Whiston.

DEARBORN — Dearborn Schools S uperintendent Brian Whiston, who has accepted the job as the next state superintendent, said he will use his experience in the district to improve schools across Michigan.

As state superintendent, Whiston will have oversight on the school districts’ operations and expenditure. He will also make recommendations to the legislature on educational policies and funding. 

“It is our responsibility to help schools be successful, to meet the needs of the districts, so they can raise student achievements and graduation rates,” Whiston told The Arab American News. “I’ll be working on that.”

The superintendent said he will also be working on proposals on how the state funds schools and holds them accountable. 

He added that he is looking to improve the standardized testing in Michigan.

“For high school juniors to take 15 hours of testing is too long,” he said. “We need to find tests that show that the kids have the knowledge and can transfer it and do it in a much faster way. I’d like to look at what tests we’re doing and how we can get the information we need to hold schools accountable, but do it in less time.”

Whiston said he is proud of his seven years as superintendent of Dearborn Schools, especially the new options the district started providing to students, including the dual enrollment, parent contracts and balancing the district’s budget. 

He said he will apply Dearborn’s success stories to struggling districts across the state. 

“Maples [Elementary] was on the verge of a state takeover when I got here; now it is performing very highly,” Whiston said. “Our eight ‘Reward’ schools are beating the odds. What teachers are doing in the classroom and what the administrators are focusing on, we can share that with other school districts and help them be more successful.”

Whiston, who had to cut Dearborn’s budget by $40 million, said the state’s educational finances are not suffering as much as they had been in the previous years, but the rise of retirement costs might prove problematic. 

“Districts are going to still have problems,” he said. “I’ve had to cut my budget six out of seven years in Dearborn because our costs are growing. If retirement costs continue to grow, then the state is going to have to invest in the schools.”

Edsel Ford High School was designated as a “priority” school in 2013, which is the state’s lowest ranking. But Whiston said things are looking up for the school, even though the state’s designation lasts for four years.

“The school is doing very well,” he said. “Scores are going up. I think it will be just fine.”

The superintendent said Edsel Ford was moving in the right direction even before it was labeled a priority school. 

“When the state labeled us, we added hours of instructions,” he said. “We changed 20 teachers, not because there were any issues or they are bad teachers, but we brought in math and English language experts, top of the field people, to help turn things around. The principal and the teachers got the students to take pride in what they’re doing.”

Whiston said he is still negotiating the exact start date for his new job, but he expects it will be around August 1. 

The Dearborn Board of Education will hire a search firm in the upcoming weeks to find suitable candidates to replace him.

“I won’t leave until they find a replacement,” Whiston said. 

The superintendent said he will miss the people the most in Dearborn. “Friends, colleagues, board members, union leaders, all the staff, they’ve been a family over the past seven years and I will miss them.”

Whiston, who was named Michigan’s Superintendent of the Year in 2014, said the innovative plans he implemented in Dearborn and the district’s improved test scores earned him the recognition and eventually the state job.