Two incumbents and a challenger are running for two full-term Willow Run school board seats.

Board President Sheri Washington and Trustee Don Garrett face a challenge from Brenda Meadows. Washington is running for her second term while Garrett, who was appointed to fill a vacant seat last November, is seeking his first full term.

Also on the ballot is incumbent Kristine Thomas, who is running for a three-year term. Gregory Lovell Myers is a write-in candidate seeking a two-year term.

The district has been plagued with financial problems in the last five years and is working through a state mandated deficit elimination plan to pull itself out of the red. It has also struggled with low student achievement and declining enrollment.

Garrett said the district must improve the overall the educational experience of Willow Run students and “the money will take care of itself.”

“If we don’t try to continue to better the education for the kids, we’ll go deeper and deeper into a bad situation,” he said.

He wants to see the district focus on programs that have been a success, such as the WAY program, which is designed to assist students whose grades are slipping. He said those are the types of programs that keep parents and families in the district and could bring others back.

He also said the district needs to communicate better with parents and the community, especially when it comes to the district’s successes and strengths.

“PR is part of it. We need to present ourselves as being a school district that cares for kids and that will bring them back,” he said. “We need to tighten up on the programs that we have and try to make them more interesting to the kids, which is what parents and kids want.”

Washington said she wants the district to develop and follow through with a strategic plan, which has been discussed but never fully implemented. She said the district's inconsistencies are noticeable and it needs to thoroughly analyze its position and what improvements are needed.

“Our financial deficits are tied to the progress of the district,” she said. “What are we accomplishing right now and what do we need to accomplish? If we don’t have an attractive district we won’t successfully keep families and bring in new students.”

She said dealing with issues surrounding former Superintendent Doris Hope-Jackson have consumed too much of her and the board’s time.

“Now we need to develop plans and hold people accountable. It sounds simplistic and it probably is, but because of the seriousness of our deficit elimination plan, it’s going to take some fine tooth combing, it's going to take some vision,” she said.

Meadows was not available for an interview for this story.

Washington also raised concern over the culture and mindset in Willow Run, and said the district has suffered because of how it has treated students and families in prior years.

“When we as consumers have a bad experience at a restaurant, we tend not to go back and, even more importantly, we don’t tell them why - we just jump ship. We have lost students through school of choice, and you’ve got to ask 'Why is that?'”

She said the district has strong teachers but better support is required at the executive level, which has been lacking in recent years.

Garrett agreed and called for all of Willow Run’s stakeholders to agree to disagree when necessary, keep their disagreements behind closed doors and keep in mind the common goal is students' education.

“I do believe the one thing that will attract families is seeing everyone getting along and everyone being on the same page - the administration and the board, if we show our concern for our kids … then I do believe that we will rise in the next couple years,” he said.

The district is faced with the task of making sweeping changes at the high school, which is among the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in the state in terms of achievement. In return for setting up a magnet school in the high school and taking other steps, the state will provide the district with an additional $50,000 to $2 million in aid to help make the changes.

Garrett said the district is taking the appropriate measures to make improvements, but said students must be pushed and challenged more. He said he wants students to know “failure is not an option”. The undertaking would involve changing the attitude at the high school, he said.

“I believe in the next two or three years things will improve. People want change to happen immediately, but we know change doesn’t happen overnight, and we need to have some perseverance,” Garrett said.

Washington said the district has implemented a dress code, which, despite some mixed reviews from students, is a step toward establishing a “safe and healthy environment” in the classrooms. She said self-discipline has been lacking among many of the district’s students and measures such as the dress code must be taken to help address the issue.

The high school, like the district, has suffered from instability in its administration, Washington said. The high school has seen multiple administrators come and go in recent years, and Washington said stability is crucial to improvement.

“We have so many inconsistencies in that regard - in leadership - that it’s difficult to rally the troops,” she said. “When the team is mismatched, there are underserved students, and that’s a concern. As a board of education we can't sit back and be idle. Change has to be radical.”