Grosse Pointe North senior Shannon Kane admits she was a little daunted when she attended her first strategic planning session as a member of the committee.
There were two other North students and one Grosse Pointe South student present, but she didn’t know any of them.
“It was a bit intimidating, but I was encouraged to speak and I felt very supported and that what I had to say was valued,” Shannon said.
When she got the email inviting her to join the strategic planning committee, she didn’t know much about the process, but she did some research, including reading the strategic plan approved in 2015.
“I thought it was an opportunity to embrace making a change for the better and I thought it was an opportunity for me to speak about my experiences as a student in the district and better the district as a whole,” she said.
One thing Shannon quickly gained an appreciation for was hearing perspectives from other members of the committee.
“Obviously, the teachers had more training in this kind of stuff than I did,” she acknowledged, “but they don’t know how it feels as a student to be in the district. Explaining how things can improve from my perspective and the logistics of it from their perspective was important.”
She also enjoyed hearing from them “what they valued. It was an open conversation and there was never any judgment. The environment of the conversations was very accepting and supportive.”
“Creating a strategic plan for an organization of this size and importance takes intentional focus, an open mind, and an ability to be okay with the give-and-take that accompanies large-group decision making. The GPPSS strategic planning process allowed teachers, parents, students, government leaders, business owners, and administrators to have meaningful small and large-group discussions on what we envision for our schools and how we can try to get there together. We were able to learn from people with contrasting opinions and from moments of consensus. To me, this process was the next best step in designing a future with a thriving public school system, producing a community that succeeds.”
— Gina Gabel, Grosse Pointe Alumni & Friends Association vice president
Here for the long haul
Committee member Blagica Bottigliero particularly appreciated Shannon and the other students’ voices in the process.
“What really touched me in those meetings were the students,” she said. “They told us what they wanted. I feel like a community can talk about what it wants, but what about what the kids want?”
The results of the plan, in her view, were a combination of what committee members heard from those high school students “who were brave enough to show up” and the group as a whole.
Blagica, who has a third and sixth grader in the district and is “here for the long haul,” said she wanted to be involved because she wanted to understand how the district would prepare students for life after high school.
She also has seen a change in her own daughter since she began to feel accepted at middle school and wants the same for other students in the district.
“If a kid doesn’t have to spend time feeling included and fitting in, they can focus on school, not feeling like the way they feel or the way they look is wrong,” Blagica said. “If we can make kids feel safe with who they are and safe in school and with their teachers, then they can learn.”
Looking around the room during the first strategic planning meeting gave her “a strong sense of comfort because there were teachers and administrators there, and they’re the experts,” she said.
“We did have a mix of people who no longer had kids in the district,” Blagica added. “We had parents who were new to the district. We had people who were educators and had kids in the district. I thought it was a good cross-section of people, including members of the Board of Education. I thought it was a fair representation of parents and community members and educators.”
“The strategic planning process meant that I had the opportunity to weigh in on the future educational plans for GPPSS. I felt I had a positive input in the mission statement, defining the steps of the mission, the vision, goals and objectives of the plan. I felt that we had a good involvement of the communities that GPPSS serves. The strategic planning committee prepared a blueprint for GPPSS to follow for the children of the district to receive an education bar none.”
— Valerie Kindle, Harper Woods mayor
Clint Derringer, who has two children in elementary school this year with his youngest entering kindergarten in the fall, is similarly committed to the school district for the long run. He agreed to serve on the committee because his children are young, he and his wife are “newish” to the area, and “it was an opportunity to be involved in something positive, which is something my wife and I are always keeping an eye out for.”
He brought related experience to the table, having worked previously in a school setting as a graduation coach at his former high school in Warren, where he was involved in strategic planning as well as testing and strategic analysis.
Clint was pleased overall with the process and the outcome.
“I thought the facilitator was great,” he said. “John (Silveri) did a great job of keeping things clear and concise and was very efficient with everybody’s time. There was a lot of opportunity for everybody to get their perspective listened to by the whole group and small groups.”
He also was “very happy with the new mission and vision and the direction that everything went.”
His only critique was he wished there were more quantitative ways defined to measure the results of the strategic plan going forward.
“We looked at a lot of data and I was hoping to be very specific,” he said.
This came back in some of the group’s verbal feedback, he added.
