The Challenge of Choice in Dearborn School Board Election


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By Dr. Shaker Lashuel

In a city like Dearborn, where education is of important value to its families and to its economy, any election concerning education becomes critical.

This November, Dearborn residents will vote to elect three candidates to the Board of Education.  There are three contested slots on the school board, as the terms for Joseph Guido, Fadwa Hammoud and Roxanne McDonald expire at the end of this year.  I have to admit that I do not know all the candidates, but I know one who is worthy, deserving, has paid his dues, and is more than qualified to represent the interests of the parents, teachers and students of Dearborn.

During election times politicians come out of the woodwork to play their parts. They speak flowery language, paint rosy pictures, and deliver empty promises, but in the Dearborn School Board Election you will have an opportunity to cast your vote for someone different.  Adel Mozip is not a politician, Adel is a passionate community activist who has prioritized education as his number one issue. As a college student, he volunteered in local schools, mentored students, organized trips for disenfranchised kids to visit colleges they did not dream of visiting.  Today, as a father of a first grader in Geer Park Elementary,  his commitment to Dearborn schools has only multiplied.   Membership of the school board is meant to be a natural step for someone so dedicated to helping kids, and for someone who cares about the community as a whole.

Education is not an issue that followed Adel’s desire to win an election, for Adel education as an issue started long before.  For Mr. Mozip, education is personal.  It started with his own struggle to overcome the challenges he faced as a new comer, coupled with his personally driven motivation to help others.  This was evident when Adel joined the American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals (AAYSP), an organization focused on promoting education and raising educational standards. Adel quickly became a leading force within the organization and helped shaped many of its conferences and activities.  As a leader who worked well with others, Adel’s contributions were most evident through the impact the organization was having in the South of Dearborn.  Mr. Mozip›s work was not limited to one organization or program.  His work in the program Digital Connectors is a further testimony to his commitment to students and youth in the community.

Even then, Adel was a hands-on leader, who went to schools, spent one-on-one time with students playing basketball games with them, and tutoring them in math and English.  But Adel’s involvement did not stop there, as he quickly realized that the challenges facing Dearborn students were not just in the school yard or the classroom.  He studied school data and along with others began to use the data to engage Dearborn school officials as an interested and involved citizen in looking over trends, reviewing expectations and discussing challenges and opportunities for the students in Dearborn as part of a district-community partnership.

Adel Mozip has nominated himself for one of the open slots in the school board.  As part of the process, he has to submit his credentials and declare his interest, but in the minds of people who have worked with Adel, and people who have known him he has always been an education advocate.  If I were in Dearborn, I would vote for Adel because I do not know anyone who is as committed, as passionate, and  as sincere as he is in promoting higher standards, higher expectations, rigorous instruction, data-driven-decision-making.  Adel may be new to the political terrain in Dearborn, and admittedly he is an outsider in that realm, but he is neither new to the educational scene nor ambivalent to its issues and challenges.

As you are pondering your decision on who to elect to available slots in the Dearborn Public School Board please remember that Dearborn needs people who are committed to education, not politics.  We need someone with Mr. Mozip›s background, and experience as a business entrepreneur to add to the Board skills and expertise.   Furthermore, we need someone like Adel to put students first, and to work to ensure that no child, no teacher, and no school is left behind; someone who is also  a visionary, who understands that the students of Dearborn compete with the best students of India and China, and that what was good in the past, is no longer good enough for our kids today.

 
  
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