Breaking news … More developments in the HPS District

Nabil Nagi

By Charles Sercombe
The Hamtramck Public School District continues to have staffing shakeups.
At a School Board meeting Wednesday evening, it was announced that Sherry Lynem will step down as co- Interim Superintendent.
Lynem will return to her role as Chief Financial Officer.
Nagil Nagi, who is the district’s English Language Director, is now the sole Interim Superintendent.
Superintendent Jaleelah Ahmed unexpectedly announced she was taking a leave of absence, beginning over a week ago. She said the stresses of the Covid pandemic have caused her to “prioritize and address my own physical, mental health and well-being.”
Ahmed is on leave until Jan. 10, but there is speculation that she might not return.
And then on Thursday, an email was circulated by Nagi to district employees, announcing that Michelle Imbrunone, the district’s head of Human Resources, is on leave. No reason was given.
However, a number of teachers and staff members have privately complained about her handling of staffing issues.
District employees were told not to contact her, and have also been told not contact Ahmed.
The board will be offering Nagi a contract as Interim Superintendent in the near future. There was no mention about what his salary would be, but Lynem and Nagi were splitting $380 a day for their dual roles as Co-Interim Superintendents.
The shakeups come at a time when the district is facing a number of challenges.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, which was technically called a Committee of the Whole meeting, it was announced that the district lost 150-200 students in the annual head count.
Lynem said that represents a loss of $1.4 million in state education revenue.
Board President Jihan Aiyash noted that the district has a $16.8 million budget surplus.
Also discussed at the meeting was the fact that some vacancies at the preschool in the Early Childhood Elementary School could lead to shutting down that portion of the school, unless the district is able to fill the critical positions that require special qualifications.
The program can continue, as long as the district shows good faith toward filling those positions.
The district has been racked with mass resignations in the past few months. Teachers have complained bitterly about Ahmed’s leadership.
Their resignations come at a time when there is a shortage of qualified teachers nationwide.
As for the two buildings that the district recently purchased, plans for their use are still up in the air.
There has been a snag with the Conant building, located at Holbrook. One of the current tenants, a dentist, claims they have a lease agreement that goes until 2025.
If the lease is legitimate, that could hold up plans to remodel the building.
It was originally planned to become an elementary school, but that plan was scrapped because it was feared that parents would pull their students from Dickinson West Elementary School, which is located at Kosciuszko Middle School. Parents said that transferring the students to the new building was too far from their neighborhood, at Burger and Fleming streets.
Plans now call for building an addition to Kosciuszko Middle School, to handle the overflow and to get students out of what were supposed to be temporary portable classrooms that are located outside of the school.
On top of all that, according to sources, there has been an ongoing problem at Hamtramck High School with fights between African-American and Yemeni-American students.
The high school has a long history of ethnic tensions among the students, and several years ago the Department of Justice was brought in to conduct courses in easing those tensions.
Updates Oct. 29, 2021