KALAMAZOO, Mich. — After a long interview process, Kalamazoo Public Schools' new superintendent officially started this week. Dr. Darrin Slade is ready to make a positive change in the district starting with increasing graduation rates, improving test scores and addressing youth violence.
“I think our job as educators is to ensure that students learn the skills they need to be productive citizens, but also, in a lot of cases, you act as a role model,” Dr. Slade told FOX 17.
With over 30 years of experience, education is in his blood. Surrounded by his mother and aunt who were both teachers, it wasn’t long before he discovered his purpose.
“I'm a big community person. My wife passed away in 2016, so once that happened, I kind of made working in schools my life,” he said. “I'm a superintendent. I'm an educator who focuses on teaching and learning and that's always been my passion.”
Prior to Dr. Slade’s hiring, the district hosted listening sessions for community members to address concerns. One of the major issues brought up was graduation rates and not many students taking advantage of the Kalamazoo Promise.
Dr. Slade says increasing that number is the first thing on his list.
“You focus on every individual student and the student's grades you monitor progress throughout the year; you have individual meetings with students from day one,” he added, saying his plan is to spend time in classrooms and build relationships with students.
The new superintendent believes that once stronger bonds are built with each student, it prevents them from slipping through the cracks.
“Kalamazoo is one of the highest-performing urban areas in the state if you look at the research, so we will focus on reading and math, science, on subjects like we did in the past, but we will have a more intense focus on ensuring that the curriculum is followed,” he said.
Coming from school districts in Kansas City, Baltimore, and St. Louis, Dr. Slade has had to address youth violence frequently, and he doesn’t plan to stop.
“We have conflict mediation programs in place; we have a lot of social supports in place to help students learn that resorting to violence is the last thing that you should do; you should never do that. So just continuing to educate our students on how to address conflict in a non-violent manner,” he told FOX 17.
In terms of the lawsuits filed against the district, he has full faith in the Board.
“The Board is focused on ensuring that the best is done for students as it relates to academics, attendance, graduation rates; so any discourse that may have happened in the past, we're on a positive path now and I see things just continuing to improve,” he said.
The first day of school is Aug. 28 and for the new superintendent, that’s when the real work begins.
