cal education and a flag raising every
morning.”
In 1969, he was promoted to staff
coordinator at Williams Elementary,
assigned to encourage black teachers to
consider administrative positions.
By 1975, he was an assistant principal
at Burns School, where there were other
Jewish staff members and, in 1985, he
moved to Harding Elementary-Middle
School as assistant principal. “I had a
good relationship with students at all
times,” he says, but remembers several
unsettling instances. One evening he was
teaching driver’s education at Cody High
School when four gang members from
the Herman Gardens public housing
project, armed with a gun and a knife,
came in because they wanted to take
over the class. Kowalsky spoke to them
calmly and they eventually left.
Kowalsky also recalls incidents when
supplies were delivered and logged in
at his various schools, but disappeared
before reaching the classroom. He retired
in 1991 and enjoys “bumping into alum-
ni who are teachers, an engineer and an
assistant bank branch manager.”
Joan Frederick, 73, of Farmington
was one of the few African American
teachers at Burns while Kowalsky was
assistant principal. The student body and
staff were predomi-
nantly white in 1970,
when she started
teaching, without
any racial problems.
Frederick met and
became lifelong
friends with a Jewish
Joan Frederick
teacher, Sharon
Vanhees, who lives in
Florida.
“Burns started out as a really good
school, and some teachers brought their
own children there. We scored well on
tests,” Frederick recalls. However, as
the school system underwent changes,
she felt that Burns started to decline.
Abandoned houses started to appear
in the neighborhood and teachers’ cars
were being stolen. She retired in 2003.
She and her husband lived near the
school initially. When the neighbor-
hood became mostly black, she said that
“it didn’t really bother me.” However,
Frederick and her husband eventually
left their starter home for nicer neigh-
borhoods and larger homes farther
north and west in Detroit. They moved
to Farmington in 1987, when her
husband became dissatisfied with city
services.

Commerce to administer. Kathleen
Straus was hired to work on the “Keep
Improving Detroit Schools” campaign,
which won, as did several millages
during the 1970s. However, Detroit’s
eroding tax base was reducing millage
revenues.
The school system’s lack of resources
became more evident during the
1970s. Ellen Offen, 68, of Ann Arbor
taught at Cooper Elementary from
1970 to 1975.
“Schools were
legally obligated to
provide free sup-
plies, which previ-
ously the students
had to purchase,”
Offen says. “It was in
a neighborhood that
Ellen Offen
was having chal-
lenges. There was no
playground equip-
ment, and there were 37 to 40 students
in the first and second grades. The
teachers all got along.”
She does recall a parent stating
that he was a member of the Black
Panthers and distrusted white people
although no problems resulted from
that.
Adam Harris, who attended Cass
Technical High School from 1988
through 1992, was one of a handful of
Jewish students at the time. He said
that only about 5 percent of the stu-
dent body was white, but that every-
one got along.
“The white students didn’t want to
be an isolated band,” he said, so they
actively sought friendships with the
black students. Virtually all of the
white students attended college pre-
paratory classes, which were separate
from the vocational/technical pro-
gram that was “100 percent African
American and Hispanic,” he recalls.
Prior to Cass, Harris attended Hillel
Day School in Farmington Hills,
and his fellow Hillel graduates went
on to high schools mostly in West
Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills. He
said that people expected he would
encounter gangs, drugs and violence at
Cass, but that was not the case. In fact,
Harris claims, there were more drugs
at suburban schools.
He said that Cass prepared him well
for U-M, where he “hit the ground
running.”
Today, Harris is a lawyer with the
Department of Justice in Washington,
D.C.

DECLINING DPS RESOURCES
By the mid-1960s, DPS had failed to
secure passage of several school mill-
ages and a 1966 millage campaign
was turned over to the Chamber of

TEACHERS FACE BIAS
During the late 1990s, some Jewish
DPS teachers began experiencing
unpleasant and sometimes dis-
criminatory treatment. Teacher Ruthe

PICK A CLASS
THAT’S RIGHT
FOR YOU!

Unless otherwise noted, classes will be held at the
Max M. Fisher Federation Building
6735 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Hills

That Was Then, This is Now…

Rabbi Eliezer Finkelman
Using Jewish “wisdom” from the past we will explore
relevant and timely topics of our day.

Fridays | 11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. starts Oct. 14

Sephardi Life Then and Now

Rabbi Michael Cohen
Explore the rich heritage and traditions of the
Sephardic people.

Wednesdays | 7 – 8:30 p.m. starts Oct. 26

Exploring the Psalms

Rabbi Joseph Klein
Examine Psalms with a focus on structure, word-play and
literary sophistication.

Wednesdays | 7 – 8:30 p.m. starts Oct. 26

The Sacred Jewish Spiral of Time

Facilitated by Sue Salinger
Hands-on workshop with Hazon Detroit on
re-imaging nature-based holiday practices.

Wednesdays | 7 – 8:30 p.m. starts Oct. 26
Location: Yad Ezra

Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed

Rabbi Joseph Klein
An examination of selected readings from
Maimonides’ Guide.

Mondays | 7 – 8:30 p.m. starts Oct. 31

Jewish Heretics and Heresies

Dr. Justin Sledge
Investigate the lives and works of Judaism’s most
infamous troublemakers.

Mondays | 7 – 8:30 p.m. starts Oct. 31

The Hillel Challenge

Rabbi Tzvi Muller
Learn how rituals can empower us to be better, kinder
and more ethical people.

Tuesdays | 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. starts November 1

For the complete catalogue of FedEd classes
go to jewishdetroit.org/feded
or call 248-205-2557

2129870

continued on page 16

October 13 • 2016

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