Schoelles.

This week, the Dearborn Board of Education bid farewell to its president, Aimee Schoelles (formerly Aimee Blackburn). She resigned her position after nearly 15 years of service on the Board of Education and local community organizations, especially as an active member of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC).

For her excellent and dedicated service, we say “thank you, Aimee” from the bottom of our hearts. Aimee’s intelligence, leadership and sincerity will be dearly missed on the board and in the community. Her impact on Dearborn Schools will last for years to come. We will remember her every time we pass by the school buildings erected and expanded in several Dearborn neighborhoods— due to her tenacity in standing up with the community, and in particular AAPAC, against the unfair school bonds of 1999 and 2000; and then campaigning hard with us for the successful bond in 2002.

Our community will also remember her whenever we see the names of Don Unis and Michael Berry on two school buildings. It was her determination and the motion she made at that full-of-tension meeting in 2004 that made it finally possible.

We thank Aimee for her service through AAPAC since 1999, barely a year after the organization was founded. She was instrumental in AAPAC’s growth and what it represents today. She was the first AAPAC member to be elected to a public office and her commitments to AAPAC objectives and to our community never prevented her from serving all Dearborn residents with passion and dedication. 

She viewed all Dearborn kids as her own and she was not afraid of standing up for what appeared to be “Arab causes” at the time, because she believed that Arab kids were Dearborn kids and they deserved the same as all other kids. She gave Arab American students, faculty and the community a voice at a time when negative perceptions of Arab Americans made it nearly impossible to elect an Arab American to the  board.  

We thank Aimee for all the difficult decisions she made, whether they had to do with bonds and school millages, choice of a new superintendent, Henry Ford College president or drawing new school boundaries. Politics never stood in the way of Aimee doing the right thing. She never worried about getting reelected because, as she used to say, “if I worry about my reelection when I make decisions, what is the point of being on the board in the first place?” We will certainly miss her frank and blunt opinions in debates and discussions.  

During her tenure, Aimee was a key leader in every successful initiative in the school district.  She supported these initiatives out of pure conviction and dedication to Dearborn schools and its residents and not for political gain. Aimee’s accomplishments are far too numerous to list here; they clearly contributed to the improvement of education for all Dearborn students, particularly Arab and Muslim Americans.  She was down-to-earth and accessible to all.  

Aimee Schoelles left the Dearborn School District in a much better shape than when she entered it.  She will be dearly missed by all of us.  We wish her and her family good luck with their next endeavors.