By JOHN EBY
Dowagiac Daily News

Dowagiac Board of Education continued three nights of 90-minute superintendent interviews with six candidates at the middle school cafeteria Wednesday night with  Albion Superintendent Fred Clarke and Brooke Ballee, elementary principal for Van Buren Public Schools in Belleville.

Clarke, who grew up in Saginaw, recognized his passion for education while working as a camp counselor.

His wife is a bilingual kindergarten teacher he met in Texas. They have two sons, 14, a freshman about to learn to drive, and 8, in third grade.

Clarke offers a strong technical background.

He noted that of 75 indicators, Dowagiac lost ground in 22 on achievement tests, including eight in math.

He indicated bullying has come up in conversations with community members and he quoted Mayor Donald Lyons at one point.

Describing himself as a “unique superintendent” given his technical background, but one who would be a good fit in Dowagiac given his strong background with diverse minority populations, Clarke said he rolls up his sleeves to train teachers in a collaborative way.

Clarke graduated from the University of Michigan with a biology major and chemistry minor and entered the workforce “the worst year to find a teaching job. Everyone from my class didn’t have a teaching job after a year,” which caused him to look out of state.
That’s how he landed in Texas, where he taught chemistry for five years.

He became an assistant principal, then the new assistant superintendent for technology.
Clarke started work on his Ph.D. at the University of Houston which he is continuing at Western Michigan University.

After three years in Longview, Clarke relocated to Champaign, Ill., for five years as executive director of technology and human services to be closer to his parents and two sisters in Michigan.

He has been Albion superintendent for three painful budget years of cuts – $1.2 million, $990,000 and $1.1 million.

Dowagiac “has a lot of good things happening and is an ideal place to raise a family,” Clarke said.

“My skill set is a good match for your district when you look at my track record. The common theme is being part of a team where I’m responsible for improving things and raising student achievement levels.”

Ballee “started late in education” due to a lack of teaching jobs when she graduated.
Instead, she substituted for five years “and did probably every other single job, including dee jaying, so this microphone is not too scary.”

Ballee taught elementary education for three years, then middle school – “my first love” – for three years.

“When my principal at the middle school decided to become a superintendent, I had just finished my master’s in ed leadership, I decided that I, too, would embark on being an administrator.”

She took a job in Mount Pleasant as athletic director and assistant middle school principal.

With her three children graduated and empty nest syndrome settling over her, being away from her family felt less desirable, “so I moved back toward Grand Rapids” to Orchard View Schools.

“When I realized I was doing the same job as a principal,” she accepted a job with Delton-Kellogg as a middle school principal for five years.

“I still have a home there” that the economy has prevented her from selling.

“I went to the Michigan Department of Education” when a “unique situation opened up,” she said. “Reach and Teach program was a federal grant. We took 17 schools through one year to try to help schools help at-risk kids from falling through the cracks. It was very successful, but the funding got yanked.”

With Van Buren Public Schools in Belleville, her district lost 492 students last year.
“My position was cut this year,” Ballee said. “I was extremely disappointed, but they wanted me to stay on as an elementary principal in our second-highest, 76 percent free-and-reduced-lunch. They wanted me to turn it around. It’s been a huge learning experience.”

Dowagiac appeals to Ballee as “the best of both worlds. It’s kind of metropolitanish, but with the country and the farms. It’s smaller than the Van Buren area, where I’ve found I’m not a large city person. I’d like to live on a lake. I like fishing, gardening, kayaking, all different kinds of sports.”

Dowagiac’s rich history also attracts her.

Completing interviews on Thursday, June 3, at 6 p.m. at a new location, the DMS media center, will be Mrs. Storm Lairson, Reese Public Schools superintendent, followed at 7:30 by Joseph Trimboli, superintendent of nearby Lawton Community Schools in Van Buren County.