Safety has been a top issue for the East Lansing Public School District this year.
Concerns from parents followed a series of social media threats, violence during school hours, and the discovery of a gun following a fight at a high school basketball game.
At the end of January, former ELPS Board of Education President Kath Edsall stepped down from her position following criticism from parents that she wasn’t taking school safety seriously.
Terah Chambers, former ELPS Board of Education vice president, has been serving as acting president for just over a month.
WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke with Chambers to discuss her priorities.
Interview Highlights
On her plans to address social media threats of violence within the school district
I can tell you that this is one of the issues that keeps educators up at night. We absolutely have to take these threats seriously every time. And we're working to inform kids about the importance of using social media responsibly for this reason, but also, I mean, so many other issues, any educator will tell you that social media is often at the bottom of a lot of the challenges that we face in today's educational landscape. And it's really hard right now to see what is the clear solution to, you know, this social media challenge. And, I guarantee you that your listeners, any listener, who has any hint of a connection to a school right now is hanging on to my words, saying like, “okay, is she going to tell us what the magic solution is to this social media challenge?” And the spoiler alert is, no, I don't have a magic cure. But it is something that we really need to contend with.
On how she plans to improve communication with parents
We know we can always do better in communicating with parents. And we've already gotten some positive feedback to the immediate changes that have been made to our communication strategy. So, this is certainly not the end of our conversation about communication strategies. And so I plan to discuss this topic of communication among our board, between the board and administration, between administration and the community, at an upcoming board retreat so that we can think about more strategically, or at a more macro level, how we're approaching this conversation of communication.
On how the search for a new principal for East Lansing High School is coming along following Shannon Mayfield's resignation
We haven't identified that next step yet. We have a personnel committee that will likely need to meet. Our focus right now has really been on making sure that the transition in leadership has gone well. We want to make sure that our students are in a good, are being supported as best they can be. And that's happening. So we haven't really talked about what will happen with the principal position right now, our focus really is making sure our students are in a good place.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: Safety has been a top issue for the East Lansing Public School District this year.
Concerns from parents followed a series of social media threats, violence during school hours, and the discovery of a gun following a fight at a high school basketball game.
At the end of January, former school board president Kath Edsall stepped down from her position following criticism from parents that she wasn’t taking school safety seriously.
Terah Chambers, former ELPS Board of Education vice president, has been serving as acting president for just over a month.
She joins us now to discuss her priorities. Terah, thanks for being here.
Terah Chambers: Thanks Megan, I appreciate the time.
Schellong: So, the school district has faced multiple issues this school year, as I mentioned, mainly dealing with safety. Can you talk about the climate right now at East Lansing Public Schools? What are you hearing from parents?
Chambers: We obviously had a little bit of a rough patch there for a little bit with a small group of students who were getting into a series of fights. But I have to say that the climate of our schools has really improved. We've implemented a number of safety measures, that has certainly helped.
We've also focused on improving relationships between students and between students and teachers and increasing our focus on mental health support, and I know that has also made a really important difference.
I have the fortune of working with school leaders in my, I guess I would call it my day job, at Michigan State. So I know that the issues that we're facing in East Lansing are not unique, we're still seeing a lot of effects of kids being out of school during COVID, the trauma of that, I think it's really hard for adults to cope right now. So we shouldn't be surprised that we're seeing these behaviors in kids. I don't think that that excuses our responsibility to work with these children. But it should invoke some empathy about the situation for them at the very least. This is really hard, and they don't have all the tools that we do to cope with it. So we need to help them with that.
Schellong: Speaking of the students, East Lansing Public Schools went into lockdown early last month due to social media threats. And East Lansing High School was ordered to shelter in place back in January, due to a reported weapon on campus. What’s your plan to address threats of violence within the school district?
Chambers: So, I can tell you that this is one of the issues that keeps educators up at night. We absolutely have to take these threats seriously every time. And we're working to inform kids about the importance of using social media responsibly for this reason, but also, I mean, so many other issues, any educator will tell you that social media is often at the bottom of a lot of the challenges that we face in today's educational landscape.
And it's really hard right now to see what is the clear solution to, you know, this social media challenge. And, I guarantee you that your listeners, any listener, who has any hint of a connection to a school right now is hanging on to my words, saying like, “okay, is she going to tell us what the magic solution is to this social media challenge?”
And the spoiler alert is, no, I don't have a magic cure. But it is something that we really need to contend with.
Schellong: So, what I’m hearing is it’s kind of hard right now to tell what the solution is to addressing social media threats. Does your plan to address gun violence and fighting in schools include new technology, for example, something like metal detectors?
Chambers: Sure, so actually, one of the interesting things is that back in, jeez, I want to say October or November, in the fall, we had worked with a safety company who spent several days in all eight of our buildings. So, our elementary schools, our middle school, and our high school conducting a comprehensive safety audit. And we got that report back, ironically, in January. So it has been incredibly helpful. And we've been really lucky to be able to work with those experts, as we've been navigating our way through these last few months.
And it involved a lot of very specific things like, you know, you mentioned metal detectors, all kinds of very specific things, in a comprehensive kind of approach. And we have, I guess, I would say that we've taken maybe a layered approach, maybe that's the right description, that we have those safety experts, but then there are also our students, our parents, our community members who know our kids, know our community, and have also been really helpful in helping us think through our response. So we, you know, we still have work to do, but it'll be a community approach as we navigate our way through.
