Today we were honored by Mike Flanagan’s visit to the Grosse Pointe Public School System.
Mike is the State of Michigan Superintendent of Schools, which is a non-partisan position appointed by the governor. He is the co-chair of the State Board of Education and plays a lead role in state educational policies. Race to the Top, Common Core Standards, state graduation requirements and the like fall within his purview. It is important to note, however, that how Michigan funds public schools and related budgetary matters are not within his scope of responsibility (although he is clearly well versed in the issues).
I’ve seen Mike at work before in visits to State Board of Education meetings. Much like our own superintendent, he is soft-spoken, understated, knowledgeable, and, above all else, an educator. He demonstrated a clear concern for the well-being of the state’s 1.6 million students. He strikes me as politically conscious, but not politically motivated person.
Engaged at the grass roots level, he visits local school districts once per month and this was our month, the first I’ve seen in my five years on the Board. Select teachers, students and parents joined a wonderful lunch hosted at South’s Cleminson Hall with food prepared and served by students. A beautiful student quartet rounded out a pleasant scene.
Mike shared some interesting stories. Not immune to the state’s financial condition, he noted that the Department of Education once had 2,000 employees and is now down to 200 – a mere ten of which are funded with state tax dollars, the rest federal. This is indicative of the federal influence on state and local educational matters.
He betrayed the same frustration that I know we share locally that the bureaucracy federal involvement creates is unwelcome when the stakes are high, the challenges great, and the budgets tight. But his perspective on true educational matters was encouraging and practical.
He accepts the challenge we collectively face. We need a better educated Michigan if we wish to truly rise from the factory ashes. I think he sees the pitfalls of high stakes standardized testing, but also knows there needs to be a sense or urgency to respond to the Achievement Gap. He demonstrated real balance, an invaluable trait for someone in that position.
By the time we had lunch with him, Dr. Klein had taken Mike to a few of the schools in the district. In his lunchtime comments Mike said that what struck him the most was what he saw at Poupard Elementary. There are those who have given Poupard a rough time, but are not fully aware of the challenges this school community faces. What we might take for granted is that economically Poupard more closely resembles the majority of Michigan schools in terms of its economic diversity. 40% of Poupard’s students qualify for free and reduced lunch. State-wide the average is about 45%. The next closest school in the district has half Poupard’s percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
Mike marvelled at what he saw there and told us of his plans to share with other districts the great things Principal Penny Stocks and her staff have done to respond to their unique challenges. Remember, this is a guy who makes it his business to visit schools of all kinds across the state and see these kinds of things. For him to single our Poupard should make us all feel good.
I was also very proud of how Mike went out of his way to tell us how lucky we were to have educational leaders like Suzanne Klein and South principal Al Diver. He spoke of how they both have wonderful reputations across the state.
To get this kind of external validation for our teachers, administrators, schools and district is important for us to hear. Evaluation of any kind requires context and perspective. Most of us really want to believe we’re doing great things. We can’t always trust our objectivity because of our personal investment. Getting validation from an outsider as qualified as Mike Flanagan was as good as it gets.
On his way back to Lansing I am sure Mike Flanagan smiled and thought to himself, that is one district that is making it happen and doing things the right way. As he goes from one district to the next month to month I expect he will share the great things we are doing for our students as examples of how great public education in Michigan can be.
Thanks, Mike, for sharing your time, ideas and perspective.