Grosse Pointe News

Sean Cotton, Owner • Anne Gryzenia, Publisher • Jody McVeigh, Editor In Chief • Meg Leonard, Senior Editor

16980 Kercheval Pl. • Grosse Pointe, Michigan 48230 • 313.882.6900 • Monday-Friday 9am-4pm

Our View: Extension too soonFree Access


If NFL quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady walked into his general manager’s office asking for a contract extension, new paperwork would be drafted within the day.

On the other hand, if former Detroit Lion Joey Harrington — the third overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft — asked his employers for an extension during his rookie season, on the heels of his controversial selection, he would have gotten laughed out of town (that part happened a few years later). And maybe told to run laps just for asking.

We recognize that very few people are of Brady-esque caliber in their place of employment. But the Grosse Pointe Public Schools stakeholders should demand a much greater body of work, along with measurable achievement, for a contract extension to be considered for Jon Dean and his administrative team.

We also would like to see a data-driven, upward trajectory in multiple areas for longer than the 10 months Dr. Dean has held the position of GPPSS superintendent.

In the April 14 edition of Grosse Pointe News (“Board discusses sup’t, administration contract extensions”), Dr. Dean called the action “routine.” We question how anything can be routine in this era in public education where we have been endlessly told, scolded even, that we are in “unprecedented” times and we need to be “flexible” and willing to “pivot.”

Extending a contract this early should be anything but routine. It should warrant a much greater benchmark than “just because” we have done it this way before. When it was previously done this way, our district was in a dramatically better financial position, with greater enrollment numbers and elite state and national rankings.

We hold our position to delay an extension for several reasons. First, we should all have major concerns about how quickly our BOE can extend an 831-word administrative contract in the course of two weeks (at the head administrator’s own request, mind you). We also can’t reconcile how Dr. Dean negotiates two-year contracts for his own teachers, while seeking to nearly double that with a four-year contract for himself and only select players on the district’s team.

What exactly is the impetus for a contract extension for Team Dean? And why right now? The juice-to-squeeze ratio of this extension benefits administration only and not the community at large. It certainly gives Dr. Dean the job security he seeks. But we fear it potentially infuses an unnecessary element of complacency in our leadership team — something this district can ill-afford.

Then there is the issue of a budget, which is not yet known, that would provide a hard piece of evidence regarding Dr. Dean’s performance. While he did receive a “highly effective” rating in the evaluation of his 10-month-long tenure — and a whopping $10,000 bonus for it — our Board of Education doesn’t even agree that the proper, most important metrics are being used to evaluate him.

We would detail for you what those metrics are, but we can’t, because the state’s Open Meetings Act ironically requires this evaluation to be in closed session. Unless you are a BOE member, not one stakeholder has any information on what’s being used to measure our superintendent’s performance.

Board member Ahmed Ismail told reporter Michael Hartt in our March 31 edition (“Superintendent’s evaluation approved”) that the current evaluation process falls short. He said moving forward, he hopes to see the BOE use more detailed evaluations with more measurable components.

“I think some of the things we need to focus on as a board (are) benchmarks for Dr. Dean to follow that are measurable and relevant to the concerns that the community has,” Ismail said.

So forgive our misgivings about an extension.

The request smacks of Dr. Dean ensuring he is immune to the will of voters, essentially putting himself outside the reach of multiple election cycles until the extension expires June 30, 2025.

Board member Margaret Weertz told the Grosse Pointe News on April 14, she intends to vote for the administrative contracts when the BOE meets again April 25. She said, “We have a small administration team who does very good work and they work very hard. I want them to stay for the next two or three years.”

Why? What constitutes working hard in any measurable form, especially this soon? Or is this yet another one of the nebulous benchmarks the district uses?

What assurances does GPPSS get in return by providing this job security before we even know the caliber of quarterback we have? Can these employees leave during their contract term? Can they request a trade? Can we cut them?

We are curious if Dr. Dean and his team would agree to a non-compete clause throughout Michigan during the contract period or not. If he quits or takes another position, we best not be on the financial hook because his contract does not specify these terms.

This spring, Dr. Dean has scheduled a series of “Listening Sessions with Dr. Dean,’’ throughout the community. He also wrote a Letter to the Editor to the Grosse Pointe News on April 7, saying “… two things that I try to do daily as the GPPSS superintendent — ask questions and listen.”

We have officially asked our plethora of questions. As sports radio fans often say, we’ll hang up and listen.

One response to “Our View: Extension too soon”

  1. TERENCE says:

    Mrs. McVeigh and Mr. Cotton,

    Your analysis is spot on. There is nothing “routine” about extending the contracts of the Executive Administration Staff 10 months into the tenure of a new superintendent. The previous Superintendent Dr. Niehaus was not provided a contract extension until he had completed 2 years of his initial 3 year contract in 2017. Thank god we have at least one Board Member who is awake during the Board Meetings and asking the questions that only Mrs. Pangborn would have asked previously.

    In the first 10 months of his tenure Dr. Dean has done absolutely nothing to address the nearly $4 Mil General Fund Budget deficit this school year. Any good news found in the recent G.A.A.A #2 budget update ($2.8 Mil Revenue increase) is immediately torpedoed by an administration that cant control costs ($2.7 Mil Expenditure Increase). Giving this team a contract extension at this time on the eve of an election this November is a ridiculous idea. I hope we have 4 board members with some common sense on Monday.