Leading with Love

Sitting around a big table at prominent author and activist Grace Lee Boggs’ house, an intergenerational group of students, activists, and organizational leaders grappled with the purpose of education in their city. Spurred by those conversations, Putnam, Rosman, and Teachworth founded a school where their children and neighborhood children can receive an excellent, caring education. A place where achievement is not standardized tests and grades, but rather children finding their own purpose through education.

“Grace challenged us to think that way. She challenged us to think beyond what we even believe is possible. Because when things become difficult, the tendency is to default to what you know. And what we know hasn't worked in the past for the majority of kids, so we had to push ourselves to see new ways of being educators,” Rosman said.

In 2013, the James and Grace Lee Boggs School officially opened its doors to 30 kindergarten through 4th grade students. Julia and Marisol became the school’s principal and programming director, respectively. Rosman, a graduate of the third cohort of the SOE’s Elementary Master of Arts with Certification program, left teaching after 11 years to manage the new charter school’s operations as executive director.

“I just love having the role of being able to make sure the doors stay open so that the teachers and other administrators can do the magical side of the work in the classroom and community,” she said.

Like most schools, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Rosman and her co-founders to rethink school operations. But it also allowed them to fulfill the long-term goal of securing a larger, permanent home for the school. The new building sits on two and a half acres and is double the size of their former location, allowing them to have separate classrooms for each grade and share a future garden and playspace with the community.

“It just feels really magical that, after 12 years of looking, we found our perfect building,” Rosman said. “We all say this is the building we would pick, if we had our first choice.” The new building is especially significant because it is three blocks away from James and Grace’s historic home—the birthplace of the school—and now the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership.

An ongoing challenge for the school, however, is managing demographic shifts. In Michigan, any student in the state can apply for admission to a charter school. While 94 percent of students qualified for free or reduced lunch in the first year, that number is closer to 65 percent today. The school is also increasingly serving students from wealthier areas of Detroit and outside of the city more than it did at its inception. School administration previously advocated for prioritizing neighborhood children in admissions at the place-based school, but they were met with strong opposition.

“We are kind of left to figure this out on our own, and we have not figured out a way to do this beyond just being really transparent about what we're trying to do with families who are considering applying. And so it's tricky, it's really tricky,” Rosman said. This challenge, like those before it, exemplifies the relationship Rosman has with the city of Detroit. “Grace used to sign all her letters and work with ‘in love and struggle.’ That's kind of the relationship we have with Detroit—love and struggle. It can be a really challenging place, and it can be a really amazing, loving, interconnected and rewarding place at the same time.”