District Seeks Funding for Arabic Classes

  According to a report in the Dearborn Press and Guide, hundreds of Dearborn Public School students may get to study Arabic from elementary through high school if the district is able to get $900,000 in federal grants.
  Salina Elementary and Intermediate, Edsel Ford High School, Lowrey School, Becker, Oakman and McDonald elementary schools are among the Dearborn schools projected to participate in the program.
  Of course, the use of Arabic in Dearborn schools has been a contentious issue for some. Earlier this year, a study commissioned by the Wayne County Regional Education Service Agency said the use of Arabic by students in the bilingual programs in Dearborn Public Schools slows the assimilation of students "into the school and American society in general" and fosters suspicion among students and teachers who don't speak the language.
  However, some administrators believe expanding the program could help students become truly fluent in the Arabic language by the time they enter college. Keeping students from leaving the district for other schools that regularly offer Arabic language courses is another enticement, according to McDonald Principal Megdieh Jawad.

  "We are losing students every year to the charter schools," Jawad said.
  Read the full story in the Dearborn Press and Guide here.

Happy Memorial Day

Many Cuts in 2009-10 City Budget

  Dearborn’s 2009-10 budget was released this week and, to no one’s surprise, there will be severe belt-tightening throughout many municipal departments. Dearborn’s libraries, health department and the mayor’s office itself will all have to operate with less funding, but public safety monies have been reserved for additional spending on Dearborn’s Police and Fire Deaprtments. The budget allocations are listed in alphabetical order below.

19th District Court: $4.1 million (+$5,042)

Assessor: $1.1 million (-$157,281)

Building and Safety: $2.2 million (+$152,706)

City Clerk: $1 million (+$652)

City Council: $508,512 (-$12,091 compared to the previous fiscal year)

City Plan: $439,858 (-$21,687)

Economic and Community Development: $1.9 million (-$85,605)

Finance Department: $2.9 million (+$8,216)

Fire: $17.4 million (+$726,954)

Health: $420,997 (-$9,798)

Historical Commission: $388,866 (-$36,240)

Human Resources Department: $1 million (-$72,741)

Law Department: $1.6 million (-$152,776)

Libraries: $5.7 million (-$169,059)

Management Information Systems: n/a (-$30,754)

Mayor: $906,915 (-$81,282)

Non-departmental: $332,039 (-$2.5 million)

Police: $33.5 million (+$62,444)

Public Information: n/a (+$37,252)

Public Information Allocated Out: n/a (-$737,004)

Public Works: $17.7 million (+$96,769)

Recreation: $9 million (-$284,003)

District Featured on 'Best Schools in Michigan' TV Special

  Dearborn Public Schools will get a turn in the spotlight next week as one of three districts featured on a television program titled 'The Best Schools In Michigan.' The thirty minute program will air on WXYZ-Channel 7 on Thursday, May 28th at 10:00pm.
  “We were very excited to be asked to take part in the Best Schools program,” commented Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston.
  “It’s an excellent way for the district to tell our story and share with others how we are being successful at providing quality instruction and meeting the academic needs of each child in our district,” Whiston added.
  Along with the segment on Dearborn’s schools, the district will take part in a live web-cast that also begins at 10:00pm on May 28th, and continues an additional thirty minutes after the on-air program ends. The interactive web-cast will be streamed live over the internet from the Channel 7 studios and provide interested parents and students the opportunity to ask questions and receive additional information directly from school district staff. To access the live web-cast, log on to www.wxyz.com on the night of the program.
  'The Best Schools In Michigan' program is an opportunity for the district to share their successes with everyone in the Metro-Detroit area. New programs such as all day kindergarten, partnerships with the community, and the variety of high school programs will be some of the topics discussed on the show.

