you're arriving at that that that decision. But I would say having a difference of opinions isn't a bad thing. It's just very important for everyone's voice
059to be heard and then when you arrive at the final decision as a superintendent, you explain how you arrive at the decision and make sure that people feel safe to give their feedback because just because we have a difference of opinions doesn't mean that that me as the superintendent has a problem with that approach. I want people to when I'm talking with them, whether it's someone on my executive team or an administrator at the board level or at the building level to feel comfortable that they can share their opinion and there there's not going to be any uh negativity coming from me when they share uh something that might not be in the same um in my that that I might not agree with. But ultimately, we're going to work to get to that point
060where everyone understands that their voice is going to be heard. And then ultimately as a superintendent, you have to move the organization in one direction. And sometimes it's going to be through everyone having a a stake in the decision, but sometimes it's going to be the superintendent saying, "No, this is what we're doing. Here's the reason why." >> Thank you, Trusty Hinds. Dr. Oily, if you had to choose one action or initiative that would improve the district's reputation, what would it be and how would you measure its impact? I talked about this in the last uh um interview and it was the capturing kids arts. And the reason why I'm saying that is because it's going to be a training that everyone's going to be a part of. And if we're talking about coming up
061with our identity as a school district, the identity has to be about kids first. I know that we have a lot of people that care deeply about the school district, but if we're not saying that kids are at the forefront of everything that we're doing, that's a problem. And the capturing kids hearts is going to be an initiative that's going to set the tone for academic achievement because it's going to give us a shared language. It's going to give every single member of the school district a part to receive the same training. Whether you're a custodian, you're a pair professional, you're a teacher, you're an administrator, we're all going to go through this together. And when we talk about building an identity as a school district, it has to be done where we're all coming
062together. This is something that we've invested some money in and it's grant funded, so it's not going to hit our bottom line. But I think if we're coming to a point where we're trying to understand who we are and we're coming to a point where we're building that trust between the superintendent and a first year hire, if we're all receiving the training together, including the board, I think it's really important that we understand this is going to be a unifying approach and it's going to help set the tone for academic success. So, right now, I'm very excited about the training that's going to take place, and I understand that it's going to not only help us eventually get on the same page with what's important for us as a school district, it's going to set
063the tone for all of the kids that are going to be returning to the school district or the kids that are new to the community. Because, as I said before, we have a lot of immigrant families that are new to the country and what they're looking for is a home. And I think this training that we're going to do as an organization is going to set the tone for everyone to understand kids are the number one priority in our school district. >> Thank you Dr. Weaver. >> Dr. Oily, how would you assess the effectiveness of our current strategic plan and what decision making process would you use to make adjustments that improve outcomes? So, one of the best things that we've been able to do as a school district right now is make sure that
064we've kind kind of narrowed our focus. We have three goals in our strategic plan that are around attendance, around our MTSS process, and around our uh tier one uh standards of care. I think the best thing that we did as a school district is we said we want to go slow before we go fast, and we want to go deep. We don't want to go wide. So right now I think we're positioned very well to make gains academically and to improve on our attendance because we've been very clear about what our focus is going to be. It's a five-year plan and it's a plan that's very clearly understood by the people that are doing the work. Now what we have to do in order to take it to the next level as we're starting to
065really identify those instructional strategies that are working is make sure that the community knows what we're doing. because the community understands what we're doing. And when I talk about the community, I'm talking about the board. I'm talking about our families that are interested in Wayne Westland. And I'm talking about staff members that might not have been as heavily influ uh involved in the planning that was taking place. >> We have a lot of instructional coaches and a lot of teachers and a lot of administrators that have been doing the work, but now it's time for us to make sure that we're celebrating the successes that are taking place with data. We just had a really great article that came out about some of the work that's been taking place in Wayne Westland. And as a
066superintendent, it will be my job to talk about those successes. So, the way that I'd be able to measure the success of our strategic plan from our attendance is just going to be looking at the data from our academic standpoint, it's going to be the improvements that are taking place. And if we're being honest as as professionals, it takes time. A lot of times people come in and say, "We're going to turn things upside down and we're going to do things differently because the student achievement isn't where it needs to be." But as someone that's been in spaces and I've seen growth, it takes time for it to last and it takes time for it to become uh rooted in who we are as an organization, but I can tell you as someone that's been
067able to attend training and I've been able to have conversations with some of the leaders at the board office that are part of the work, we're making some really great strides. But in order for the community to accept it and for the board to understand it as a superintendent, I have to present the data. When I'm having a board update or a uh a strategic plan update that I'm a part of at the board level, I need to be able to bring it back to the board and talk about what's what's going well and what's not going well. And then it's going to be a lot of dialogue. And we have a very involved board and a board that wants success for winland. As the superintendent, I should be able to answer those questions about
