DEARBORN – The Dearborn Board of Education voted on Monday to appoint entrepreneur and community activist Ali Kamel Bazzi to one of its two vacant seats, with the second seat to be filled at a meeting scheduled for next week.

Bazzi, 43, is the founder of Progressive Management and Archer Creative, and also serves on the advisory board of the humanitarian organization Zaman International, where he annually oversees the nonprofit’s Run Walk Picnic event. Of Lebanese descent, Bazzi was also an active supporter in the successful 2023 campaign to renew the property tax levy that funds operations for Dearborn Public Schools.

He was selected from among 37 applicants who sought to fill the two vacancies created by the resignations of Irene Watts and Hussein Berry on August 11 and 18, respectively.

According to the bylaws of the seven-member board, any vacancies must be filled within 30 days.

Watts resigned after moving outside the boundaries of the district, which encompasses nearly all of Dearborn and part of Dearborn Heights, making her ineligible to continue serving.

One week later, Berry also stepped down unexpectedly, saying he had originally planned to resign at a later date but accelerated his decision to save the board from having to conduct two separate replacement processes.

Bazzi will assume Watts’ seat beginning September 15 and serve out the remainder of her term, which expires next November, at which point a new trustee will be elected to a six-year term. The same arrangement will apply to the temporary appointee selected to replace Berry.

The school board, which oversees Dearborn Public Schools and Henry Ford College, has until Wednesday, September 17, to appoint Berry’s replacement.

Applicants for Berry’s seat

Candidates under consideration for the second vacancy include:

Habib Abbas

Fathi Abdelsalam

Amira Abuhmoud

Mona Alaouie

Silva Alawieh

Ali Abazeed

Adeeb Albaadanni

Munir Almuraisy

Sarah Baydoun

Noha Beydoun

Linda Charara

Joseph Cichon

Hassan Elhajdiab

Khodr Farhat

Donovan Golich

Ally (Ibithal) Hamie

Mohamed Ali Hammoud

Tina Harb

Steven Hernandez

James Jouney

Angela N. Khater

Samah Khatib

Ali Khraizat

Maali Luqman

Ayham MishMishan

Abdallah Moughni

Shama Mounzer

Joseph Murray

Wahbeh Nuseibeh

Manar Saidi

Albert Ossum Saleh

Redhwan Saleh

Ramsey Najim Saymuah

Fathi Sharif

Nasri Sobh

James Thorpe

Mark Trzeciak

Major decisions ahead

Once the second appointment is made, the board will consist of Adel Mozip, Mary Petlichkoff, Patrick D’Ambrosio, Amer Zahr, Jamal Aljahmi, Ali Bazzi and the yet-to-be-appointed trustee. Together, they will face two major leadership decisions: appointing a new president for Henry Ford College and a new superintendent for Dearborn Public Schools, following the departures of Russell Kavalhuna and Glenn Maleyko.

Kavalhuna assumed the presidency of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo at the beginning of July, while Maleyko is set to become superintendent of Michigan’s statewide public school system after the State Board of Education finalizes the terms of his contract.