Post-Parade Concert Planned at City Hall

  Dearborn’s 85th annual Memorial Day commemoration will offer something unique this year: the chance for residents to enjoy a free concert in City Hall Park following the Memorial Day Parade and remembrance service.
  “The focus of Memorial Day is honoring America’s fallen military service men and women. Our parade and remembrance service will pay respectful tribute to them as always,” explained Gary Tanner, commander of the Dearborn Allied War Veterans Council.
  “But another part of the day can be set aside for families and friends to spend time together and do something enjoyable,” he added. “This year’s concert and other activities in City Hall Park fit the bill perfectly.”
  Dearborn’s Memorial Day Parade takes place this Monday at 10:00am. Following the parade, the City’s official remembrance service commences at the Dearborn War Memorial, located on the grounds of Dearborn City Hall.
  Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend both events and to stick around City Hall Park after the remembrance service for the free outdoor concert and other activities. Performing will be the Rackham Ensemble Singers (pictured above), whose members belong to the Rackham Symphony Choir. The group will perform on an outdoor stage in City Hall Park, singing a variety of songs made famous during the “boogie woogie” era.
  Food and beverages will be on sale (including cold beer, with sales benefiting veterans’ causes). Visitors can also buy raffle tickets for the chance to to win a new motorcycle.  Military vehicles and exhibits from the U.S. Navy will also be showcased.
 The parade route is Michigan Avenue from Firestone to Schaefer in east Dearborn. It is recommended that parade spectators plan to arrive early to get the best possible viewing spots. Bring a lawn chair or blanket for seating. Umbrellas will, hopefully, be unnecessary.

Annual Event at Edsel Ford Honors Fallen Students

  Students and staff at Edsel Ford High School will once again take part in an annual ceremony to honor the Edsel Ford students who were killed while serving in the United States Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. The event will take place on Thursday, May 21st beginning at 7:30am in the Edsel Ford auditorium located at 20601 Rotunda.

  The ceremony will include brief comments from Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston and Mayor John O’Reilly and musical selections from the Edsel Ford choir. The truly moving portion of the event is the reading of the names of the twenty-three former Edsel students who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. As each name is read, a student in the audience will stand and leave the room placing a rose near a memorial plaque located outside the auditorium. The playing of taps concludes the event.

Fire Chief Leaving for Arizona

  After 25 years with the Dearborn Fire Department, and four as its top firefighter, Fire Chief Nazih Hazime is retiring. Hazime accepted an offer this week to serve as fire chief of the Sedona, Arizona fire district. 

  In his new post, Hazime will oversee two counties with an estimated population of around 22,000. Mr. Hazime will officially leave his post at the end of July.

  Throughout his tenure as chief, Mr. Hazime worked hard to keep his department up to date with the most current technologies and advancements in fire prevention and safety. He was also an effective liaison between the department and the community.

  Mayor Jack O'Reilly is expected to appoint his replacement this summer.

Despite Rumors, Councilman Thomas Will Not Appear on Mayoral Ballot

  This afternoon, sources at Dearborn City Hall told us there were rumblings from within the office of City Clerk Kathleen Buda that there might be a reversal from the earlier decision denying Doug Thomas' petitions for a run at the mayor's office this year. 

  As we reported earlier in the week, it appeared that the councilman's bid for higher office was derailed due to problems with his petitions. Another mayoral challenger, Ziad Abdulhamid Abdulmalik, was also kept out of the race for similar reasons. Our sources told us that Thomas' name might make a last minute appearance on the mayoral primary ballot with incumbent John B. O'Reilly Jr. and challenger Michael Prus on August 4th. 

  However, after today's 4:00pm withdrawal deadline, there are no changes to the primary ballot. Councilman Doug Thomas will not make a run for mayor, but is defending his council seat. 

National PTA Honors Whiston with Lifetime Achievement Award

  Since he came to town, Dearborn Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston has impressed many with his work ethic and dedication to students in the district. Now, the Michigan Parent Teacher Student Association in Ann Arbor has honored him for a career of service helping children and youth. Mr. Whiston was presented with a National PTA Life Achievement Award at the Michigan PTSA 91st Annual Convention in Kalamazoo.
  Mr. Whiston has been a member of his local PTSA for nearly 25 years. He has served on the Michigan PTSA Board of Directors since 2003, holding the positions of Education Liaison, Vice President for Legislation, Treasurer and President Elect. He has also participated in additional Michigan PTSA events, including co-chairing a drug free rally.

