Keystone principal Godfrey now supt. at Detroit Community Schools

Keturah Godfrey, who served as principal of Keystone Charter Academy in Sumpter Township, has begun her new duties as superintendent of the Detroit Community Schools.
Keystone’s charter was authorized by Bay Mills Community College and Bay Mills is also the authorizer of the Detroit Community Schools, a district that has been in turmoil for the last few years.
Godfrey reportedly is highly regarded by Bay Mills officials, who recently fired former DCS School Supt. Sharon McPhail.
Bay Mills also temporarily suspended the DSC school board and appointed a conservator after legal appeals over the state fine levied in 2016 ran their course. Fines grew to more than $200,000 as they appealed the ruling. Bay Mills was fined because McPhail did not have proper state credentials to be a superintendent. Godfrey has such credentials.
The DSC also has not been able to secure financing, said Tom Shields, spokesman for the Bay Mills Community College Charter School Office. “It was putting operations of the school into jeopardy, Shields said.
The charter school, founded in 1997, serves more than 650 students in grades K-12 and is in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood.
McPhail was hired as the school’s superintendent in 2012. She is, perhaps, best known as a serial candidate for city office and as an adversary-turned-defender of former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
In 2003, as a city council member, she accused Kilpatrick or his backers of tampering with wires in her desk chair to give her an electrical shock. Five years later, as the city’s general counsel, she defended Kilpatrick against Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s efforts to remove him from office. McPhail has much legal experience, but was neither a certified teacher nor certified school administrator, Michigan Department of Education records show.
When reached by email at her DCS office on Friday, Supt. Godfrey replied: “Yes, I had a door open and felt called to support a district in need. I am humbled. It was such a quick transition, but they needed someone right away and asked me to come. I am excited about the potential here and look forward to working with this team to do what is best for kids!
“I miss everyone at Keystone tremendously but know it is in good hands!” she wrote.
At the Nov. 8 meeting of the Keystone school board, parents were present to ask about Godfrey’s sudden departure, reporting some rumors said she had been fired.
But Jeff Henders of National Heritage Academies, which employed Godfrey at Keystone, said, “Mrs. Godfrey was not let go. She resigned.”
Parent Kelly Newberry said the sudden change in principal was disconcerting, along with the turnover in teaching staff. She said three of the four teachers teaching her children have changed.
She wanted to know if there is something Keystone can do to keep the teachers there.
Claudia Williamson, a highly regarded NHA school administrator, came out of retirement to fill in as principal at Keystone until NHA hires a replacement for Godfrey, which is expected to be after Thanksgiving and definitely by Christmas. She began as interim principal on Oct. 29.
She said schools typically go through a turnover when an administrator leaves. She said other reasons include finding a position closer to home, higher salary and benefits, and other reasons.
“One of the biggest challenges at NHA is teacher turnover,” agreed Henders, noting some leave to teach in a traditional public school. He said NHA hires new teachers right out of college who may decide teaching isn’t for them or decide to work elsewhere after getting some experience.
He said NHA recently did a symposium with board members, giving ideas on how to keep teachers and board members. Keystone board vice president Darren Hickonbottom attended the symposium in Grand Rapids and shared ideas with his board.
Henders said whenever there is a turnover in leadership, there is a turnover in staff.
“It’s not an NHA issue, not a charter school issue. It’s an education issue,” Henders said.
He said NHA does an exit survey for each teacher leaving to find out if there’s a preventable reason. Some seek higher retirement benefits, he said.
Keystone board president Vesta Losen said she has heard of Williamson and her accomplishments for a long time and she is thankful to have her at Keystone to help with the transition.
Williamson served as principal of Canton Charter Academy and Achieve Charter Academy, both in Canton Township, before retirement and had won a national blue ribbon for her school.
In other business at the one hour and 20 minutes meeting, the board:
• Approved the 2017-18 audit report by Plante Moran. Keystone had a “clean audit with no red flags,” said NHA’s Henders;
• Heard Losen report the board has one vacancy and it has someone willing to serve. The paperwork will be filled out and the person will come to the next board meeting;
• Discussed and approved $3,000 for the Christmas breakfast with presents the board will put on for more than 60 staff members at 7 a.m., Monday, Dec. 17;
• Tabled until the next meeting approval of the $7 million 2018-19 amended budget for Keystone because information was received late and Losen wanted time for the board to study the figures;
• Approved the 2019-20 Prior Approval Checklist from Bay Mills, changing the word “curriculum” to “standards” in a question because of a difference of opinion on what “curriculum” means. The board president and secretary had to sign the document and they wanted to make sure they were telling the truth. They checked a box that said they were not changing the education “standards” because they felt saying they weren’t changing the “curriculum” wouldn’t be correct because they are constantly changing how they teach to try to improve. Williamson said they change the “tools” often and the “curriculum” refers to the standards set by the state of Michigan that they do not change;
• Heard Williamson report administrators are looking at the dress code in the handbook to hopefully get better compliance, that eight high school representatives came to Keystone and 20 students participated, the PTO did a fun run that raised just under $20,000 to help pay for field trips, they are screening the students on vision, and have scheduled a nurse to come in to teach them how to handle students they have with diabetes, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy;
• Heard board secretary Connie Shull say she was asked about what blocks are in place for students on the internet. Williamson said there are blocks and the regular programs used are Dreambox and Accelerated Reader. Shull said students Google things and Williamson said teachers are supposed to be monitoring that and Googling is not permitted. She said it difficult to monitor 28-30 kids;
• Heard parent Tracy Richardson say she was concerned about the congestion in the parking lot at drop-off and pick-up times, which seems to be more this year. She said she gets her son to the parking lot ten minutes before school and getting there earlier is a bit challenging for her. Her son has been at Keystone from Kindergarten and now he’s in the fourth grade and he is getting tardies and absences for being late. The school policy is three tardies equal two absences, but that is for internal records. Principal Williamson said it isn’t converted for state attendance numbers. She said she was meeting with the deans the next day to see what can be done about the parking lot issue. “We recognize the tardy issue is significant.” She said recently on one day 60 students came in right after 8 and as late as 8:45. “Every NHA school has problems in the parking lot,” she said, noting this year they opened up the school at 7:40 a.m. and the students can wait in the hallway to enter the classroom at 8 a.m. “Our purpose is instruction. If they’re not in the classroom, they can’t be taught. And, each late entry interrupts the classroom”; and
• Also heard Richardson say her son is dealing with a student hurting him and her son comes home with marks. This happened in the past, but this year a boy is picking on him physically and she wanted to know how to make that stop. “It’s upsetting for me not to be able to be here to protect him from harm,” she said. “There’s no excuse for this,” Losen said. “We are concerned.” Losen said they will follow up on Richardson’s report.
The next meeting of the Keystone school board is at 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 13.