Outgoing Farmington Board Member: District Needs to Work More with Parents

Serving a term on the Farmington school board has been an eye-opening experience for Farmington Hills resident Debby Brauer.

She'll step down after this fall's election, having served during four of the district's most difficult years. Rounds of painful budget cuts began as she was elected, followed by the closure of four schools, a gut-wrenching contract negotiation with support services staff and the deeply contentious sale of Eagle Elementary to the Islamic Cultural Association.

"It's been the most amazing experience ... and incredibly challenging," Brauer said Thursday.

A former district employee, she ran unopposed in 2006. Brauer literally grew up in a family of educators. Her mother taught for 38 years in Highland Park, and her earliest memories are of helping prepare classrooms in the summer.

Brauer worked for the district years ago, in the central office school and community relations department.

"I was there eight or nine years, and that became a real close family to me," she said. "Those people are awesome."

She left the district to work with the Novi schools, but left there two years later to stay home with children Marisa and Cameron. A volunteer by nature, Brauer remained involved in her children's schools.

When a board seat opened up, she said, board member Priscilla Brouillette suggested she run. "It really appealed to me," Brauer said. "It was a call for service to be at that next level."

The experience has been eye-opening. "It changed the way I look at the district as a whole," she said. "I see a really hardworking group of individuals at central office, and they don't get enough credit for what they do. There's things we could do differently, but everyone's stretched so much, they're just trying to maintain right now and look ahead."

Brauer said board members trust administrators to provide them with the best possible information, "and a lot of times, it wasn't what people wanted to hear." But as a board member, she listened. "It may or may not affect the decision, but you have to take it all into account," she said.

The decision to explore privatization of support services to address a budget deficit, she said, was the most difficult. She added, "We're still not out of the woods. It's scary."

Farmington is a "great district and will continue to be a great district," Brauer said, but she also sees a need to involve parents more. The crux of a really strong district, she said, is students, teachers and parents. "If you don't have those three groups working together, the district isn't going to be as successful as it could be," she said.

She said the district should look more at parents as educators and a resource. "It's hard to get parents involved, but it's doable, if you give parents an opportunity and an obligation," she said. "You can't force it, but there should be some things that they're responsible for."

Brauer's own decision to step back came about in part because of a new job and helping her mother move into assisted living. But there was more to the decision.

With both children out of Farmington Public Schools—Marisa is a student at Oakland University, and Cameron is now a student at University of Detroit-Jesuit High School—Brauer felt it would be inappropriate for her to continue on the board. While it's important to have "institutional knowledge," she would like to see parents with children in Farmington schools step up.

The months of working out difficult issues and decision-making have also taken a toll. "You hear the pleas of people who are so passionate about how it's going to affect them, but ultimately, you're responsible for all our kids and how to give them the best possible education," she said.

"You go into it because you want to make a difference," she said. "It just felt like everything we did was so negative. It felt like you're pushing this big boulder up a hill, and the more you push, the bigger the boulder gets. I just felt like I needed to stop pushing."