Pontiac schools have a new special education leader after a two-year search..

On Monday night, Tyria Butler was hired by the school board by a 5-1 vote to supervise the special education department. Trustee G. Kevin Gross was absent and Trustee Jennifer Dooley voted against approval.

The annual salary for the position, $103,259, is covered through federal IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) funds and will not come from the district’s general fund budget. Her salary will be pro-rated from May 3 to June 30, 2025, the end of the current school budget. Butler will be up for renewal as part of the overall 2025-26 budget to be voted on before July 1.

Butler was a special education supervisor in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn., for six years and spent the first part of this school year in Clarenceville, Mich., schools.

“I come with experience and I am excited to be here,” said Butler. “I am excited to come in here and do what needs to be done.”

“We are dealing with layoffs and now we are trying to hire,” said Dooley, in voting against Butler’s hiring. “I’m in a quandary. I’m not sure if we have aligned our resources with the needed personnel.”

Interim Superintendent Kimberly Leverette explained the importance of the position.

“This is a situation where we are in desperate need of staying in compliance as it relates to student IEP’s (Individualized Education Plan) and the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) act as a whole,” she said.

She added, “This has been marked and posted for over two years.”

Jennifer Parker has been interim supervisor.

“I do support that we do need this position, but it comes with uncertainty as we are laying people off and we don’t yet know what our budget will look like,” said Trustee Tanisha Miller. “So my concern is how can we comfortably bring somebody else new on, but then lay people off. To me it is kind of a double standard.”

Proposed layoffs and personnel eliminations were sent out by the district in March and include the chief of security, transportation coordinator, 19 substitute teachers and 15 custodians. Proposed layoffs also include instructional coaches, behavior intervention specialists, security coordinators, as well as math, science and literacy supervisors.

A rollback of federal ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funds was among the reasons given for the proposed cuts.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to come through and be able to call many, if not all, of our staff back,” Leverette said.

“Everyone in the district has had to take a hard look at the numbers and how they have to change for the future due to the unexpected drastic funding cuts that are coming our way in the immediate future,” said board President Anisha Hannah.