  “Michigan PTSA is pleased to present this prestigious award to Brian Whiston,” said Debbie Squires, Michigan PTSA President. “Brian is a tireless advocate for children and a strong voice in the education community.”
  “PTA promotes the collaboration of families, schools and communities throughout the country, and encourages everyone who cares about kids to speak up with a powerful voice on their behalf,” added PTA National President Jan Harp Domene. “Brian Whiston possesses a mighty voice and we cannot thank him enough for the work he has done and undoubtedly will continue to do.”
  The National PTA Life Achievement Award is the highest honor a PTA can bestow. Formerly known as National PTA Life Membership, the award was established in 1899, just two years after PTA’s founding, to pay tribute to those who had demonstrated exemplary service in support of children.
  Congratulations to Superintendent Whiston for this recognition.

2009 Primary Field Set as Filing Deadline Passes; Thomas Denied Shot at Mayoral Seat

  The City Council race should be the most competitive in years with the lineup of candidates who filed petitions to get on the ballot by the deadline Tuesday.
  Other races took surprise twists, with the list of candidates for mayor shifting right up to the last minute, and with what could have been an interesting contest for city clerk turning into no contest at all.
  At the center of the intrigue is Councilman Doug Thomas, who filed petitions to run for both mayor and council. However, Thomas’ mayoral petitions were reportedly invalid, so his run for the executive seat appears to be dead in the water. The same can be said for another challenger, Ziad Abdulhamid Abdulmalik, whose petitions were also not in order.
  As it currently stands, Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. will be challenged by only Michael Prus. The top two vote-getters in the August 4th primary election will advance to the general election ballot November 3rd, so by default it appears to be a fight between O’Reilly and Prus this fall.
  Meanwhile, City Clerk Kathy Buda will win her fourth term unopposed, as former clerk John Jay Hubbard withdrew his name from the ballot in that race.
  The council race had 25 candidates file by the deadline. Just four years ago, only 15 competed for the seven seats. The field will be reduced to 14 after the primary for the seven seats up for grabs in November.
  All incumbent council members are candidates: Tom Tafelski, Nancy Hubbard, Mark Shooshanian, Doug Thomas, Suzanne Sareini, Robert Abraham and George Darany.
  Challengers on the ballot are Joseph Agius, David Bazzy, Terry Burke, Khalil Dakhlallah, Patrick Dambrosio, Mark Dawdy, Stephen Dobkowski, Sharon Dulmage, Rabih Hammoud, George Hart, Patrick Kiernan, Scott Marquette, Brian O’Donnell, Ali Sayed, Molly Sharp, Nancy Siwik, Hussein Sobh and Adrenne Wygonik. Today, it was reported that Bradley Hajac, who also hoped to run for a council seat, was eliminated because of problems with his petitions.
  More than the sheer numbers, making this year’s council race more competitive than usual are the established names among the challengers, with four former officeholders among them. Bazzy and Dobkowski were elected to the Charter Commission a few years ago, Dulmage is a former longtime school board member and Hart has held the offices of state senator, county commissioner and city councilman. Other politically recognizable names include Wygonik, wife of Judge Richard Wygonik, and Siwik, who finished ninth in the 2005 council election.
  The field could’ve been even tougher, but two established names did not file petitions they had taken out: Charter Commissioner Ray Trudeau and Michael Berry, who previous had run for city council and state representative.

Our thanks to Gary Woronchak who compiled and wrote this analysis of Dearborn's upcoming 2009 election exclusively for DearbornNewsOnline.com.