Schellong: Back in January, then-Board President Kath Edsall said the district was trying to sort out what security issues needed updating and whether existing policies aren’t being implemented. Can you tell us about these policies that are in place and that might need updating?
Chambers: We've been looking at a variety of things. I think we're further along now than we were before. We've been advised not to talk specifically about what our specific plans are. There’s an element of, Superintendent [Dori Leyko] has shared, like we, like I said, we've contracted with this company. And there are risks to sharing details about our safety plan with people who might have negative intentions, and you know, having those details be shared. But I can say that we're in a much better place today than we were a few months ago.
A lot of the short-term enhancements have been implemented, there are a few more that we're looking at. And then now we're kind of casting our gaze to those more long-term plans that are going to take a little bit more investment of resources and planning to work through. And then there are, there are some issues where there is a lack of consensus about how to move forward on.
You mentioned the metal detectors, for example, there are some things in that category, where there is not consensus or the use of school resource officers, there's another issue where there is not consensus clearly across all of our stakeholder groups about what the right thing to do is, but we have, there are some clear things that we have been able to do like hire some full-time security who are in our school, building relationships with students and being that present, that's already that's happening. So that's really great.
Schellong: Some parents are criticizing the timeline in which updates have been provided to them in the past, for example, the fight breaking out at East Lansing High School after the basketball game. How are you working to increase transparency when it comes to communicating with parents?
Chambers: Yeah, good question, Megan. So we know we can always do better in communicating with parents. And we've already gotten some positive feedback to the immediate changes that have been made to our communication strategy.
So, this is certainly not the end of our conversation about communication strategies. And so I plan to discuss this topic of communication among our board, between the board and administration, between administration and the community, at an upcoming board retreat so that we can think about more strategically, or at a more macro level, how we're approaching this conversation of communication. I think that we're doing a good job of communicating. But there's always room for improvement. And so we're going to work until we get to a place where people feel calm and safe and trusted with that their children are in safe hands. And that is a, that's an absolutely reasonable expectation to have. And we're going to work to make sure that we gain that trust back again with our parents.
Schellong: So we've been talking, you know a lot about school safety. Now, I'm going to move over to a different topic, which is the resignation of East Lansing High School Principal Shannon Mayfield, who resigned over a falsified transcript. I want to ask you, what kind of ramifications do you think are reasonable for a discovery such as this? And then I have a second question, what are you going to do as president to ensure that people in leadership are vetted before they get the position?
Chambers: Sure. So, this actually wasn't an issue of vetting the principal, so, he had the proper credentials when he was hired this past summer, this was, he, and I really have to credit our HR director and our superintendent who noticed some inconsistencies early on in the communication about this allegedly earned degree.
And they did their due diligence and following up on the confirmation of those alleged credentials. And if they had not done that work, I think we would be in a much different situation.
And, you know, there's obviously been a lot of controversy about it. But that actually has been a piece of this, the issue of vetting his credential, that's not, the credentials that he was hired under are actually not in question. It is just this alleged receipt of a doctorate degree more recently, that has been an issue and that alleged degree would have, if it had been confirmed, would have come with some additional monetary compensation. And that is what is that issue, not his credential to the principal or anything that would have compromised his hiring back in the summer.
Schellong: And what kind of ramifications do you think are reasonable for a discovery such as, you know, saying, “Hey, I have a doctorate degree, but actually I don't.” Like, what do you think is a reasonable repercussion?
Chambers: I'm not sure that I-- mmm, since there are potential legal implications here, I'm not sure that I should comment on that question.
Schellong: That is totally okay. Thank you so much. But that’s, that's totally fine. I respect that. And then I want to ask how is the search coming along for the next principal? You alluded to a smooth transition.
Chambers: So we haven't necessarily identified what will happen in terms of a, we haven't identified that next step yet. We have a personnel committee that will likely need to meet. Our focus right now has really been on making sure that the transition in leadership has gone well. We want to make sure that our students are in a good, are being supported as best they can be. And that's happening. So we haven't really talked about what will happen with the principal position right now, our focus really is making sure our students are in a good place.
Schellong: And we’re talking about changing leadership. What do you hope to accomplish as board president?
Chambers: Well, it's true that I did not start this year thinking that I would be board president. But that doesn't mean that I'm not excited about many of the things that we have going on. East Lansing is a wonderful school district. And what makes it wonderful, in my opinion, is the multitude of ways that there are for students to express themselves and pursue their passions, whether that be academics, or music, or theater, or robotics or sports. I mean, you name it. And there is a way for students to explore their passion for it. And I love that about who we are. But related to that, is ensuring that access to those opportunities is equitable. And we're not quite meeting that goal across all of our demographic groups. So that's an issue that's on our radar. We've been working on it, and we'll continue to work on it. Ultimately, I believe that school should be a place where kids are nurtured to be whole, healthy, fulfilled people. I'm really, I guess, I'm honored to be in a district that sees that as our mission too. So at the most basic level, that's what I'll be focusing on for the rest of the year, doing what I can to help us fulfill that goal every day.
Schellong: And Terah, do you have plans to seek this position, board president, next year?
Chambers: Oh, I can't even think through next week. So I can't even venture a guess as to what I'll be doing next year.
Schellong: That’s okay. Well, thank you so much Terah, for joining us.
Terah Chambers is the East Lansing Public Schools Board president.
Thank you for your time.
Chambers: Thank you Megan, for taking the time to talk with me today.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.