Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks declined to comment for this article due to ongoing contract negotiations with the Board of Education.
The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education voted 4-3 to offer Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks the position of permanent superintendent during a March 20 meeting, effectively shortening the search process. The motion proved divisive among board members with Trustees Ernesto Querijero, Rima Mohammad and Jeff Gaynor, who voted against the decision, arguing it was important to continue the standard search process. Those supporting the vote cited the AAPS financial crisis as a cause for expediting the hiring process.
The search process for a new superintendent began in the fall of 2023 and was expected to conclude at the end of April. The BOE selected consulting firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates to aid in the search. The process was narrowed to seven candidates in early March, who were invited to Zoom interviews. Of the seven, five completed these interviews with the BOE on March 15.
Parks has served as AAPS interim superintendent since October after replacing Dr. Jeanice Swift, who came to a voluntary settlement and resignation agreement with the BOE. The resignation came after a lawsuit was brought to the district claiming inaction when a special education student was assaulted by a school bus aide in 2021. Parks has worked for the district for sixteen years in various positions, including as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent.
Those who voted in support of the decision included Trustees Susan Ward Schmidt, Susan Baskett, Torchio Feaster and Krystle DuPree. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, DuPree cited Parks’ familiarity with the community, her experience in the Ann Arbor education system and the budget crisis as factors in the decision.
“She’s already sold a very strong track record of experience in this district … so I think that was important,” DuPree said. “And the fact that she has very close connections with people who are working in the district, our teachers, our administrators — she cares about them and she has this rapport with them.”
In an interview with The Daily, Gaynor described Parks’ experience as having its pros and cons.
“She didn’t have superintendent experience,” Gaynor said. “I was very disappointed the two candidates we had selected didn’t make it to this round because they did have many years in large districts (as superintendents). … On the other hand, Ms. Parks knows Ann Arbor. She was in several different positions, including assistant superintendent, overlooking everything, among other positions.”
Feaster said by offering the position to Parks, both she and the BOE could focus on the district’s ongoing budget crisis.
“I believe that the majority of the board members thought that we had a couple of competing interests,” Feaster said.“That being that we had to find the best possible candidate, but at the same time, we had to, as quickly as possible, as efficiently as possible, find ways to close our budget loophole. I think the board thought that by hiring Ms. Parks, we could hire the best candidate and get directly to fixing that shortfall.”
Feaster added the decision would allow the district to focus on filling additional open positions as well as ensuring Parks did not get recruited during the selection process.
“We’re missing you know two or three different assistant superintendents,” Feaster said. “I also feared that there is a possibility that Ms. Parks could be recruited away from our district. We need her in this time of crisis and I did not want the district to lose another person.”
The district is expected to cover travel costs for candidates to attend in-person interviews as well as flights for any site visits by board members. During the March 20 BOE meeting, some trustees cited concerns about paying these costs during the budget crisis. Schmidt said these costs were unnecessary, given the support for Parks.
“From my perspective, if we continue on with candidates that, to me, are not up to snuff to what we need at this time, it’s a waste of time and money,” Schmidt said.
Other trustees, such as Mohammad and Querijero, said they felt that the cost of plane flights and travel for candidates was minimal given the district is millions of dollars short due to the budget crisis. Querijero said these costs should not have been the focus of the decision because of the long-term impact of the superintendent selection.
“We’re not making a decision just based on our current issues,” Querijero said. “We’re making one hopefully. I thought that would be like a vision for the future. But it seemed to me like that was somewhat of a short-sighted decision.”
Mohammad said she felt it was important the search process continued in order to have the opportunity for engagement between the Ann Arbor community and the superintendent candidates.
“I do feel that bypassing that is just not the right thing to do,” Mohammad said. “It does impact transparency. We’ve advocated for transparency about everything going on and to completely suspend that process that a lot of the community members were excited … just to completely bypass that was unacceptable.”
Some trustees noted that HYA performed an outreach at the beginning of the search process via surveys and public forums. However, Mohammad said she felt this process was not adequate because it took place before final candidates were selected and the community did not have the opportunity to indicate a preference for a particular candidate.
“We owe it to the community to go through the process and allow the community to provide input,” Mohammad said.
Querijero said he also felt further community input was needed due to limited participation in the initial outreach.
“When (HYA) came back to our board meeting to report back on what the community wanted, they actually admitted that the response rate was really low,” Querijero said. “We have 17 or 18 thousand students in our district, and I think the total number of students who attended, I want to say, is less than 200. So to call that real data, I think, is a little tough.”
Mohammad said despite her disagreement with the board’s decision, she thinks it was important to keep moving forward.
“The board approved this move, even though there’s three of us that are against it,” Mohammad said. “So it is what it is and my approach is we have to keep pushing, looking forward and not kind of harp on what has happened in the past. … I’m going to keep an open mind as we move forward.”
Parks is currently engaged in the contract negotiations process with the BOE’s general counsel. Once negotiations conclude, trustees will vote on whether to approve the contract at a future date.
Daily Staff Reporter Amanda Venclovaite-Pirani can be reached at amandavp@umich.edu.