NEXT STEPS IN CEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A 4-PERSON SLATE:
Four of us met Sunday, September 13th, to begin to crystallize a four-person slate to recommend for the four open 4-year terms on the Detroit Public School Community District Board of Education, subject to further feedback from the rest of our group. Present were: Karen Johnson Moore, Pam Weinstein, George Perdue, and myself. That’s not enough. We still need all of your insight and feedback.
There is also open on the ballot an unfinished 2-year term, for which there are three candidates running, one of whom is a shoo-in in my opinion and needs no endorsement.
Fortunately, within the past week, Chalkbeat Detroit has published the answers which 19 of the 35 folks on the ballot have answered, which threw some added light on the choices to be made. I have previously forwarded an email to each of you, to which is attached a link to that commentary. You can also find it by going to: chalkbeat.org/detroit/ All of the candidates that we seriously considered answered that questionnaire.
In addition, Citizen Detroit has done a very short 2-question video interview with most of the candidates and has posted these on You Tube. Almost all of these folks are resource delusional, as a I explain in my added comments. (Hey!, all we have to do is to descend in mass on Lansing and all will be quickly rectified.) Duh!
Also in addition, a City-Wide Slate called United for Good has just emerged consisting of candidates Dr. Steve Bland, Terry Whitfield, Bessie Harris, and Dr. Jameel Smith. These include at least 3 of our 4 choices so far.
Before reviewing the candidates for the four open 4-year seats on the 7-seat board, here is a thumb nail review of the other two incumbents whose terms do not end this year:
Monique Bryant: She graduated from Cass Tech in 1986. 18 years later, she started a car wash business (2003 to 08). Meanwhile she obtained a BA in Business from Davenport University, a combination on-line/local campus institution in 2005.
She began in 2010 as a car detailer with Gordon Chevrolet, and became detail manager by 2014. She then went to Marty Feldman Chevrolet as their customer service manager from 2015 until now. Her political constituency springs from her leadership with the Cass Tech alumni associations.
It appears that her children attended Charter schools. It is well, however, that someone on the board needs to have personal experience with a charter school, in evaluating the programs offered by the DPSCD.
Ida Simmons-Short: There is not much about her on the internet. She teaches freshman English at Schoolcraft college, and thus has clear impressions of the English competence and deficiencies of Detroit graduates at that level. Her image with her students as expressed on an internet site are not good, but that may simply reflect the disappointment that many unprepared students have with failing her class.
(Disclosure: Ida is married to Roger Short. 55 years ago, Roger was then in college and worked for me as a student intern when I was the City’s grants-finder. He later worked for the City and eventually became it’s finance director.)
The four recommended candidates for a 4-year term on the board (and the reasons) are as follow:
Steve Bland, Jr. the senior pastor at the Liberty Temple Baptist Church on Greenfield near 7-Mile. He was appointed last year by the Board to replace a member who resigned. He had run strong in the 2024 elections. He is running now to keep that seat for the rest of that term. He is a past-president of the Detroit Council of Baptist Pastors. Detroit’s pastors have a significant political impact upon Detroit elections, and can have a significant impact upon funding for and the quality of its schools. Pastor Bland is the only prominent clergyman running for the board. There should indeed be at least one of them on the board. So far, he does not have a campaign website.
(Disclosure: I know him as an active leader of MOSES (Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength), a 501(c)(3) of which I am the Treasurer.)
Internally, he has been critiqued as being much too complacent with Dr. Vitti, and of not firmly holding his feet to the fire in private meetings. I’ll come back to this issue later down.
