Nikolai Vitti’s metaphor for Detroit Public Schools Community District is a sun rising over the city’s skyline. There might be clouds and rain to deal with at times, but the sun will eventually return.
That was the message the superintendent gave during his State of the Schools address Monday at Renaissance High School, briefly touching on the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, which has come with changes to immigration policies that could affect schools.
But Vitti said the district will push through this new era by cutting through the “nonsense” of presidents, governors, and their policies by continuing to think of its students first. The superintendent noted that the district’s policy bars U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Border Patrol agents from entering its schools.
He also touched on other key topics that are part of the Trump administration’s agenda, such as eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion departments in institutions and workplaces and possibly dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Vitti said that DPSCD has its own DEI strategies and initiatives that employees will continue to follow.
“Frankly, we don’t need the federal government,” he said. “DPSCD knows what needs to happen to protect our kids and protect our families and our employees, period.”
In his wide-ranging speech, Vitti touched on ways DPSCD has improved since he began leading the district eight years ago – students improving their attendance as well as their test scores in reading and math, increasing salaries for teachers and staff, and making sure high schoolers are on the right track to become college-ready or prepared for the workforce after graduation.
Vitti told people in the packed auditorium that before he accepted the job of DPSCD superintendent in 2017, people in his circle said it would be a move that would ruin his career. However, Vitti knew that he wanted the opportunity to rebuild the district.
“And I said … ’You don’t know the challenges that Detroit has faced from an economic point of view, from a disempowered local effort to support the district, to the talent and resilience of children and families,’” he said. “I knew that it was about leadership, I knew it was about an infrastructure that was decimated during emergency management. And I wanted to take on the challenge of rebuilding this district with all of you in the audience and the board members that have served.”
Vitti touts health hubs as solution to chronic absenteeism
During his presentation, the superintendent discussed the four goals that are part of the district’s strategic plan – improve attendance, push for higher levels of proficiency, graduate future-ready students and assure sustainability and continued progress.
To achieve his first goal, Vitti talked about the ways DPSCD attempts to address chronic absenteeism, such as connecting with parent groups to ensure their children get to school.
Vitti noted that addressing chronic absenteeism is difficult to address because Detroit has one of the highest concentrations of poverty in the country. Attendance rates have improved, however, with 66% of students chronically absent in the 2023-24 school year, down from nearly 80% at the height of the pandemic in the 2021-22 school year. Even with that decline, the high rate impacts effort to improve academic performance in the district.
However, Vitti believes that the district’s health hubs could be a possible solution to chronic absenteeism. Launched in 2023, the health hubs provide students and families within a three-mile radius of the site direct access to physical, mental, and dental health services. There are currently nine hubs in high schools across the city: Central/Durfee, Denby, East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney, Marygrove, Martin Luther King Jr., Mumford, Osborn, Southeastern and Western.
The superintendent said in a little over a year, the health hubs have served 6,443 families. More than 800 children have received prescription eyeglasses, and 485 referrals have been made in schools.
“We’re doing third-party studies to see the impact that this will have on children’s attendance and student achievement but anecdotally, this is definitely something that’s working,” Vitti said.
Academic interventionists are key to improving literacy in Detroit
Vitti noted that students have shown small improvements in literacy on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP.
Through the $94.4 million received in the literacy lawsuit, DPSCD has hired more than 250 academic interventionists in kindergarten through second grade, who work directly with teachers to help students with their reading and math skills. Next year, Vitti said the district plans to add more interventionists in third grade.
Another way the district is attempting to improve literacy is by reviewing its curriculum to make sure it’s relevant and engaging to students, he said.
But there’s still room for improvement to bring students up to the correct reading level, especially for the district’s special education students and English language learners, Vitti said. He compared DPSCD to the Detroit Lions, saying both the district and football team have made gains, but still have more work to do.
“They (the Lions) didn’t reach the Super Bowl and DPSCD hasn’t won its Super Bowl yet,” Vitti said. “But it’s undeniable that in the last eight years, this district has improved its literacy. We are talking about three percentage points, two percentage points, one percentage point. But bottom line, that translates into hundreds of more children reading at or above grade level.”
DPSCD looks to offer multiple high school diplomas
Vitti also talked about DPSCD’s high school redesign plan and being more intentional about helping students stay on the path to graduation beginning in the ninth grade. That includes offering more diploma options in addition to the traditional high school diploma. Planned for the 2026-27 school year, the options would include honors, dual degree, career-ready and arts diplomas.
For the honors diploma, students would have to take a certain number of honors and Advanced Placement classes, while students with a dual diploma would take classes at their high school and a community college or university, receiving their associate degree by the time they graduate.
“We want 11th and 12th graders to be on the Wayne County Community College campus taking courses, to be at Wayne State, to be at University of Detroit Mercy during the school day. That means rethinking schedules,” Vitti said. “They might be at Denby on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on Tuesday and Thursday, they’re taking classes on the college campus. This allows them to immediately know that they’re college-ready.”
Meanwhile, the arts diploma would have students taking college-level arts classes in performing arts or the fine arts.
“At the end of the day, we still see too many students that are chronically absent, too many students by 11th and 12th grade asking themselves, ‘Why am I here? How is this relevant to my life?’” Vitti said. “Although we’ve seen improvement, it’s time to scale the improvement we need to see in high school so that high schools truly are a springboard for college and/or the world of work.”
Alexandria Bly, a project advisor for Central Michigan University’s TRIO Upward Bound Project, enjoyed Vitti’s address. She works with students at Detroit schools like Northwestern High School, assisting them with tutoring, advising, test prep, and more to prepare for college. In the past two years since she’s been a part of the program, Bly is seeing more students take an interest in going to college.
“Seeing the growth of Detroit schools is inspiring,” she said.
Sherida Lewis, the principal at Hamilton Elementary-Middle School, was also pleased with the State of the Schools event, saying that she appreciates Vitti’s leadership. She was most surprised to see how much progress the district has made academically.
“Everything is not perfect, but this is where we are now,” she said. “Seeing Dr. Vitti’s passion about the district only makes me want to become a better educator.”
Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.
