PFAE

05/27/2026

There have been numerous assertions in public forums and at the Board table about why enrollment and capture rates have declined in the Grosse Pointe Public School System. Rather than speculate, we chose to partner with Michigan Benchmark to analyze the data, understand the reasons for enrollment loss, and develop a plan to curb it. Low birth rates are part of the story, but a more thorough analysis shows the problem is far more complex than that.

We appreciate those of you who are taking the time to be informed, for reading the Michigan Benchmark/PfAE enrollment study, and for raising questions. This analysis should spark more questions, but let’s focus on questions that actually help us solve problems rather than just repeating talking points.

Our central findings are straightforward:

The district’s largest enrollment losses align with the K–4 reconfiguration and are most pronounced at the middle school level, not just during COVID. The district should reconsider the K-4 configuration to one that is more conducive to attracting and retaining students in our elementary schools.

Families who are more mobile and generally not economically disadvantaged have left at higher rates, often to private and parochial options, as well as to virtual schooling and home schooling. These losses are significant.

Enrollment has now stabilized, but our student body is more economically and academically complex. The problem is not that students have changed; it’s that district systems and expectations have not adapted to support them, leading more families to opt out of our system.

On a few specific points that have been raised:

Housing stock/peers
In a built‑out community like Grosse Pointe, housing stock is essentially flat. Comparing us to fast‑growth construction markets like Northville or Novi, where new subdivisions drive enrollment, is not apples‑to‑apples. Our losses are about configuration and family decisions, not hundreds of new rooftops.

Private school options and COVID
The report does not claim GPPSS is unique in seeing COVID‑era losses. It shows that here, the shape and timing of enrollment loss align with reconfiguration and the middle‑school experience, and are then amplified by COVID and private/parochial choices. Those conclusions come from years of districtwide enrollment data, not a small anecdotal sample. We have highlighted numerous times that GPPSS had more than 3 times the enrollment loss of comparable districts during COVID and less than half the percentage recovery in the years that followed.

Economically disadvantaged students
Calling out economic disadvantage is not blame; it’s describing a change in who we serve. The data show non‑ED families leaving at higher rates, and ED students are more likely to remain. Ignoring that shift would hide the increased support and system design required to meet students' needs. It is not bad to educate more economically disadvantaged students; it is a problem when the district fails to adjust programs, staffing, and expectations so that all students can meet high standards.

Trombly and “guaranteed” students
The report explicitly says that data can inform, but not guarantee, that 174 students would enroll at Trombly. What the data does show is that we are losing on the order of that many students annually through School of Choice and other exits, and that configuration and experience are key drivers. A more responsive configuration increases the chances of keeping and recapturing families; it does not promise a specific number. The loss from 5th to 6th grade demonstrates that families were willing to try 5th grade at the Middle school level, but that experience led many to leave for other options and not return until High School. We need to rethink our middle school community to make that experience more conducive to academic and social growth.

Finally, the data sources used are public and can be replicated by anyone. The debate about the study should focus on whether the numbers and logic are sound, not on who pulled the files or past disagreements over consultants, branding, or how a handful of people chose one adjective over another.

The study actually acknowledges and supports what many have been saying for years: we need to invest in the supports and systems required to meet the complex demands of different buildings within our own district if we want to maintain and improve the overall health of GPPSS for all of our students. We encourage you to read the report and not rely on others' subjective reports of the results.

Fifteen years of enrollment, demographic, and financial evidence for the Grosse Pointe Public School System — produced by Michigan Benchmark in collaboration with Pointers for Academic Excellence (PFAE).

05/26/2026

AI Policy, Cell Phone Policy, Facility Use Policy, Code of Conduct, and Optional 2nd Semester Senior Finals will all be discussed at 5:30PM tonight, May 26, at North HS in the 1st floor Board Room. At 6:30, the Facilities Committee will meet in the Library to host the second session of the Parcells STEAM Commons discussions led by Dr. Delgado.

Policy Agenda:https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1779475793/gpschoolsorg/x2psvhteh4peozodkvb0/52626Policy_Committee_Agenda.pdf

Facilities Agenda:https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1779454992/gpschoolsorg/xamgmddqqfcd2ufxsigw/52626Facilities_Committee_Agenda.pdf

See you there!

05/20/2026

Monday’s Board meeting was a good example of GPPSS's strengths and weaknesses. While recognizing achievements and stakeholder engagement are important, they should not be at the expense of the district’s larger priorities.

Here is the reality since reconfiguration and consolidation. Other school systems were quick to recognize students' and families' dissatisfaction with GPPSS. They organized sustained, targeted campaigns to recruit GPPSS families. Despite community input to grow a branding effort to make our schools more attractive to families, we continue to have no discernible marketing plan to address these losses. De La Salle, U of D, Liggett, Mercy, Country Day, Brother Rice, Regina and others boast Grosse Pointe student enrollment. We are losing PreK and kindergarten students to local alternatives, and older students to virtual options. Community members are hosting recruiting sessions for other schools in our own backyard, while we continue to operate with a “build it, and they will come” mentality.