Bessie Lee Harris. She was a teacher, resource provider, assistant principal and principal of the public schools, retiring after 32 years in 2016. She too was appointed to the board last year to fill the vacancy left by board member Sherry Gay Dagnogo, when she was appointed to become the City Ombudsman. Bessie was also chosen because she had been a close runner-up in the 2024 board elections. She is running to retain her seat for the rest of that term. She has strong support from insider teachers and principals. It is important that there be at least on member of the 7-member board who has the trust of the teacher’s and principal’s unions. Without at least one board member with such trust, false detrimental rumors get started again and again which raise tensions and undercut constructive efforts to improve the system. Bessie Lee Harris best fits that bill. One shortcoming noted in her response to the Chalkbeat questions was that it contained some misspellings and a lack of many appropriate commas and periods. Her website is: votebessieharris.org
Terry Eugene Whitfield. MSU Masters of Youth Development. He has six years as an educational program manager at the Skillman Foundation, which is highly focused upon Detroit educational issues. It is important that at least one board member have close ties with and insights into the many outside charitable foundations which support efforts to reform and improve educational outcomes. Mr. Whitfield is currently an independent educational consultant with TEWday Strategies. Court records show about one minor traffic violation per year for the past 10 years. There is a record of a Terry E. Whitfield who has a troubled financial history, but at a different address. There are several Terry Whitfields in the Metro area. His campaign website is: terrywhitfield4dpscd.com
Theodore Rhett Jones. Masters of Social Work from UofM, PhD Education from MSU. He was a mid-level central administrator under Supt. Vitti for for 6 years. He is now a community organizer in SW Detroit with Global Detroit. It is important that there be at least one independent member of the school board who has a deep understanding of the complexity, aims, limitations, and shortcomings of central special programs. Special programs are often offered as the best solutions to poor educational outcomes. A large part of the budget is devoted to supporting these programs, to the detriment, however of the classroom. Moving to minimize or eliminate these programs and shifting the weight back to the classroom teacher is also a real trickbag. Court records show nothing but one violation for speeding in 2016. His campaign website is: jonesfordetroitschoolboard.com
SIX OTHER POTENTIAL ENDORSEES ARE:
Jameel Montgomery Smith. PhD in School Psychology from MSU. She is Director of Psychology at the Henry Ford Health Systems. She is often a commentator on local TV news stations on matters of community mental health. Unfortunately, her husband is a real estate developer, who has previously lobbied to buy vacant DPSCD properties at low-ball prices to convert them into community centers. And that places her in a potential conflict of interest situation. Dr. Smith is the appointed chair of the Detroit Ethics Commission, which has recently been under some controversy regarding the possible conflicts of City Attorney Conrad Mallett. There is a big difference, however, between what the public will tolerate as between elected and appointed City officials and the Zero tolerance which they and school staff itself will apply to a school board member. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest is a very serious handicap for a school board member, if and when there are able candidates without any such baggage. Dr. Smith has recently opened a campaign website: electjameelsmith.com. She could only be considered if her husband weighs-out from seeking board properties or contracts.
Her husband, Diallo Smith, is the President and CEO of Life Remodeled, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which focuses upon re-purposing vacant school buildings into community “Opportunity Hubs”. He oversees expansive neighborhood efforts which have cleaned up thousands of city blocks on the east side of Detroit. He manages community spaces like the Durfee Inovation Society which claims to connect thousands of Detroiters to human services, youth programs, and jobs. His work has been lauded by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce.
There is no claim that this is not a worthy cause. It is simply that every dollar available for education is dear, and that not one red cent should be diverted to any other social and economic programs or purposes, no matter how worthy.
Dr. Smith has contacted me to acknowledge that she is well aware and mindful of this potential conflict. She has been endorsed by the teacher’s union, and would bear this issue in mind in seeking to maintain their support. She would be pleased to meet with us to further aleve any concerns about such potential conflicts.
Christopher Allen Hubbard: Better known simply as C. A. Hubbard, PhD.
Dr. Hubbard presents as a unique and independent thinker. He asks some serious questions about our current and past-driven assumptions about the education of Generation Alpha. And he has educational and experiential credentials to back that up. His PhD appears, however, to be in theology, rather than in education or business. You need at least one of these kinds of thinkers on a policy-making board, because few folks are conversant and experienced in actually doing that. Of all of the respondents to the Chalkbeat questions, only he consistently spoke of creating effective policy in collaboration with his fellow board members.
He grew up in Detroit, attended first at St. Theresa’s Catholic School, then Halley Open Magnet Middle School in the UofD area, and Cass Tech for a year when he dropped out.
He was recruited back to Chadsey by the coach there, and became a 3-year football team leader. He went then on a football scholarship to Bowling Green and earned a BA in Business. He next studied worked at the North Shore University in Chicago, earning a PhD in ministry, and conducting TED-like convocations. He later went to Vietnamese and Chinese universities conducting classes in international commerce.
More recently, he has been back in Detroit, living in the New Center Area, working as a math interventionist for the DPSCD. While he has the credentials for that, I would ask what went wrong the first time around. Why did we need to come back for an expensive second effort?
