Concerns

If you have a concern regarding your child’s teacher or school, we recommend taking the following steps to ensure your voice is heard and the issue is resolved as efficiently as possible. 

If your concern involves bias or discrimination, you may want to bypass the steps below and use the district’s formal reporting system.

• Submit the Hate & Bias Reporting Form. This form is automatically sent to the building principal, the executive director for your school level (Dr. Denise Lilly for elementary, Anthony Ruela for middle schools, and Joe Greene for high schools), the director of school culture and climate (Katie Ilijic), and the superintendent (Dr. Monica Merritt).

In most cases, the individual closest to the situation is best equipped to fix it. If your concern involves a specific classroom:

Step 1: Start at the Source

• Reach out to the teacher directly. Contact the teacher by phone or email.

• For special education issues, you may need to contact the general education teacher, special education teacher, the teacher consultant (TC) for the building, and/or other Individualized Education Program (IEP) team members.

Step 2: Involve School Administration

If your conversation with the teacher or IEP team does not reach a resolution:

• Reach out to the school principal. Share the history of the issue and the steps you have already taken.

Step 3: Involve District Administration

If your conversation with the principal does not reach a resolution:

• Contact district staff. Use this flow chart to determine who in the administration to contact.

• For special education issues, contact the Special Education Supervisor for your school level. Here’s a link to the special education staff directory (toward the bottom of the page).

  • If you are still having difficulty resolving the issue, Stefanie Hayes is the district’s Executive Director of Special Education (see the staff directory link above).

  • If you need to further escalate the issue, we recommend that you work with Michigan Alliance for Families, a free resource for families of children with disabilities. Search their site for “dispute resolution.”

Step 4: Escalation to the Board of Education

If the situation remains unresolved, affects other students, or affects the broader community, consider bringing it to the attention of the Board of Education by making a “citizen comment” at a school board meeting.

• Attend a Board Meeting: Held the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month.

• Time: 7:00 PM

• Location: 454 S. Harvey St., Plymouth, MI 48170

• Citizen Comment: You will have exactly 3 minutes to address the Board. 

The Board does not respond during the comment period, but you can request that someone from the administration follow up with you.

Arrive about 10 minutes early so you have time to fill out the "citizen comment" form and turn it in to be added to the speaking queue.

If you've never been to a board meeting, reach out to us at capes@capesquad.org. We can walk you through the process and answer your questions.