Dearborn Public Schools Names New Superintendent

The Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education named a new superintendent Monday night.

School officials selected Mike Esseily, who has served as the district's executive director of special populations since 2020.

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School officials will now negotiate a contract with Esseily and anticipate a July 1 start date.

Esseily has been with the Dearborn district since 2007.

He started as a special education teacher at Stout Middle and Edsel Ford High schools, before he was moved up to assistant principal at Lowrey Middle School.

Esseily then served three years as the district’s director of special education and two years as a special education coordinator.

That role helped him land his current position as the district's executive director of special populations, which oversees the department that handles special education, English language learner programs and mental health initiatives.

Esseily was chosen among two other finalists that included Thomas Ahart (former Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa) and Moussa Hamka (Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Grosse Pointe Public Schools).

Overall, school officials said 23 candidates applied to be the district's next superintendent.

Dearborn Public Schools is the third largest district in Michigan with 20,000 students in preschool through high school. The district has about 2,700 employees.

The district’s former superintendent, Glenn Maleyko, left the district last fall to become state superintendent, overseeing the Michigan Department of Education. He had served 10 years as the district’s superintendent and almost 20 years before that as a Dearborn Public Schools employee.