His responses to the Chalkbeat questions were clearly out-of-the-box and on-point. On his website, he can sometimes be clear and communicative, but at other times oblique. Check it out for yourself at: electallan.org
I also checked the court records for evidence of money mismanagement troubles. He was sued for non-payment of rent in January 2025, and appears to have settled that dispute. He had also been sued for non-payment in 2024, but that suit was eventually dismissed in 2026 for lack of proper service by the plaintiff. It is not uncommon for tenants to refuse paying rent because of service complaints, particularly in those older apartment buildings near the New Center, where he lives.
Back to his point about Generation Alpha. This past Sunday, September 13th, the Detroit Free Press Opinion Section carried a very good article on the 30-year history of state-wide school financing. It’s by MSU researchers, Jason Burns and Madeline Mavrogordato. Nationally, it has been documented again and again that increases in funding seldom result in a commensurate increase in student performance. What gets very little attention, however, is that a progressive failure to keep financing up with the rate of inflation does indeed result in a decline in student performance, when the result is to eliminate the arts, music, school clubs, school nurses, libraries and librarians, free lunch, etc. In Michigan, between 2002 and 2023, support per student fell by 23% when you adjust the outlay by inflation. If the student performance metrics in Michigan compared to Mississippi are disappointing, it’s not because Mississippi is doing something magical and far more effective. It’s because we have progressively crippled ourselves. Once down, however, it’s also not easy to restore performance merely by restoring those stripped away peripherals. The real lesson is that the maintenance of steady financial support is critical in and of itself.
To put it more metaphorically, it’s like the story of the boy and his pet frog. He loved to make his frog perform. But, one day, he cut-off the frog’s back legs, and then got angry and killed the frog because it would no longer hop.
In this context, however, what the article does not address is the erosion of all American working class and middle income standards of living over the past 40 years, basically due to the impact of globalism. Getting enough tax revenue for mere maintenance rather than restoration of past levels of support is more and more like getting blood out of a turnip. The real challenge is how to get more and more out of less and less, and no one wants to face that reality. There are some limited well sites, but none which can meet typical expectations.
- A lot of marginalized folk look back today to the middle 60’s and delight in the socio-economic progress that was made at that time, in response to national protest. What they don’t understand, is that the Johnson Great Society programs were funded mainly because the Congress briefly had an accumulated federal revenue surplus. It is easy when you have a surplus and the average American family is also enjoying a 6% annual increase in their standard of living, to approve all manner of things. But, by 1970, that surplus had been far over-committed not just to current year programs, but also to perpetual entitlements in social security and medicare benefits. The costs of these were pretty much covered and shared across the economy during the rest of the 1970s by the emerging economic efficiency gains in American production. But that gain hit a wall in 1980 and has ever since.
In order to try to maintain their standard of living, most American wives had to go to work. Then, they had to work more and more hours. Next, they had to not only work more and more hours, but get their fringe benefits cut, and work extra time on the gig economy. Finally, they had to rack-up deeper and deeper credit card and student loan debt. When you go to Lansing these days, asking for more education funds, this is the reality that you face. Indeed, you can not get blood from a turnip. It’s very little about racism. Yes, a little bit. But good luck with pinning your hopes on that point.
And, since 1980, most of our economic distress has resulted from five things that Americans themselves have all invented:
First came the computer, as a result of our race to space.
Next came the internet, which enabled instant communications.
Next came satellite communications which connected the whole planet.
Next came containerized shipping. That’s those standard-sized containers you see on trucks on the highways. International shipping used to take at least 5 labor-intensive loadings and unloadings between the maker and the final consumer. Containerized shipping slashed international shipping costs by 75%!
Then came computerized “just-in-time” manufacturing.
Taken together, these inventions changed the world, and maybe for the better, but also left many of us hanging.
When I was a farm kid back in the 1940s, there were just 2.5 billion people on the earth, and after a world war, 2/3rd were starving. I went to a vocational agriculture high school, and our mission then was to figure out how to feed the world. Well, we succeeded, and today, there are over 7 billion folks competing with us. Back then, our 250 million citizens made up 10% of the world population, and most of those other folks were devastated by World War II. Today, they are able to compete with us. Times have changed.
