During the Feb. 28 meeting of the Romulus City Council, Mayor Robert McCraight introduced Dr. Kari Krantz and explained that she was working as a consultant during the Romulus District Schools search for a new superintendent.
Krantz, of KSK Consulting, told the council members that she was a third-party consultant working with the school district to evaluate the needs of the community. She said she would be working in the city during the next few weeks spending half a day in each elementary school.
“I am impressed with the warmth of the community,” she told the members of the council.
Krantz explained that she had been hired to listen to community members and would be scheduling a series of events so “people can tell me what their points of pride are” along with the challenges they see in the district. She said the information gathered during these meetings would be shared with school officials in the search for the next superindendent.
“I am taking this job very seriously,” she said, noting that she has 30 years of experience as an educator and assistant superintendent. “My strengths are instruction and building a culture of trust,” she said.
She said she would host the first “listening session” from 6 until 8 p.m. March 15, tentatively at the Progressive Hall in Romulus. She explained that no definite location had been secured at the time of the council meeting, but that she expected this would be the site of the meeting for the public to express their opinions regarding the needs of the district.
“I'm hoping to get about 20 people,” she said. “This will be a neutral place designed for people to be very honest. It is not a place where we're going to have a discussion. We're not going to debate and we're not going to argue. Everybody there will have an opportunity to answer posed questions and everyone will be actively listening to one another.
“I've held these sessions before and they have always been very productive. It is a very safe and trusting environment,” she said, and issued a personal invitation to each of the council members to attend.
Councilwoman Tina Talley thanked Krantz and said that she appreciated the personal invitation.
“That's huge,” she said. “We are all one community, our schools, our city, our courts , our businesses, our churches. We are one community,” she said. “I think this is a path for unity for our city.”
The members of the Romulus Community Schools District Board of Education hired Dr. Donald B. Weatherspoon as interim superintendent of schools on Jan. 13 following the controversial termination of Dr. Benjamin Edmondson at the end of December. Edmondson is currently suing the board for racial discrimination and other charges. According to Board President Debi Pyles, Weatherspoon is a longtime fixture in the Michigan education community known for his work with school around the state as an emergency manager and brings statewide experience solving school management challenges..