068where we're having success and where we need to pivot. >> Dr. Philly. Approximately 21% of Wayne Westland Community School students are served under individualized education programs and are legally entitled to a least restrictive environment. Meaning, many learn alongside their general education peers daily. As superintendent, how would you foster the shared understanding and staff support needed to ensure that all students with and without IEPs thrive in inclusive settings? So, as the superintendent, one of the most important things is uniting the staff. We have a uh special ed staff that is very very uh knowledgeable about special ed law. They're very knowledgeable about the um uh services that need to be provided to students that have IEPs. And we have general ed staff that are very good at supporting the needs of all the students that come
069into their classroom. But the conversations that I've been having with leaders, with principles, and when I say leaders, I'm talking about central office leaders and building principles and even with staff are some of the challenges that they're experiencing with the growing population of kids with uh learning uh differences or learn uh needs that they weren't familiar with. One of the things that I would have to do as a superintendent is make sure that I'm building that bridge between our general ed population and our special ed population and doing it in a way where kids are be being supported, but our general ed staff and our special ed staff are also getting what they need. So, it starts with um uh training. It starts with getting everyone on board. And when I talked about the capturing
070kids hearts, the reason why I think that's a great way to bridge that is because it talks about every kid, regardless of who you are or what challenges you might be experiencing, we're treating them with a high level of respect and with and love. I talked about this in my first interview where I said, I have three very different children. A child that is going to be on the AP track because he's just naturally he's a he's I'm not bragging, he's a brilliant kid. But I also have a a son that has an IEP that has autism and he learns very differently. And my heart is for every family that has children with learning disabilities because for our my wife and I, we've had to understand that our child is going to have a different
071learning experience. And I've been very very outspoken with the schools that support my kids about giving them what they need. But because I'm an educator, I feel comfortable doing that. There's a lot of families that don't have that knowledge or the um the experience to have those conversations. I also have a young lady, my daughter, that is she loves school, but she loves school when the adults are kind and they're sweet to her. So, if you have three very different children within a household, that's the experience that our families have as well. And I believe that every single teacher that's in the district has a desire to meet kids where they are. But where there's challenges sometimes for our teachers is they're not getting the supports that they need. So the goal of the superintendent
072is to make sure that we're bridging the gap between our special ed department and our general ed department. But it's also very important that we understand the challenges that people are experiencing, whether it's the challenges the parents are experiencing or the challenges that the staff is experiencing. And as the superintendent, I need to work with everyone to make sure they're getting what they need. And again, it's going to be a team approach. >> Thank you. trusty ambulance. >> Dr. Oily, how would you meet the needs of college readiness while also providing highquality relevant career focused opportunities for students? >> Trusty Ambrose, could you repeat that question, please? How would you meet the needs of college readiness while also providing highquality relevant careerfocused opportunities for students? All right. to make sure that we're meet meeting the
073needs of students so they're prepared for college, we need to make sure that as a school district, we're working collectively. We have a lot of dynamic uh educators and we have a department and the beauty of having a large school district is we have a lot of personnel. We're able to audit our offerings. We're able to work um uh collectively with our department heads, with our central office leaders, with our uh teachers across the district to find out where the kids are doing well by looking at the data. If the data suggests that we're making progress and the or the data suggests that we're not making progress collectively, we're able to have those conversations about what needs to take place. As far as what the needs are of the students and the families, we have
074to have those conversations. As I was talking about using Career Tech as an example, when we want to find out what kids are looking for for their future beyond Wayne Westland, we have to ask those families. We have to ask those community members what some of those options are. And I just want to be very clear, I'm not the person or the superintendent that would say there's one path to success. I think that we do have a gym in the career tech center and trades are an option for a lot of our kids, but there's a lot of uh great things that are going on in our comprehensive high schools. And the beauty of being the superintendent is you're able to promote everything for the district, everything for our community and having those conversations with
075our teachers that are in the classroom about what they need and where the challenges they're experiencing are. That would lead the conversations that I'm having as a superintendent. And I talked about this in my first interview. I also want to make sure that I'm partnering with local universities to ask them where things are going. As I'm working closely with university leaders and working closely with uh industry leaders, I'll have a better sense of what we need to do as a school district. And as the lead chair leader for the school district, I'll be able to talk to the community about the direction that um college readiness is going in. >> Thank you, Miss Ebie. Mitchell. >> Thank you. Dr. Oily, would you um I'm looking at your word. Okay, Dr. Hill, this is my question.