“It’s tough to quantify the goals and plans we outlined. I think it’s a really great plan on paper. I just hope we can follow through and communicate clearly how well things are being accomplished.”
A roadmap for success
Blagica agrees with the importance of accountability and plans to stay involved to ensure the plan is implemented.
“I’m happy with the document, but I am one of the members of the committee who is willing to take time to make sure it gets done,” she said. “Implementation and accountability are just as important to me right now. How are we going to make sure it isn’t just words in a document, but something we use as a community as a roadmap to set these kids up for success?”
Success in her book means not just academic preparation, but learning how to understand the world and be a good person.
Shannon agrees with this perspective as a student in the district. While excellence in academics plays a major role in the plan, “a big part of being a human is being a good person and learning empathy,” she said. “You have to learn that at a young age when you’re impressionable. I think it’s as important to learn how to be a good person as it is to learn algebra.”
She also emphasized the importance of promoting mental wellness and encouraging social growth along with academics.
“You definitely can’t have one without the other,” she said.
“It was an honor and a responsibility to be a part of the strategic planning process. It meant having a voice at the table and knowing that my viewpoints as a parent, PTO leader and community member were considered and heard. I felt that the process was thorough and the end was not predetermined. The thoughts of the members were considered and put into place in the final plan. I am so proud of what we created (emphasis on ‘we’). I fully and truly believe it was a collaboration that will send the district and our community in a wonderful, eye-opening direction.”
— Kate Walczy, Kerby Elementary parent
A part of the solution
Christine Wujek, parent of two Grosse Pointe South graduates, said she was honored to serve on the committee “because I wanted to be a part of something as opposed to hearing about what happened later. I wanted to see what was happening in our school system and for us to move forward into the 21st century.
“I can’t complain if I don’t try to be part of the solution,” she added.
Christine agreed the process was fair and every voice was heard and included.
“Everybody had a voice and was allowed to speak out,” she said. “And we put a lot of time in it. It was such a positive experience. I would come home really happy because we had such respectful conversations. I was really excited that so many teachers weren’t afraid to speak up. Once we knew the floor was open and people could speak freely and no one was going to chastise you for it, it was free flowing. It made me proud. It made me happy to be a part of this community.”
What’s next
“This is where the real work starts,” said Deputy Superintendent for Educational Services Roy Bishop, who was one of several administrators on the committee. “It was great we had the opportunity to bring so many different people to the table to talk about the goals, mission and vision and how we do things as a district as it relates to our beliefs. But now it’s important for us to breathe life into this document. That means having the right conversations about what exactly it is that our students need to be global learners in a society in which they are getting ready to go into. That means talking with teachers about what their curriculum looks like. That means talking about our processes and systems to make sure they are equitable across the board and to make sure that every student has an opportunity to be successful within our school system.”
Creating standards and benchmarks, setting achievable, specific goals, continuing to talk to staff, parents and students, and consistently coming to the table to make course corrections are all part of the process, he added.
“How do we continue to support the students who are here now? Community members should stay involved, stay up to date, understand the ‘why’ about what we’re doing, and continue to give us their voice about what we’re doing and how it’s impacting students so we can take it to the next level.”
Read details of the strategic plan at gpschools.org. If you’re interested in learning more, please join Superintendent Jon Dean for a Virtual Town Hall for staff from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 18, and for the community from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20.
Music to our ears
The Grosse Pointe South High School Wind Ensemble has been invited to perform at the 17th annual Michigan Music Conference on Friday, Jan. 28, at the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids. This annual event is the state's music education conference presented by the Michigan School Band & Orchestra Association (MSBOA), Michigan School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA), Michigan Chapter of the American String Teacher's Association (MASTA), and the Michigan Music Education Association (MMEA). South was one of eight schools selected statewide.
Superintendent Jon Dean applauded South’s Wind Ensemble on this achievement.
“I am proud of Mr. Takis for nurturing each student’s love of music and performance, and of these talented musicians for their dedication to their art, high school and district,” he said.
Good news for the Tower
In October, Grosse Pointe South’s student newspaper, The Tower, received a Pacemaker Finalist award from the National Scholastic Press Association.
In December, Tower adviser Kaitlin Edgerton received word The Tower had received a Crown finalist certificate, which guarantees receipt of either a gold or silver Columbia Scholastic Press Association Crown award. Awards will be announced at the annual Scholastic Convention on Friday, March 18, which will be held virtually this year.