Duane Larry Grigsby, Jr. He is a City Council District 5 activist and the PTA president at Southeastern High School. He is CEO of L & L Distributors, a beauty products distribution company with three outlets and up to 10 employees.There is a huge difference in running a 10-employee company and a 7,000 employee institution. But an argument could be made that there should be at least one PTA activist on the board. Court records indicate that he may have been sued by the City in 2020 for doing residential builder work without a license. His campaign website is: voteduanegrigsby.com
Cidney Julia-Angela Calloway. She works as a mid-level manager with the Detroit Justice Center. She appears to be the daughter of City Council member Angela Calloway. She was co-chair of then City Council President Sheffield’s appointed Reparations Task Force. Her aunt is the current Democratic candidate for the Michigan House of Representives in District 5. An argument can be made that there ought to be at least one member on the board who has strong ties with the Mayor. Court records show an unusual series of driving offenses over the past 5 years, mainly driving without insurance, driving on a suspended license, speeding 16-25 over in a school zone, passing on right side, etc. Her campaign website is: cid4thekids.com
Shinese DeCarol Johnson. Ms. Johnson has not run for the Board before, but did make a favorable impression in applying for an appointment to the Board for a vacancy in 2023. She appears now to have launched an impressive campaign with a campaign website: shinesejohnson.com, Facebook, and door to door. Her claim to have a doctorate is not, however, in education. It’s a theological doctorate from Kingdom First Christian University, which is an unregulated internet correspondence school in Florida.
Her earlier educational profile on Linked-In is as follows:
Wilberforce Univ. Ohio. 1986-87 Psychology.
Wayne Co. Com. College: 1987-91 General Studies
Wayne State: BA Psychology: 2000-03
Mercy: MA Curriculum Development: 2002-07
Kingdom 1st Christian University: 2023
Her work profile on Linked-In is sketchy:
She founded an educational consulting firm in 2012: Making Education Count, LLC (meaning a profit-making enterprise. But, in her new website, she says its a nonprofit 501(c)(3). There are, however, no annual 990s on file at IRS for that name.
She claimed on Linked-In to have been a contractual substance abuse program manager for the Black Caucus Foundation of Michigan for the past 5 years. I am unable to verify this on their website. The Black Caucus Foundation was created in 1985 by then State Rep. Alma Stallworth, as a Michigan ancillary to the U.S. House Black Caucus. Today, it is overseen by her son, former State Rep. Keith Stallworth and his wife. Stallworth was federally indicted back around 2000 for laundering drug money from the Young Boys, Inc. gang.
She claims on her website to have been recognized by 4 different nationally recognized organizations to have declared her their administrator of the year. I was unable to verify that.
She claims to be the President of the school board of a charter school in Livonia called the Branch Line School. I was able to verify that. I’m not sure that she is a parent of children in that school. In their website, they invite any interested party to join their advisory school board. I’m not opposed to considering charter school advocates for the DPSCD board. Maybe we need at least one such proponent to make balanced decisions, but we already one in board member Monique Bryant. She is likely to be opposed by the Detroit teachers unions.
After visiting her website, my email address was captured, and I have received two emails soliciting my support. (Not to disparage her campaign; it shows some tech savvy.) Her campaigners were scheduled to do door-to-door work in the Grandmont/Rosedale area on September 12 & 13. Maybe, we would have had a chance to meet her face to face. (But no one came knocking at my door, either day.)
I checked the court records for evidence of money mismanagement troubles. M.L. Elrick has previous written about the many school board candidates who have a long record of personal money mismanagement. Ms. Johnson has been sued six times within the past two years, evidently by credit card companies, for failure to pay. The person on that public record is clearly her, having not just her complete name, but also age and address. There can be no doubt as to her identity.
The most troubling court public record, however, occurred in 2022. Ms Johnson was evidently in a personal conflict with someone, who made a complaint to the Prosecutor’s Office. A warrant was issued on February 10, 2022 charging her with the Distribution of Sexually Explicit Matter on June 29, 2021, with a court order prohibiting her from having any contact, direct or indirect with the victim. The case went through several hearings, before finally being dismissed on October 14, 2022 for insufficient evidence. The arrest and warrant were quashed on the Law Enforcement Information Network,
but a public record of the case proceedings still remain on the records site of the 36th District Court. While this may not be fair to a candidate, it is the kind of sticky thing that can be or has been used to disparage the reputation of a whole school board.