Arab-American Student Group Protests Recent UM-D Election

  A group of Arab American students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn have complained of discrimination after a recent student government election. The students believe university officials oppose the growing influence and visibility of the Arab Student Union on campus, and that administrators are attempting to hold back the group's political participation through recently imposed changes to rules regarding candidate eligibility.
  Prior to the student elections on April 2nd and 23rd, new rules were passed by the student body requiring candidates for student senate to gather 100 signatures supporting their bid to be placed on the election ballot.
  According to the Arab American News, eighteen students, most of them Arab American, were denied a place on the ballot because some signatures were deemed invalid. Most of those students were members of the student political party University Student Activists (USA), which is comprised mostly of members of the Arab Student Union and a smaller group of African American students.
  UM-D spokesperson Terry Gallagher said that a rigorous process for reviewing the election is in place and that all complaints on the election have been resolved to the university's satisfaction
  "They might not be happy, but we've already reviewed those complaints," he said. "There are no outstanding complaints to the election process... We're very confident that we've been very fair about this."
  Some students, however, feel their complaints have been ignored by administrative officials.
  "They've completely disregarded our concerns," said student Hussein Berry. "They throw away our complaints... It's beyond anything I've ever seen."

'Made in America' Bus Tour to Stop in Dearborn

  More than 7.2 million paychecks are dependent on American-made automobiles, including health care, education, service, retail and other jobs. That’s the message workers, community leaders, elected officials, labor leaders and others will bring to an 11-state, 34-city 'Keep it Made in America' bus tour next week. The tour stops right here at the steps of Dearborn City Hall this Monday at 9:00am. Mayor O’Reilly and officials from the United Steelworkers (USW) are expected to speak.
  USW president Leo Gerard says, “This jobs crisis goes deeper than auto companies and assembly workers in Detroit. Reducing U.S. auto manufacturing drives down overall employment, from the people who make auto catalogs and shipping boxes to workers making glass for windshields, rubber for tires and other materials.”
  Workers from the bus tour, business leaders, national labor leaders, mayors, federal lawmakers and economists will join ranks again on May 19th at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., for a day-long ‘teach-in’ conference on the impact of the automotive supply chain in communities.

  Organizers cite President Obama’s comments at his April 30th press conference on his first 100 days as saying: “If you are considering buying a car, I hope it will be an American car.” The 'Keep it Made in America' tour supports the President’s call that recognizes the millions of jobs tied to the fate of the U.S. auto industry.
  “Nationwide, if we cut American auto jobs to support auto imports, the consequences for service sector jobs will be severe," says Mr. Gerard. "The waitress at the neighborhood diner, the teacher at the community school, accountants, bankers, firefighters and police officers will all likely see their jobs affected. We need to send a message to Congress and the Obama administration that Americans recognize we must make things here. We don’t need more off-shoring. We need jobs – we need to rebuild domestic manufacturing and our auto industry.”
  For regular tour updates and additional information, visit www.madeinamericatour.org.

Election Season Heats Up as Mayor Files Today

  Mayor John "Jack" B. O'Reilly, Jr. will turn in his petitions to run for his first full term in office today at 4:30pm at the Dearborn City Clerk's Office in the concourse of City Hall. Joining him to show their support will be State Senator Irma Clark-Coleman, State Representative Gino Polidori, County Commissioner Gary Woronchak and representatives of Congressmen John Conyers and John Dingell.
  As most know, Mayor O'Reilly assumed office after the death of Mayor Michael A. Guido in late 2006. Mayor O'Reilly was elected to a partial term in February 2007 with over 90 percent of the vote in a special election that included 10 other candidates. Before that, of course, he had been City Council president for 17 years, meaning he earned the highest number of votes each of the five times he ran. His father had been Mayor from 1978-1985.
  Petitions to run for Dearborn city offices are due on Tuesday, May 12th. At least 100 signatures from registered Dearborn voters must be turned in to qualify to run. The primary is August 4th and the general election is November 3rd.
  In addition to the Mayor's race, the election will determine all seven City Council seats and the City Clerk's position. All are four year terms, beginning on Jan. 1, 2010.