The Bloomfield Hills School Board of Education is moving forward with two of the five superintendent candidates that were recently interviewed.
The board voted 5-1 Thursday, July 20, to conduct second interviews with Dr. Ernesto Mathias, former chief education officer, Illinois State Board of Education, and Dr. Roy Bishop, vice superintendent of educational services in the Grosse Pointe Public School System.
Board member Paul Collin voted against it, saying he preferred to seek a new set of candidates.
Board member Tarek Fallah was absent from the July 20 meeting.
The board originally planned to hold the second interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 25-26, but has now chosen to hold those meetings in early September instead.
Several board members said they wanted to delay the second interviews to allow for more input from staff, students and the community who may not be available over the summer.
No dates have been set for second interviews.
The audience can attend the interviews in person and they will also be streamed live and recorded for later viewing. Those attending the meetings or watching via live streaming or recording can provide feedback to the board at www.bloomfield.org/feedback.
The other three candidates interviewed who will not continue in the superintendent selection process were:
– Dr. James Woell, Superintendent, Benjamin School District 25, West Chicago, Illinois
– Carol Baaki Diglio, educational leadership and human resources consultant and former assistant superintendent of human resources in the Oak Park and Novi school districts.
– Nicholas Russo, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools.
You can view recordings of all five interviews at https://www.bloomfield.org/about-us/board-of-education/search.
Current Superintendent Pat Watson retired effective July 31.
He announced his retirement after parents and others called for his termination in the wake of a controversial diversity assembly at Bloomfield Hills High School.
Jewish groups said a speaker at the assembly made remarks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that became political and were offensive to Jewish students.
Parents of both Jewish and Arab-American students reported that their children were subsequently threatened and bullied.
Many parents said the administration’s response to the dispute was inadequate.
The board voted earlier this month to appoint Dr. Randy Liepa as interim superintendent. He will serve until Oct. 30 or until a new chief is appointed and begins work.
Liepa is a former superintendent of the Wayne Regional Education Agency and Livonia Public Schools.