FOREST HILLS, Mich. — The Forest Hills Public Schools superintendent announced he will retire this summer. The announcement comes just weeks after Superintendent Dan Behm admitted to removing controversial books from the district’s libraries.
Forest Hills Public Schools announced Superintendent Dan Behm’s retirement Thursday morning.
Behm served as superintendent of Forest Hills Public Schools for 17 years and spent more than three decades working for Michigan public schools.
According to the district, Behm had originally planned to retire in 2021 but put that plan on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Serving alongside the incredible teachers and staff members of this school district for the past 17 years has been the highlight of my career,” said Behm. “I am grateful for the incredible support of our community and the selfless dedication of everyone who works daily for the success of kids.
Behm is currently the longest-serving superintendent in West Michigan and was elected as the president of the Kent County Superintendents’ Association this past fall.
Dr. Kristen Fauson, president of the FHPS Board of Education said, “We are grateful for Mr. Behm’s dedicated service to our students, staff members, and community. His North Star is to always do what is best for students and this has been his guide throughout thousands of decisions—some easy and some complex—over his 17 years in Forest Hills. He has poured his heart and soul into our school district and we are forever thankful for his leadership. As always, he has our full support and we wish him well in his retirement.”
The board of education says it will move forward with a full superintendent search process throughout the coming weeks and months.
President Fauson said, “The board values the input of our community and staff members. Selecting a superintendent is one of the most important duties of the board and we want to listen to and engage our stakeholders during this process. We will establish a timeline outlining all of the important steps in this process and share it with our community this spring.”
Controversy has surrounded Behm recently after the superintendent admitted to removing controversial books from the district’s library. Behm sent an email out to staff members apologizing for removing the books.
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The FHPS Board of Education met earlier this month after the incident was discussed with Behm during an evaluation.
The board said it would not fire or take other action against Behm for removing the books.
"The Board of Education is comfortable with the procedures that Superintendent Behm is working on, and are hopeful that they will relay the concerns of both parents who greater control over what their students read, as well as those parents who wish for their children to access a robust catalog of diverse reading material," said Fauson.
However, they did clarify that they do not support book banning. "Let us be abundantly clear: Forest Hills Public Schools does not ban books. We are dedicated to providing a wide variety of reading material that allows students to grow and learn more about themselves and others."
According to the board, the impacted books included Looking for Alaska, My Friend Dahmer, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, The Handmaid's Tale (Graphic Novel), 19 Minutes, and Beyond Magenta, which have all come under fire in the past few years as being inappropriate for children.
All of the books have been returned to the shelves at Forest Hills Northern.
Current district policy dictates that only library staff can make decisions on what shelves hold.
In an interview with FOX 17, Behm said no other administrators were involved in the book removal and no one, besides those authorized to do so, has removed books from district libraries since.
"I take responsibility for that," he said. “That’s when our coordinators weren’t working at that point in time… We were working to make sure those books weren’t in our elementary media centers and when I learned that they weren’t checked out very often and subject to weeding, that’s what I did [remove the books].”
Behm says the district will implement a system, later this spring, in which parents can specify which books their children are allowed to check out and which ones they cannot.
