Earlier this spring, the Dearborn School Board of Education made changes to our school boundaries to best support the district mission of “Students First.” These changes affect some of our Woodoworth students and the high school they will attend in the future. Our Superintendent, Dr. Glenn Maleyko, and Director of Student Services, Mr. Ibrahim Mashour, issued the below letter regarding the changes. Please read for more information, and click this link Boundary Changes Letter 2018 for a copy of this letter in both Arabic & English.
In order to ensure that every student in the Dearborn Schools receives a quality education in a safe learning environment, we must always look at school populations. When student enrollment exceeds a school’s capacity there is a considerable burden placed on the entire school community. We are finding ourselves in this situation as the enrollment at Dearborn High and Fordson High currently exceed their capacity, and with the projected enrollment on the upswing, we will be seeing a greater strain on our schools.
Although we are converting space into usable classrooms and completing an addition at Dearborn High, we have to redraw the boundaries in order to keep the schools as close to capacity as possible. Overcrowded schools do not present ideal safety or learning conditions. In addition, Edsel Ford High School has capacity that needs to be filled. The district will be looking into infrastructure possibilities for more long-term solutions but we have an obligation to all Dearborn residents to use our resources wisely.
After hosting ten community forums and several committee meetings, district administrators discussed parent feedback received at the forums and created Proposal 5A. The Board of Education approved this new proposal to reduce enrollment numbers at Dearborn High and Fordson High. The changes will begin with the current 8th grade class and the real impact will be evident over the next three years as we do not want to disrupt the high school experience for students that have already began 9th grade. The affected students reside in the following areas:
- All students who reside west of Greenfield Rd. and east of Evergreen Rd. will attend Edsel Ford High School beginning 2018-19 school year. This will impact students who attend Woodworth and Smith Middle Schools.
- All students who reside in the Unis Middle School boundary will attend Fordson High School.
- All students who reside in the O.L. Smith Middle School boundary will attend Edsel Ford High School, with the exception of students who reside in the River Oaks boundary – those students will remain at Dearborn High.
It is always difficult to change school boundaries because we realize that families move into neighborhoods with the belief that their schools come with their homes. We are blessed to be in a district that continues to grow and owe that in large part to our teachers, administrators, support staff and our families. Unfortunately, with the growth we are experiencing, we no longer can promise that school boundaries won’t change. What we can promise is that we will always strive to fulfill our mission to make students first and provide the best possible education to all our students.
Sincerely,
Glenn M. Maleyko, Ph.D
Superintendent
Ibrahim Mashhour
Direcrtor of Student Services