On Monday, board members with the Kalamazoo Public Schools district heard more from the three finalists for the open superintendent position— and so did residents.
The finalists met the board in person.
At Monday's meeting, the board welcomed feedback from community members on the three candidates for the district's top job.
The remaining candidates are as follows:
- Dr Stephanie Jones, Chief Officer for the Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services for Chicago Public Schools
- Dr. Darrin Slade, Deputy Superintendent of the Hazelwood Public School District in Missouri
- Dr. Ty Weeks, Superintendent of Schools for Dearborn Heights Schools District No. 7
READ: Board of Education begins interviewing candidates for next KPS superintendent
At Monday's meeting, each candidate talked for about an hour with the board of education, answering various questions about teacher's pay, school security, and learning gaps caused by the pandemic.
Dr. Weeks, the first to be interviewed, said he was focused on providing students with ample time.
"We're not just going to erase a gap that, as we move into years to come, there's going to be a lot of research on the implications that this pandemic had on young people and their social development, their academic development," he said. "Our commitment is to time as we continue to provide them them with time on task during the school day, after school, summer school."
Dr. Weeks also said he wanted to partner with parents as well as local libraries to boost students' access to books and literature "so they can continue to be committed to the work of being lifelong readers."
Next, the board interviewed Dr. Jones, who emphasized the importance of identifying gaps as well as strengths.
"One of the things that we'll be looking for is not just the last standardized assessment scores, but also looking at our student current student grades, their attendance, any discipline, but also looking when I go back and look at the curriculum framework, some of the pieces that I will be looking for is, what is our cadence as it relates to progress monitoring? What are our instructional practices? What do are in regards to our curriculum framework? Is it inclusive of classroom walks? How are we bless you? How are we ensuring that outside of an evaluation that we're actually one another's partners and building the capacity of our teams, inclusive of our professional, professional development schedule that we have to ensure that we are pouring in and support and our educator," said Dr. Jones.
As for the third candidate, Dr. Slade said students who are not "on grade level" need to be provided with extra help.
"That normally comes in the form of tutoring during the school day, provided by support staff, after school opportunities for tutoring," he explained.
"I think what you really have to do to increase student achievement at all levels basically, is you have to have quality tier one instruction. You have to make sure that teachers are found in the curriculum, you have to make sure that data is being used to guide instructional decision making," he said.
In total, the KPS board interviewed six candidates out of a pool of 37 applicants, coming from all over the country. Dr. Jones, Dr. Slade, and Dr. Weeks were selected to move on.
The KPS board will meet on Thursday to decide who will become the district's next superintendent.
Howver, before the final decision is made, the board invites community members to weigh in.Feedback links are posted on the district's website through noon on Tuesday. Board members will read responses before choosing a new superintendent.
The position was left open when former superintendent Dr. Rita Raichoudhuri stepped down in December 2022.
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