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Dearborn board advances six candidates to public superintendent interviews
Summary
The Dearborn City School District board voted unanimously to advance six letter-designated candidates to first-round public interviews in its superintendent search, set preliminary interview dates and agreed on a process for selecting and timing interview questions.
The Dearborn City School District Board of Education voted unanimously on April 9 to advance six candidates to the first round of public interviews in its search for a new superintendent.
John Silveri, a consultant with the Michigan Leadership Institute, told the board the district received 23 applications and that the board reviewed confidential candidate materials in closed session. To preserve confidentiality the applicants were identified by letter during deliberations; after a tally of trustees' preferences, the board moved to advance letters A, B, C, D, F and G to public interviews and approved the motion by a 7-0 roll call.
The board announced the six candidates by name and current position: Moussa Hamka, assistant superintendent for human resources, Grosse Pointe Public Schools; Tracy Reed, superintendent, Reynoldsburg City Schools (Reynoldsburg, Ohio); Ali Hamka, assistant superintendent of human resources, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools; Fatme Faraj, executive director of student achievement, Dearborn City School District; Mike Esseily, executive director of special populations, Dearborn City School District; and Thomas Aehart, former superintendent, Des Moines Public Schools. The board directed staff to notify the candidates and post the schedule once interviews are set.
Board members and consultants spent the meeting refining the interview protocol and the set of questions to be asked. Silveri described the typical format the district will use: an introductory remark from the board president, up to 20 board questions, time for the candidate to ask questions of the board and a final statement from the candidate; boards typically allot up to 90 minutes per candidate but may shorten interviews if multiple candidates are scheduled the same night. Trustees discussed using a visible on-screen timer and agreed to select a small set of questions from the packet provided in trustees' binders rather than debate question wording aloud.
Trustees picked questions by category (opening, district relations, political awareness, leadership, instruction and finance/staff) and directed staff to compile a final question set. The board discussed scheduling stakeholder activities, community meet-and-greets and finalist interviews; the consultant recommended holding two interviews per night on April 14–16 with public posting of times, and the board retained May 4 as the current target date to select the superintendent while leaving flexibility to adjust the calendar based on stakeholder feedback and calendar conflicts.
The board also discussed logistics for stakeholder sessions and finalist events (possible consolidation of district tours, meet-and-greets and finalist Q&A on April 22–23) and agreed members will receive binders with the finalized questions and will be assigned categories to ask during interviews.
Next steps: staff will notify the six candidates, schedule the public interviews, post the interview order and times, circulate the finalized question set to trustees and post opportunities for community feedback ahead of the finalist-selection meeting.
