CASSOPOLIS — At the Cassopolis Board of Education special meeting on April 30, Superintendent Angela Piazza proposed a restructuring of the administration team.

This included considering the non-renewal of contracts for DeeAnn Melville-Voss, the principal of Sam Adams Elementary School, and David VanLue, the principal of Ross Beatty Jr.-Sr. High School. The proposed motions were unanimously carried by the six present board members.

Throughout the following week, the proposed motions caused a stir among community members. Some took to social media to complain that motion would be an injustice toward the district’s longtime principals.

“I am so disappointed in the Cassopolis School Board,” wrote Jim Foster in a post on his Facebook page, which has been edited for clarity. “I will make sure that you don’t get voted on the next board ever again. Dee Voss deserves better than this, and you wonder why our lifelong community members are letting our kids, grandkids and great grandkids go to Edwardsburg and Niles school districts.”

Other community members and parents picked up their phones to call Piazza, who said she has tried to clarify that the goal is not to fire anyone, and that the district is exploring the option of restructuring in attempt to put leaders in positions that help them to best utilize their gifts and passions. According to Piazza, the board must publicly motion to consider the non-renewal of contracts, even if it is to enter into a new contract with an administrator for a different position.

She says that restructuring could include keeping some positions that the district already has, combining positions and adding new ones.

“It’s a complete restructuring,” she said. “So all of those components are within a restructuring.”

She also says that, as no decisions have been made regarding their contracts, both Melville-Voss and VanLue could still be principals at their respective schools next year.

“It’s about making sure the right people on the bus are in the right seats, so that’s what we’re doing,” Piazza said, using an analogy from Jim Collins’s book, “From Good to Great.” “We want to put them in areas where we know they are super strong because we have a lot of growth to do in this district, so we just want to make sure that they’re in the area where they are really going to have the best impact on our district.”

One of the areas she says that the district has room for growth in is their test scores, especially when it comes to the M-STEP, where the district is below state proficiency rates.

“Dr. Piazza said that when she took the position of superintendent, she was charged to assess and analyze the district’s current status of operations, from business and fiscal operations to the academic, curricula and instructional practices currently being implemented,” reads a statement from the draft agenda from the April 30 Board of Education special meeting. “Together with the administrative team, the district’s data trends were analyzed and an in-depth root cause analysis was conducted. Based on their assessment of the analysis and working extensively with the entire leadership team, she has learned their areas of strength, as well as their passions.”

District restructuring should be determined by the end of the school year. Next steps will be addressed at upcoming board meetings. The next board meeting, which is open to the public, will be at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 14, in the boardroom at Squires Education Center.

As for the comments on social media, Piazza says that is something she stays away from.

“Honestly, I’m not on social media,” she said. “I stay away from that, but I’ve had a lot of parent calls. … It’s about putting people in the right seat. It’s about what’s best for our students, and I know it doesn’t feel that way — it doesn’t seem that way because there’s a lot of assumptions of what they will anticipate will happen. But that’s really not the intent. We’re simply following the legalities to make sure that we’re doing everything according to the law, to get to where we want to be with our restructuring.”