My name is Ahmed Ismail. I am a candidate in the June 9 election
of two new members to our School Board. I would very much like to give back to
the community that has given our family so much over the past 45 years. In order to do so, I need your vote on June 9th. Please consider these unique attributes I can add to help our School Board better
serve the taxpayers and children of our community:
· Growing Up and Living in our Community. I attended Poupard, Parcells, Grosse Pointe South and then graduated with the first graduating class
of Grosse Pointe North in 1970. My wife Mary Ann and I live at 799 Lochmoor Blvd.
in Grosse Pointe Woods with our sons Alex (8), Scott (11) and Jonathan (14).
· Working in Our Community. Many
of you have been customers of mine at Studio Camera and Speedi Photo on Mack Avenue in the Woods for decades. I understand that in order to serve customers, you must understand finance, long term planning and most
of all, recognize that your sole existence depends on recognizing your customers needs and continually changing to meet those
needs. Our school system is a business, and its customers are its taxpayers and
our children. Their needs (and not the desires of individual School Board members)
must always be kept paramount in the decisions made by our School Board.
· Community Involvement.
I am committed to making our community a better place to live. I
am a member of the Business and Retail Associates of Grosse Pointe Woods and the Grosse Pointe Business and Professional Associates. I am also a avid supporter of the Services for Older Citizens (SOC) and their Meals
on Wheels Program as well as the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, the Neighborhood Club and the Grosse Pointe Public Library. I am a strong believer that our children need to be taught volunteerism when they
are young and that this life lesson must be integrated into their lives at school and home, so that giving back to their communities
becomes second nature to them now and stays with them as adults.
· Extensive Construction Cost Control Experience. The Board is starting to spend the 61 million dollars of our money generated
through the recent bond issue. For the past 19 years, I have provided construction
consulting services to a broad spectrum of commercial clients and projects, from 500,000 square foot building renovations
for Chrysler Realty to new medical facilities for clients such as Dr. Richard Dunlap.
I understand the dollars-and-cents realities of construction costs, the pitfalls and loopholes of the bidding process
and construction contracts and the complexity of effective project scheduling and sequencing. As a member of the Construction
Specifications Institute, the Building Officials and Code Administrators Association (BOCA) and many other construction related
organizations, I have developed skills and experience that would be an asset to the School Board in helping our community
make sure we get the absolute best value for our tax dollars being spent to update our aging
school buildings.
· School Involvement. This past year, I have served
as a PTO Board Member as the School Board Meeting representative. I am also actively
involved with the teachers and students at Ferry School, serving wherever I can, from being a math lesson helper, and an on
call photographer to mentoring the students and teachers on creative fundraising projects to help make Ferry School a better
place to learn. The best references I can give you for my passionate commitment to making our schools the best they can
be for our children are the parent volunteers and dedicated teachers of Ferry School.
· Committed
to Challenging Every Child.
As a community, we have a responsibility to help every child be they best that they can be. Our resources and administration
need to be focused on giving each of our children the opportunity to push the envelope when it comes to learning and growing
as citizens. Our special needs children and our gifted children all deserve
nurturing environments that challenge them to grow beyond what is expected of them. The minute we lose focus on this goal,
and accept mediocrity from our schools or administrators, one of our children will slip through the cracks. This is not and should not be acceptable to anyone in our community.
If there was ever
a time in our community's history that a no nonsense,
construction-savvy
member of our business community should serve on our School Board, the time is now.
Vote June 9th for Business Sense on
our School Board
Phone: 313-647-0906 E-mail:
phcismail@aol.com
