Student Organizes Effort To Get Interim Detroit Supt Meriweather A Shot At The Permanent Job

(WWJ) Two choices remain for an important role in Detroit -- the new superintendent of the Detroit Public School District.

But some students want another candidate to be considered.

WWJ legal analyst Charlie Langton said Jaylon Harris, a junior at Martin Luther King Jr, believes current interim superintendent Alycia Meriweather should be considered for the job. Meriweather did not apply, but community members and school staff forwarded her as a candidate.

The lifelong Detroiter and child of a teacher and librarian does not hold a doctorate. She has little administrative experience, detractors say.

But on the other hand, "she knows all about Detroit schools, and Detroit kids," Harris said.

Harris is organizing students to try to convince the Board of Education to consider Meriweather. Why is the teenager so involved?

"I just have to think about, not just when I leave, but I have to think about other kids, the kids behind me who are about to be 10th graders, 11th graders, who are going to end up going through these types of issues with the schools. If we end up picking the wrong superintendent and they don't do a very good job, we don't want that to happen," Harris said.

Meriweather didn't make the cut to become the permanent superintendent, though the lifelong Detroiter told freep.com, "I'm going to continue to work for kids in Detroit ...It's been my life's passion."

The Board of Education chose three finalists among 10 candidates brought to them for consideration by Ray and Associates, the Iowa-based search firm. One dropped out.

The two finalists are Derrick R. Coleman, superintendent for River Rouge Community Schools and Nikolai Vitti, superintendent for Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Fla.