Candidates line up for school board

By Charles Sercombe
The race to fill two seats on the Hamtramck Board of Education is off and running.
By Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline for candidates to file for the November election, eight residents had signed up for the job.
That’s a sharp contrast to the last board election two years ago, when three candidates ran unopposed to fill three seats.
Candidates for this year’s election have until this Friday, July 26, at 4 p.m., to withdraw from the election.
Included in the field of candidates is current Board of Education President Jihan Aiyash who is seeking re-election. As expected, Boardmember Salah Hadwan is not seeking re-election, meaning there will at least be one new board member.
The rest of the candidates include: Joseph Kochut, Linda Wolyniec, Philip Garbacz, Hamyar Al-Jamali, Showkat Chowdhury, Mohamed Algehaim and Adam Alharbi.
Candidates have until this Friday, July 26, to drop out of the race.
Chowdhury is a former member of the board who did not seek re-election two years ago, citing his need to concentrate on his businesses.
Alharbi worked on Mayor Amer Ghalib’s successful mayoral campaign, where Ghalib defeated 18-year incumbent Karen Majewski.
Alharbi also accompanied Ghalib to a Sterling Heights rally a year ago that featured retired U.S. Army General Michael Flynn, who was former National Security Advisor to former president Donald Trump.
Flynn is a rightwing conservative who advocates for Christian nationalism, and is reportedly a follower of the far-rightwing conspiracy movement QAnon, an accusation that he denies.
The top two finishers in the Nov. 5 election will go on to serve six-year terms, beginning in January.
November’s election will likely see a huge voter turnout, considering that it’s also the U.S. presidential election.
The school board election comes at a time of great turmoil in the district. The district has gone through a few interim superintendents who filled in when Superintendent Jaleelah Ahmed took a medical leave and then was put on paid suspension for several months.
Ahmed came back last January, but she soon took another paid medical leave after getting a poor job performance evaluation from the board. The district is now being run by Interim Superintendent James Larson-Shidler.
Ahmed has still not returned to work, but Shidler insists she is not suspended and is still employed with the district. It’s not clear why there is an interim superintendent if Ahmed is not suspended.
The Review reached out to Shidler and Aiyash for an explanation about what Ahmed does, but neither has yet responded. Ahmed has a lawsuit filed against both the district and the Hamtramck teachers’ union.
Her lawsuit is one of 18 facing the district, many filed by former employees.
Aiyash, whose brother is state Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-Hamtramck, who has steered millions of dollars for various projects in Hamtramck, and has also championed LGBTQ rights), is seeking her second term.
For several months, Aiyash did not attend board meetings, until last January when she took on the role as board president. Aiyash did not explain her absence.
During Aiyash’s term, the district has lost hundreds of students who had previously been enrolled in the district, which led to over a million dollars a year in lost state-provided revenue for the district. At the same time, the board voted to give itself a 700-percent pay raise.
Also during Aiyash’s term, the district failed twice to convince voters to renew a school millage, which led to the loss of about a $1 million a year in revenue.
The district is seeking voter approval of two other HPS millages in November, but if the last millage election results are any guide, it’s highly doubtful voters will approve them.
Last year, the board failed to meet at all in three separate months, which is a violation of a state law that requires all public boards of education to meet at least once a month.
The board scheduled no meetings for July and also for July of last year, but did not explain why.
Also, there appears to be tension among the current board members. Boardmember Regan Watson has not attended a meeting for over a year; she abruptly stopped attending after the board stripped her title as treasurer.
Boardmember Hadwan has also stopped attending meetings after he resigned his title of vice president before being stripped of it by the board.
Posted July 26, 2024