New school leaders sought for 16 Detroit schools as principals retire, resign

More than a dozen schools in the Detroit school district will have new leaders at the beginning of the next school year.

The district has posted principal positions for 16 schools where the current principal has decided to either retire or resign, said Chrystal Wilson, spokeswoman for the district. 

Wilson said none of the changes are “associated with non-renewals” — notices that go out notifying employees that their contracts won’t be renewed. In a statement, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said there will be no non-renewals of principals this year and that those who have said they are leaving the district did so voluntarily.

Vitti said principals were asked to notify the district if they intended to leave at the end of the year so officials could begin searching for replacements.

All principals resigning or retiring, Vitti said, will be given “a portion of their previously earned sick and vacation days.”

The principal turnover is similar to the turnover the district has experienced over the last two years, a time period that has seen 30 new principals placed in schools.

The district will begin reaching out to the faculty and staff, as well as families and students, in the schools with principal changes in the next few days. New principals are expected to be named by June 1 or July 1, Wilson said.

Here are the schools where the principal position has been posted:

  • Bunche Preparatory Academy
  • Burton International Academy
  • Carstens Academy
  • Detroit International Academy for Young Women
  • Dixon Educational Learning Academy
  • East English Village High School
  • Edward ‘Duke’ Ellington Conservatory of Music and Art
  • Emerson Elementary-Middle
  • Fisher Magnet Lower Academy
  • Foreign Language Immersion and Cultural Studies School
  • Henderson Academy
  • John R. King Academic and Performing Arts Academy
  • Osborn High School
  • Priest Elementary-Middle
  • Vernor Elementary
  • West Side Academy of Information Technology and Cyber Security

Want to apply for one of the open positions? Go here.