ONSTED — When the contract negotiations period with Onsted Community Schools’ top candidatefor superintendent didn’t pan out, successful negotiations were completed with the district’s runner-up choice for superintendent.
Last week, Onsted’s Board of Education met for a special session and voted a second time within the past two weeks on the district’s selection for superintendent of schools.
Jonathan Royce will become the next superintendent of Onsted Community Schools and will have an official start date of July 1, which will prepare him to lead the district heading into the upcoming 2024-25 school year.
The turn of events came about after Onsted’s initial choice for superintendent, Clara Howitt, a Greater Essex County district administrator in Ontario, Canada, who was selected by the school board May 20 with a 4-2 vote to lead the district, informed board members she was withdrawing her consideration for accepting the position.
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Onsted school board President Jason Terakedis told The Daily Telegram Howitt withdrew “for personal reasons,” relaying that information to the school board June 1. Contract negotiations with Howitt were being finalized a matter of days before she declined to accept the position.
Terakedis said he thought Howitt’s contract was nailed down as of May 31, calling the board’s efforts to iron out the details of the contract “competitive.”
“With some of the new labor laws, we wanted to make sure the contract was as good as it could be,” he explained to The Daily Telegram in a phone interview June 8. “We think she is a fantastic candidate. She’s interviewing at other school districts, too. There’s been no negatives amongst these candidates.”
Howitt’s selection as superintendent came when the school board had narrowed its search down to three finalists: Howitt, Royce and Jodi Ferris, principal at Fremont Public Schools’ Pathfinder Elementary School. The district worked with the Michigan Leadership Institute (MLI) on conducting the superintendent search process, which turned out to be a month's long process that began in February.
Current Superintendent Steve Head announced his retirement in December. His last day will be June 30, ending 29 years with Onsted schools. He has been superintendent since 2017.
More: Onsted Community Schools superintendent announces retirement
Board members were split during the May 20 vote between selecting Howitt or Royce. Several rounds of 3-3 tied votes were tallied before trustee Heather Ruttkofsky, who vouched for Royce, changed the course of the vote by voicing her support for Howitt.
At its special meeting last week, held June 3, the board voted 5-1 to enter contract negotiations with Royce, current Charlotte High School principal since 2021. Treasurer Alex Gast was absent from the meeting. The lone vote against offering the position to Royce came from trustee Keith Williams, according to the school board’s online meeting minutes.
Secretary Dave VanBrunt made the motion to offer the superintendent job to Royce, which was supported by trustee Ryan Reynolds.
The board had two choices to make when Howitt withdrew her candidacy, Terakedis said; members could have voted to offer the position to one of the candidates who was already interviewed — which is what transpired — or they could have reopened the search process and hired an interim superintendent.
“I think the board had the position that there was another strong candidate to be considered,” Terakedis said, referencing to Royce. “Everybody’s opinion counted.”
The school board’s finance committee will make Royce’s hiring complete at its June 17 meeting, and the school board itself, which also meets June 17, will acknowledge Royce’s hiring and his July 1 start date.
Onsted looking forward to Royce executing district’s vision
Because of the leadership efforts of Head, as well as past and present school boards and administrators, Onsted schools officials said the district has a solid foundation to serve its students and community.
“We look forward to Mr. Royce's leadership to execute our vision to inspire, challenge and prepare every student, every day across academics, arts and athletics,” the district said in a news release dated June 7. “We thank the community for their participation and feedback in the (superintendent search) process and for the clear passion demonstrated for our students and our district.”
One of the most important tasks required ofa school board is the selection and hiring of a superintendent, Terakedis said. That was something he stressed throughout the course of the search process.
“Our board is not here to micromanage and set strategic decisions,” he said. “For the past couple of weeks, we have had a lot of passion, conversation and spirited debate among each other. Coming out of this (superintendent search), which the board has been intimately involved in, we need to step back into our roles.
“...The culture Jonathan (Royce) is going to set will make a difference.”
Before his time at Charlotte High School, Royce was principal of Ypsilanti Community Schools’ Achieving College and Career Education (ACCE) Alternative campus from 2016-21. He has assistant principal experience at Ypsilanti and the Lincoln Consolidated School districts and teaching experience with Ann Arbor Public Schools and Old Redford Academy.
Royce plans to complete his education specialist degree from Western Michigan University this year, Onsted schools said. He has a master's degree in kindergarten through 12th grade administration from Eastern Michigan University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he was a varsity track athlete.
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Royce grew up in Stockbridge and Chelsea, “and looks forward to the small town community in Onsted where he can build a loving school culture that builds a sense of community and shared values to serve our students and school community,” the Onsted district said.
In addition to his experience in education, Royce has authored a book that focuses on children'sletter recognition using diverse characters, a mystery and a morality lesson. The title of the book is “Detective Dwayne Drake and the Case of the Alphabet Thief.” He also leads a nonprofit organization based in Dexter, Tutorfit456, that provides a method of reading support for fourth, fifth and sixth grade students that aims to boost their confidence while helping them reach their full potential in the classroom.
—Contact reporter Brad Heineman atbheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter:twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Onsted school board has second vote for superintendent; Royce selected