You can check these court records out for yourself. Just ask your search engine for:
36th District court record search. There, just enter: Johnson/Shinese. That will bring up the list of 16 cases. Click “view” on case 2204418201. Click on “view ROA”
There is also on the ballot a two-year unfinished term, which runs from January 1, 2027 until December 31, 2028. There are 3 candidates running for this position, but only one has a hands-down chance of winning:
Aliya Rebekah Moore. Ms. Moore is a parent activist at the Oakman Special Needs School. She conducts a long-running weekly Facebook presence with hundreds of followers criticizing the school board and system. She came in 5th for the 3 seats up in 2024, gaining 33,000 votes as against 42,000 for the 3rd seat winner. She appears to be the daughter, or close relative of iconic school board exhorter Helen Moore. My problem with her is that she portrays public education as a consumer service rather than an intensive parent/student/teacher collaboration. When parents become constant critics of the schools and teachers, their kids take that counterproductive bent to school with them. Check-out her efforts on Facebook. She has no campaign website yet, but has an extensive presence on Facebook.
To her merit, she is one of the few candidates who actually have children in the system.
Her biggest complaint is about Dr. Vitti’s salary, which she charges is scandalous. Here’s my take about that:
How does Dr. Nikolai Vitti’s base salary compare with superintendents of other similar size districts?
Dr. Vitti was hired for the academic year beginning July 1, 2017 for a five-year term. His contract was extended for 3 years in 2022, to end June 30, 2025. It was extended again for 3 years in 2024, to end June 30, 2028. When a school board is reasonably satisfied with a superintendent’s performance, it is prudent to negotiate an extension well before their contract is set to expire. Otherwise, other districts in need of a new superintendent will come luring them away for more money, which will seriously interrupt whatever progress is being made, particularly if their current salary is on the low or middle side of the average.
In 2024, Vitti’s base salary was set at $354,973, with incremental additions based upon the percentage of salary increases negotiated for teachers.
At that time, according to surveys done by the American Association of School Administrators, the median salary for superintendents of districts between 50,000 and 99,999 students was $363, 982.
The median for those districts with 25,000 to 49,999 students was $295,000.
Dr. Vitti has a positive national reputation. He was named by his peers in 2022 as Superintendent of the Year. The fact that his contract has been twice renewed in the past weighs well in his favor.
A school board member should never publicly criticize it’s superintendent unless it has established over a period of time by clear documentary evidence a clear failure to abide with board-set policy. To do so in-and-of itself serves to undercut and impair the superintendent’s ability to administer. It’s proper role is to set clear standards and to privately hold the superintendent’s feet to the fire about them, but to never make this a public issue. Any board member who does that is just grandstanding to advance their own personal agenda for some other public office, with constituents who are ignorant of the gravity of their unethical misconduct.
Unless the Board is deeply troubled by Vitti’s performance, and has documented non compliance with its established expectations, it should renew his contract well before it expires, just as it has done the last two times. These five new board members will take office on January 1, 2027, just 18 months before Vitti’s contract expires. This is one of the first issues which they will need to address. They will not have the time to establish a new set of expectations of the superintendent and to determine whether or not he has complied with them. They might, however, consider making a shorter extension rather than another 3 years.
Changing superintendents without carefully documented reasons and communications about those concerns, often results in multi-million dollar court liability. Simply having a community that’s disturbed by the compensation gap between that of the superintendent vs. teachers and principals is not enough, to avoid defamation liability. Even when teachers, principals and senior staff members express discontent, it’s still not enough, because none of them have ever experienced the problems which a superintendent is expected to address and manage. Most of those concerns are in fact more likely to be driven by discontent with the dearth of school resources. It’s a sticky wicket. The less said, the better, when out campaigning.
Ms. Moore does not appear to understand the importance of this distinction.
While on the subject of Dr. Vitti, I have another point. Most of the questions asked of candidates by Chalkbeat have to do with academic priorities. It is not Dr. Vitti’s job to run herd each day over the classroom performance in the district. That job falls instead to Ms. Alicia Merriweather, who had been the interim superintendent during the period before the new board hired Dr. Vitti after a nationwide search. Prior to that time, she had been the head of teacher training for the district, and had an enthusiastic following among teachers and principals within the district, many of whom had hoped that she would have been chosen as permanent superintendent. Dr. Vitti wisely choose to keep her on as Deputy Supt. of academics, where she is immensely competent and continues to serve. She was probably not well suited to become a superintendent, because that takes a much different set of working and institutional management experience. Bottom Line: Chalkbeat asked a lot of irrelevant questions.
(Disclosure: Alicia was a classmate of my oldest daughter Kathryn at Renaissance High School. They went as roommates to UofM. My wife and I attended Alicia’s wedding.
We were and are very fond and proud of her.)