076As superintendent, you may promote a open door culture. >> How do you balance being accessible to individual board members while maintaining the governness? knowing that the superintendent I mean that the board president is the point of contact. >> So the relationship with the board president is a very important uh uh relationship. >> Yes, it is >> because the board president speaks on behalf of the uh board. However, the relationship between the board president and the superintendent can't be the only relationship that takes place um between the board and the superintendent. So, it's very important for me to build a genuine and authentic relationship with every single member of the board because every single member of the board has a reason why they became a board member. They have a uh passion for the district and
077they all look very different and they have an expertise that I'd be uh um foolish not to establish a real relationship with every single member of the board because they also have ties throughout every one of the communities that feeds into Wayne Wesland. So, I would respect the relationship between the board president and the superintendent, but I've also been here long enough to see the importance of the superintendent connecting with every single member of the board. And when that doesn't happen, we don't have a true team. So, my goal as a superintendent is to get to know every single one of the board uh members, but making sure that the communication stays open and um uh transparent between me and the board president. So I think the importance of building genuine relationships with everyone but
078making sure that everyone understands that the board president speaks for the board is very key to trust and if we don't have that trust we're not going to be able to lead as a strong unit. >> Thank you Dr. Alili. At this time, um, we would like to take a few minutes now to provide you with an opportunity to ask questions you may have for the board or to make and or to make any closing remarks. >> Where am I at? What time? President, >> you have about 15 minutes. >> Okay. Just out of respect for the board because I know it's been a very long uh day and you have someone else that's come in. I don't have questions, but I do want to commend the board because again, as someone that oversees the
079hiring of uh personnel for the entire district, I understand how big of a decision this is for you. So, I want to applaud MLI for leading and supporting the board as we're going through this. It's been an extensive process and I've had an opportunity to do some things that have really shown me how how much the board cares about Wayne Wesley. So I applaud you guys for doing that. But now I want to also say as you think about this decision because it is a very big decision. I think you have to think about having a leader that is courageous. You have to have a leader that has been through the fire and we've had some tough times here in Wayne Westland. And it was very clear to me as a competitive leader that I
080didn't want to walk away from Wayne Westland during hard times. I've seen some great times in Wayne Westland. I've seen some rough times in Wayne Westland. And there's a lot of people that come to positions because they see the title or they see financial gain, but they when push comes to shove, they might not have the intestinal fortitude to live through the challenges that you have in Wayne Westland. >> One thing that I discovered in Wayne Westland, too, it's a very unique community. You have people here that have been here for a very long time and what they're looking for is someone that cares deeply about all community members, not one section of Wayne Westland. I've had an opportunity to understand who we serve. I've had an opportunity to build relationships with people across the
081community. And if we want someone that has had experiences in multiple places, I know that I can be a great leader for Wayne Westland and I know I can do this for a very long time. I want to share something with you guys about the importance of family. I was able to just kind of talk to people in my own department and I have a director in my department, Peggy, who's a graduate of Wayne Memorial. Her mom is a retired secretary. Her nephew is a technician in the technical in our tech department. I have a benefit specialist, Anel, who's a graduate of John Glenn. Her mom is a custodian in the board office. Her daughter is a secretary in the CIA space. I have an administrative assistant who is a graduate of John Glenn. I
082have a secretary in the HR department whose daughter is now a secretary in the district. The reason why I'm saying that is one of the things that makes Wayne Westland special are the family ties. I want to build as a as a superintendent truly a family. As a family, there's going to be times that we have rough conversations whether it's the superintendent of the board or it's uh district leadership in the union. But when you have a family, things stay behind closed doors. We'll never do anything to publicly make when Weslem look bad. And you need a superintendent that understands that. I have the backbone to say no when I need to say no, but I also have the relational capacity to build strong bonds between different groups. I've been in a lot of districts
083with a lot of families and Wayne Westland continues to grow and evolve. You need a superintendent that has the ability to connect with all community members. And I believe that I have that skill set and have the energy and the competitive fire to make women a great place. When we think about the Ford Career Tech Center, Trusty Cox, you said you refer to it as a diamond. I want it to be a diamond for the nation, not a diamond in a pocket of the county. I've had an abil the opportunity to do some really great things as a leader and I see this being the uh pinnacle of my career and I'm not going anywhere. If I have the opportunity to be the superintendent, I'll be in Wesland for a very long time and that's
084how you build a real organization where you have leadership and I'm able to build my team around me and I'm able to build with the board and we can do something special. So, as a competitive person, I know what Wayne West can be and I know the board members that have been here for a very long time and some of the board members that are new, they all want to be part of something special. We can do something special, but it takes the board to make a courageous hire and put someone in a position that's going to speak openly, is going to speak honestly, and it's going to bring people together so we can be the best organization in this region of the state. So, I'm excited about the opportunity and I applaud the uh
085board for all the hard work and I know this is a big decision and I'm hopeful when it's all said and done I can be the person that's leading the district because there's a lot of excitement to lead and what we don't want is someone that we're just settling for we want to hire someone that wants to be here for the long period of time. >> Thank you Dr. Oily. We sincerely appreciate your time and continued interest in being next superintendent of Wayne Westland Community Schools. We plan to make our final determination April 7th and we will let you know our decision immediately afterward. Again, thank you for being with us this evening. >> Thanks. >> At this point, it is 8:32. I'm gonna wait a second. After we all shake Dr. Oily's hands hand,
086we'll go into a um 10-minute break. >> So, we'll say 8:33 and I'll ask everybody to be back by 8:44, please. Let's just say 8:45.