Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit’s free newsletter to keep up with the city’s public school system and Michigan education policy.The superintendent of Detroit’s school district is vowing to improve public meeting notifications, be more engaged with parents, and host a forum to address special education concerns after being peppered with questions at a pair of virtual and in-person engagement meetings. Dozens of parents and community members attended meetings on Monday and Wednesday, voicing concerns about a range of issues, from the cleanliness of schools and the district’s lack of communication and transparency to difficulty receiving special education services for their children. While DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti did answer questions from the audience during Wednesday’s meeting, he and Deputy Superintendent of Operations Machion Jackson mainly focused on discussing the district’s procurement and contracting process and breaking down contracts with three custodial companies.The format was similar to the district’s first meeting with community members on Monday. More than 700 people joined that virtual meeting, with more than 100 questions and comments logged. Machion Jackson, the deputy superintendent of operations for the Detroit Public Schools Community District, speaks during a community meeting Aug. 7 at Renaissance High School in Detroit.DPSCD officials decided to hold the community conversations after content creator Brandi McGill posted a series of viral videos last month calling out the district. Known as “Brandi Thee Millennial Manager” on social media, McGill has racked up thousands of views for her videos on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok criticizing DPSCD for poor cleanliness in its buildings and for contracting work to out-of-state companies. But parents who attended Wednesday’s meeting largely used the opportunity to ask district leaders about other issues. In multiple videos, McGill alluded to the possibility of unethical practices in the district’s contracting, though she did not make specific allegations or offer evidence of malfeasance or impropriety.At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Vitti said he welcomes the community criticism of DPSCD, noting the district has many areas it needs to improve upon. The superintendent promised he will be more engaged and that the district will do better with communication and follow-ups with parents and community members. “Believe it or not, I do try to listen always,” he said. “Even in the sharpest criticism, there’s a truth in reflecting, owning the wrong, and trying to improve systems and processes. Keep engaging, keep holding me and the district accountable.” Here are some other questions BridgeDetroit heard audience members ask Vitti throughout the meeting: These responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.Q: What are you doing for the special needs community? How are you helping the parents?Vitti: When I walked into this district … we had over 200 special needs teacher vacancies. You can’t serve children without certified teachers. The first step was trying to staff ESE (Exceptional Student Education) teachers. We changed the name from special ed (to ESE) because it’s a negative connotation that I think goes with that. That was step one — try to get the department fully staffed. Then, try to train everyone to be more compliant with IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) and implement those IEPs. ESE is one of the areas where we still have a lot to improve. What do we have to do better? We have to process initial evaluations on time, implement IEPs, provide services like OT (occupational therapy), PT (physical therapy), and speech. Accountability in schools, where principals, lead teachers, and teachers are held more accountable in implementing the IEP.We made changes at the central office for leadership. We have a new team that started this summer, so there’s fresh ideas, fresh ownership of the problems, and understanding that what we’re doing has to change and improve. Those are all examples of how that can trickle down to making improvements across the district. I’m committing to a separate community meeting on special needs, so all parents can understand where we’ve been, what our challenges are, and what our plans are. Q: Why can’t parents receive notifications and robocalls about district meetings more in advance instead of the day before or the day of?Vitti: We put all the school board meetings and the committee meetings on our website. We do the robotexts the day of because it gets people’s attention. We get a lot of criticism that we’re sending out too many robocalls and too many texts. To your point, we’ll do it in advance and try to tell everyone when the next meeting is, not the day before or the day out. Point taken. We can develop a separate calendar just for school board meetings, and that can be easier for parents to see. Q: What are the district’s goals for its students? Vitti: Our goal is that all students are showing at least one year of growth in their academic level. One year of growth in reading and math is what the minimal expectation is. The more aggressive and visionary goal is that all students are at grade level. More importantly, all students graduate in four years. The larger goal is that we’re graduating children who can get into college and not take remedial classes, and/or get a job with a livable wage. That our children go into society and they’re active citizens; that they’re confident, they’re comfortable talking in front of people, and they feel empowered to engage in our society at a high level.Q: Who is being held accountable for issues in DPSCD? Vitti: We’re all accountable. Yes, I’m the leader of the day-to-day operations of the district. It’s easy to put it on me, and I own the responsibility. I don’t run away from it. But a superintendent alone cannot be solely responsible. Everyone has to be responsible, and that’s got to trickle down to the entire organization, from the principal to the teacher, to the parents. It has to be a collective ownership. But I can stand here and say I’m accountable because every day I’m trying to make this district better — changing things, removing personnel, adding personnel. So it’s easy for me to say I’m accountable, but it would be naive to say or to even accept it’s only about the superintendent. Q: Vetal Elementary School was one of the highlighted schools that was supposed to be reactivated in the facility master plan. It was supposed to start back in the winter, and it’s almost September. Are there any updates being done with that site, and how will communication be better in the future so people won’t continue to complain about things like that?Jackson: Obviously, it takes far longer to build new schools than it takes to reactivate schools, and so we had to move forward with those schools first. Vetal is in our Series Five of the facility master plan. We moved it back slightly (the project is estimated to be completed in the fall of 2028) because we needed to make sure that we opened the (new) schools on time. The design and development work has not yet commenced because we’re going through the procurement process with the architect and engineering firm. However, we do have an owner’s representative that has been procured, and that is working with us on the planning of that site.Vitti: The plans are on the (DPSCD) website. But there might be an opportunity to do another round of neighborhood (engagement) about the status of the Series Five and Series Six projects. Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.