And what is being done about this? Apparently, nothing. There has not been one discussion of any effort to learn the data behind our enrollment loss or a plan to address it. All we hear is fewer kids are being born, while public testimony from many centers on the rising rate of children in our district and data clearly demonstrates this is not a birth rate issue. Trustee St. John’s question about the absorption rate went unanswered, so we will tell you what our Michigan Benchmark analysis revealed. The absorption rate fell from 84.3% in FY2020 to 73.3% in FY2022, 3x the loss of comparable districts, exacerbated by school closings and a failed k-4 reconfiguration. The problem is not just that there are fewer children here; there are fewer families choosing GPPSS. This data has to be central to every discussion in moving the district forward and the board doesn’t even recognize it.

Also highlighted was the Board’s deviation from a robust hiring process required for all other district staff, absent during the superintendent hire. The contrast between his “selection” and the process of hiring the assistant principal at Pierce was impossible to miss. For the AP position, the district described a thoroughly comprehensive four-step process: 63 external and 5 internal applicants, formal screening, 18 first-round interviews, a 12-member panel, another round, and final interviews with top district leadership and the Board president. That level of rigor was apparently necessary for a middle school assistant principal, but not for the superintendent.

Lastly, preliminary matters are approaching one hour, delaying board business often well into the night. Quarterly showcase nights devoted to student and staff recognition would bring far more people together to recognize the outstanding achievements of our students and educators. As it is, regular board meetings now feel like empty ceremonies, while serious district issues wait.

Last night’s meeting left many very concerned about whether this Board understands the seriousness of the moment facing GPPSS.

05/18/2026

Congratulations to our 2026 Compass Scholarship Winners!

These students distinguished themselves among the very best of the Grosse Pointe Public School System through their leadership, academics, service, athletics, arts, and commitment to making the most of every opportunity during their time in our schools.

Liliana Ivanaj — Pepperdine University
Oliver Bomgaars — Wayne State University
Alejandro Delgado — University of Notre Dame
Lauren Loper — Michigan State University
Victoria Herd — Spelman College
Eva Borowski — Albion College
Alessia Morreale — University of Michigan
Isaac Brenner — University of Michigan
Erin Simpson — University of Michigan

Congratulations to each of these outstanding students and their families. Your impact on your schools and our community will continue far beyond graduation, and we look forward to seeing all that you accomplish next. Special thanks to Sean and Nancy Cotton for your support of Grosse Pointe Public School System. Big thank you to Jamie Ding for his personal message to our winners.

Photo Credits: Anna Gatt (Grabs by Gatt) www.annagatt.com

05/18/2026

Monday’s meeting is largely a housekeeping agenda, but not an empty one: the Board will consider two key administrative hires, recognize district retirees, and set up a June 9 agenda that includes the superintendent contract, approval of the strategic plan, elementary program of studies, and the annual Schools of Choice decision.

Agenda and the Link to Watch the Meeting are in the comments.

See you there!

05/12/2026

Tonight’s Facilities Committee agenda is simple: the Parcells STEAM Commons Committee gets underway with Dr. Delgado leading the discussion. After months of bond-related questions, this is a chance to potentially see one project move from concept toward community-informed design.

Agenda is in the comments. See you at 6:30 in North's Library.

05/07/2026

The conversation about consolidating schools in Grosse Pointe has already started, and it’s coming wrapped in the language of virtue, “walkability,” “equity,” “efficiency,” “being realistic about demographics.” Don’t be confused. Behind those words are concrete proposals to close neighborhood schools, push more students and cars into fewer buildings, and chip away at one of the core strengths that has defined this community for a century: kids being able to attend a true neighborhood school when our geography and facilities make it possible. We believe the conversation should start from a different place: protecting and strengthening neighborhood schools wherever we reasonably can, and being honest that consolidation is not a neutral choice, but a decision with real, destabilizing consequences for families, streets, and the long‑term health of our district. This “solution” to a problem that doesn’t exist is being driven by those who control Board seats and the groups that influence them.

Individuals are starting to create an equivalence that doesn’t exist with other districts to support this plan. When we talk about walkability and consolidation, we have to start with the map and the way our schools were built. Grosse Pointe Public Schools covers about 11 square miles in a long, narrow band along the lake, roughly twice the end‑to‑end distance of a 4.8‑square‑mile city like Birmingham or Roseville. Yesterday, the argument for closing schools was bolstered by a known Board influencer, who compared us to Roseville. Roseville, like Clintondale and Eastpointe, is a district whose declining enrollment is due to several factors, including population loss, as well as schools-of-choice competition and buildings too costly to repair, factors that are not going away. Roseville is not a model for our school system.

Today, the comparison was made to Birmingham. Birmingham’s elementary schools sit on much larger, campus‑style sites with roughly 50% more building and site area, big internal parking lots, and engineered drop‑off loops that can stack cars and busses on‑site, while most Grosse Pointe elementaries are intentionally embedded in tight neighborhood grids with short frontages and narrow residential streets because they were designed for kids to walk or bike from nearby blocks, not for hundreds of cars to queue every morning. That means Birmingham can push more drive‑and‑drop because their sites were engineered for it; if we close neighborhood schools and funnel more students into fewer buildings here, we overload streets with cars and buses that were never designed for that, erasing one of our district’s real advantages, actual, lived walkability in many of our school neighborhoods.