Alumni Through the Decades
Our 100th anniversary series on GPPSS alumni continues
Alexander Fedirko
Grosse Pointe South High School
Class of 1996
Little did Alexander Fedirko know, when he took art at Brownell Middle School with Margaret Rose (now Margaret Reese), that he would one day be a juror for an art show and award his own former teacher an honorable mention.
The juried show, “Feast for Your Eyes,” was hosted by the Grosse Pointe Artists Association. Alex, who is the assistant art director at The Parade Company, served as a juror along with a co-worker. During his gallery talk at the opening of the show, he talked about the influence of his art teachers on his career path, crediting the late Gene Pluhar and Jack Summers, longtime teachers at Grosse Pointe South, for his love of art. Meanwhile, he noticed “Miss Rose” in the audience.
The judging process was blind, so Alex was as thrilled as his former teacher when he realized she was the recipient of one of the awards.
Alex’s family moved from Chicago to Grosse Pointe when he was around 3, primarily for the schools, he said. He started kindergarten at St. Paul Catholic School and, according to his mother, he “loved school so much” he attended St. Paul in the morning and Kerby Elementary in the afternoon.
By sixth grade, he followed his best friend to Brownell Middle School, where he continued to pursue his love of art, in particular in Miss Rose’s art room.
“Miss Rose was an amazing teacher,” Alex said. “She was energetic, she was always happy. I had a natural talent and she encouraged me. She definitely gave me a good beginner arts education to get the ball rolling to push my artistic interests.”
When Alex went on to Grosse Pointe South, his former teacher recommended he bypass the introductory art class and enroll in Drawing & Painting I with Jack Summers.
“I was thrown into class with juniors and sophomores and other creative people,” Alex recalled. “That was really cool for me to see older kids who were really talented.”
Jack Summers was another “amazing teacher” as well as an established artist in Detroit, who let his students know “there was more to the world than this little Grosse Pointe community.”
Alex also took Gene Pluhar’s ceramics classes later in his high school career.
“I fell in love with ceramics too and I spent so much time between those two classes,” he said. “I can’t speak highly enough about the arts program.”
After graduating from South, Alex spent some time finding the right fit to pursue his artistic and academic interests. He spent a year at Ferris State University to study architectural design, then took art classes at Wayne State University, where he also encountered “some amazing teachers.”
Ultimately, he decided he wanted to do more than fine arts, so he transferred to the University of Michigan, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
After college, Alex did an internship in Holland, then traveled around Europe before returning to the U.S. and landing a job in Chicago as a project manager at an art design firm in 2006. In 2008, the economy went flat and he fell victim to layoffs. He moved into an art studio and spent the next few years in a loft on the south side of Chicago. During this prolific time in his career, his artwork was featured in national magazines and prominent exhibits, including in the lobby of the Sears Tower.
“It was an artist’s dream,” he said. “It was very raw, but it was in the middle of this artists’ community. We could have art shows every second Friday of the month. I started my personal art career living out of my live/work studio and did that for the next four or five years. I was a full-time artist, which was a lot of fun and a great experience.”
In 2010, Alex met his wife, Martha, at one of his art shows. She also grew up in Grosse Pointe, so after they got engaged, they decided to move back to the area. They bought a house and Alex started working full-time at The Parade Company. The couple has three daughters — Olivia, 7, Josephine, 5 and Greta, 18 months. The two older girls attend Maire Elementary School.
As an artist, Alex said he has the rare privilege to “apply everything I learned in school to my current job.”
He has some words of advice for students interested in applying their own artistic skills and interests in their careers.
“It’s such a different world now,” he acknowledged. “Social media seems like it’s really — for better or for worse — changed things up a lot. I think immediate gratification is something a lot of people are looking for. If you are looking for that in the arts, there are ways you can find it. But for me, it’s more the slow and steady approach: working through things, becoming a better artist through the work, gaining skillsets and being patient with who you are as an artist. Know that if you put in the hard work, it’s going to pay off. Just be patient and keep believing in yourself. Embrace the great school system you have in Grosse Pointe.
“Keep on making stuff,” he added. “That’s what a teacher told me. Keep on working.”
School Pointes is a publication of the Grosse Pointe Public School System. To submit story ideas or Pointes of Pride, email info@gpschools.org.