Delria Crippen-White of Detroit is the new principal of Edgemont Elementary School, effective immediately.
She was chosen from four outside applicants, with no internal candidates for the position.
Pay for the one-year contract is $90,515, plus fringe benefits.
Crippen was recommended by School Supt. Michael Van Tassel and hired by the school board at its regular meeting on Monday.
The Edgemont position was vacated when Michelle Briegel moved on to another job out of the district late this summer.
Crippen has more than 14 years experience as principal/assistant principal with several public school academies, the most recent with B.E.S.T. Academy Public School Academy in Highland Park. That academy has closed, so Crippen was available.
She also has more than 12 years of experience as a teacher and holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Central Michigan University.
In other business at the Aug. 27 meeting, the board:
• Decided, after much discussion, to wait until Oct. 8 to have the first board meeting in the new BHS Mini-Auditorium, which gives the new school a chance to settle in, “before we impose ourselves on them,” according to School Board President Martha Toth. Until then, all regular and workshop meetings will be held at the administration building;
• Heard a complaint from parent Shannon Ackron of Hull Road on the new bus schedule that would have her child on a bus for 1 hour and 10 minutes, including a drop off at BHS and pick up by another bus, to get to North Middle School (now McBride Intermediate School). Her student will have to leave at 6:30 a.m. for a school that starts at 7:40 a.m. Students have to wait a half hour at BHS. “With 1,500 kids doing nothing for half an hour at the new beautiful school, it won’t be beautiful very long,” she said. She said she still had no schedule for her high school student and she was told the district hopes to get that out by Friday. She said that’s good, since Monday is a holiday and school starts on Tuesday. Supt. Van Tassel asked to see the bus schedule card she received for her student;
• Heard from parent Charity Fielder that she lives five minutes from Edgemont, where her student will be going, but the bus trip will take an hour. She said it is a 15-minute, brisk walk to school. Fielder said the district said was changing routes to try to have students on the buses for shorter times. Fielder said she will be providing her own transportation for her child this year;
• Heard Van Tassel say the transportation department has a new director, but the routes will be studied and adjusted;
• Approved the bread bid of Great Lakes Baking Company (same company as last year) and the milk bid to Berkshire Dairy (Country Pride was the successful bidder last year). The district is a part of the Southeast Wayne County Buying Cooperative to try to get the best prices by ordering in volume. The district pays only for what it orders and last year it paid $18,900 for bread and $98,700 for milk;
• Heard a report on last Friday’s home football game, the first to be played on the new artificial turf field inside the new stadium. Toth said the capacity of the stadium is 2,500, but there must have been 3,000 there on Friday. People were parking in all the parking lots and anywhere they could find, including on the grass. She wondered what would have happened if the marching band had been home from camp and the crowd had been swelled by all their parents, as well. Trustee Brent Mikulski said they ran out of admittance tickets to sell. “The first night in the new stadium was just amazing,” said Treasurer Toni Hunt;
• Approved the requested terminations of the following teachers: Mitzi Varda, South, 18 years, personal reasons; Sarah Igonin, BHS, 9 years, relocation; Heather Thomson, McBride, 0 years, other employment; and Mary Beth DeVries, itinerant, 6 years, personal reasons;
• Approved recalling from layoff the following teachers: Brooklyn Dobis and Doris Birchmeier, special services for BHS, and Kim Henry for Rawsonville Elementary. New teacher hires are Cara Boden, Owen Intermediate, music; Nicole McCraight, Savage; and Jason Cooper, elementary music;
• Approved the requested terminations of Jennifer Deming, bus driver for 9 years for personal reasons; Michael Smith, bus driver for 5 years for person reasons; Carol Ward, bus aide for 14 years for retirement; and Michelle Cosby, food service worker, retirement; and
• Was reminded the next meeting will be at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 10, in the administration building.