We should absolutely be sensitive to families in parts of the district where walking is harder, but the answer is to balance and expand neighborhood schools wherever our geography allows, not to drag everyone down to the least walkable model. The way they are framing this sounds a lot like “because kids at Poupard no longer have a neighborhood school, no one should,” instead of doing everything we can to restore and protect neighborhood access where it’s still possible. The kind of consolidation they’re pushing would finish the job of undoing this district: we already have mountains of evidence that reconfiguration and consolidation are destabilizing, that kids and families are not products on a shelf you can keep shuffling. The crisis being described—collapsing enrollment, bloated staffing, families fleeing—is not what our current numbers actually show, but it will if we close schools. This community is tired of being lectured to by a self-anointed authority that has the “real” lens; they are firmly behind recommendations of merging high schools and closing a middle school to create a smaller, less walkable, less stable Grosse Pointe Public Schools, and many of us have learned from past mistakes that we need to recognize this argument and reject it.

05/05/2026

How Trombly is best utilized should be grounded in stability, optimism, and thoughtful strategic planning, not what we are seeing. The prior Board and administration made very difficult fiscal decisions that were necessary to get us to a place where we could refocus on serving our families again. Those tough choices were made so we could move forward with a clear focus on students and families, not so the board could act like Panem, deciding which areas of the district get served and which do not.

Instead, we are being asked to support a major structural decision with no real strategic plan, no clear districtwide vision, and no evidence that this is the best use of our opportunity. We should use this moment to strengthen access across the district, not narrow our options in ways that undermine the long-term needs of families. What could have been a districtwide solution, pre-k in every building, is being reduced to a centralized pre-k warehouse model.

This district cannot keep making decisions in a vacuum. Looking only at Trombly as it exists today misses the broader impact it could have on recapturing enrollment, balancing building capacities, and strengthening the district as a whole. Enrollment decline is cited often for decision making, but we take very few steps to look into why families stay or leave, or at what changes might actually make this district more attractive to them. This district needs a real process for capturing and using data, not making decisions based on stand-alone ideas.

05/03/2026

Most of Monday’s agenda is routine, but Trombly is not. The Board is expected to vote on architectural services for the Trombly building, following last week’s unresolved debate over what that work may ultimately prepare the building to become.

Agenda and link to watch the meeting are in the comments.

04/28/2026

Last night confirmed for many what has long been evident: This Board’s lack of leadership and basic competence is a serious problem for this district.

From the approval of a strategic plan that lacks any strategy, to the closing attacks by Board President Derringer and Trustee Worden on Dr. Tuttle about a check to former board member Ahmed Ismail, the entire range of this Board’s leadership was front and center.

Trustee Worden closed the meeting with a prosecutorial-like interrogation of Dr. Tuttle, claiming the district issued a check for "$36,030." She was so certain of that amount she said it twice. The actual amount? $3,630. She was only off by $32,400.

A board member who constantly critiques district finances couldn't accurately read a number on the financial report in front of her. She inflated the amount by nearly 1,000%. And then proceeded to aggressively question the superintendent based on her own error.

The payment in question. From 2021-2024, Ahmed Ismail designated his board compensation to go to district programs - special needs services, closed captioning for students. The district, amid multiple CFO changes, never actually sent those payments as Ismail requested. When this came to light, the issue was resolved by paying Ismail the $3,630 directly so he could designate the money himself if he so chose.

Rather than asking about this beforehand, Derringer and Worden used the public meeting to question Dr. Tuttle. When she explained she'd arrived in 2024, Derringer pounced: "So that payment didn't get to Mr. Ismail, but it was under your watch." But Dr. Tuttle arrived in February of 2024, 1 month after the situation in question.

Dr. Tuttle was again being blamed for fixing a multi-year problem that existed before she even arrived in the district, a recurring situation she has endured since the newly elected Board took their seats. This is also not the first time in an open forum that President Derringer has mistakenly accused Dr. Tuttle of being unethical.

This isn't Worden's first confusion about district finances either:

Thought routine Taher food service costs were a spending crisis.

Takes credit for budget surpluses she voted against.

Pushed for a CTE center at Trombly, then blamed Dr. Tuttle for the idea.

Questioned the CFO on the difference between a general budget surplus and a deficit.

Dr. Tuttle publicly corrected the record because Trustee Worden stated that Dr. Tuttle endorsed CTE for Trombly: "The CTE idea, that was yours too, Trustee Worden. That wasn't my idea. I never wanted a CTE in Trombly. That was your idea."

Dr. Tuttle shared a sentiment that resonates with everyone who follows the Board closely: "I feel I sit up here and take a lot of hits from several of you that just aren't true, and then I'll get responses from the community for defending myself. Well, I have to defend myself."

Our district deserves a board President who will remain cool in the fire, not pour gasoline on it. President Worden’s “passing of the gavel” only changed the ringmaster of this circus.