Albion Public Schools selects one-year interim superintendent following impassioned debate

Albion Public Schools has chosen a candidate to become its one-year interim superintendent, turning down a homegrown product in the process.

Bobbi Morehead, former principal of W.K. Kellogg Middle School in Battle Creek, has been offered the job after a contentious 4-3 vote gave her an edge over Maurice Ware, the executive director of student support services for Battle Creek Public Schools.

“When I saw the set of challenges presented at Albion I said, ‘This is what I love to do, this is where I like to be and I know I have the right skill set and passion to go into Albion Public Schools and together with the school board, teachers, and community, make the changes we need to make in a quick amount of time,’” said Morehead, 43.

While many Albion residents showed strong support for Ware, an Albion High School graduate with administrative experience, through a letter-writing campaign and strong verbal affirmations, the board determined Morehead’s success with Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores addressed a more immediate need.

“She has taken a school which is 600 students, two-thirds the size of our school system, and the school hadn’t made AYP for four years and when she took it over it made AYP for seven straight years,” said Board President Dan Skean, who added that Ware had the best interview of the three finalists. “If we don’t achieve AYP, no amount of marketing, no amount of feel-good community nature can save our high school.”

The high school has failed to meet AYP for five consecutive years and the district was forced to submit a comprehensive redesign plan to the state earlier this year.

Board member Shawnette Spicer, who voted for Ware, said Morehead and Ware were both good candidates, but Ware has shown a propensity for connecting with the community and he had the potential to get a diverse range of students enthused about school again.

“You can have the smartest person in the world take this job — they might meet AYP all day — but if they can’t connect with the families, if they can’t connect with the children, if they can’t connect with the community and excite us about what we need to do, what’s the point?” she said. “We just spent about $80,000 on a specialist on curriculum (Coordinator of Differentiated Instruction), so why do we need a superintendent who’s an expert on that?”

Former Albion teacher and board member Ruth Valdes, who voted for Ware, said curriculum is just a buzzword “for layers of other stuff.”

“I think curriculum can be just a cover for what the problem really is,” she said. “The problem is very basic — it’s about relationships between teachers and students, students and each other, parents, teachers, administrators.”

Board member Don Phillips said he believes Ware would be a good choice as a possible long-term solution for the district, but immediate success is required to curtail some of the low test scores and declining enrollment.

“We have a plan we have sent to the state for three years that (brings in) $900,000 a year and we’re going to have to work that plan to have success,“ he said.

Albion resident Temple Stovall, who has four children in the district, said the community was excited about someone like Ware being able to relate to their experiences.

“I wanted to come to see if the citizens would get what they wanted,” she said. “I just hope it works for the community and for our school system because we let someone like Mr. Ware get away.”
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As published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot on July 13, 2011