Hazel Park schools now have their fourth leader in the last 18 months after the school board on Monday approved a contract for an interim superintendent.
The board voted 4-3 to approve a contract to pay Griff Mills $800 per day, or $4,000 per five-day work week, in his interim role for an undetermined amount of time. The contract does not include benefits.
Vice President Deborah Laframboise, President Beverly Hinton, Treasurer Heidi Fortress and Trustee Darrin Fox voted to approve the contract. Secretary April Beaton and Trustees Monica Rattee and Nathan Becker voted against.
Laframboise said Superintendent Amy Wilcox was being held accountable for issues within the special education department, which were passed on to the Michigan Department of Education.
At a special meeting on July 22, the board voted to put Wilcox on non-disciplinary, paid administrative leave and voted to pursue Mills.
The district has had four administrative leaders since 2015, including three since January 2025:
Wilcox has been superintendent at Hazel Park since 2015. She was placed on paid administrative leave in January 2025;
Tammy McHenry, principal at Hazel Park High School, was named acting superintendent in January 2025 during Wilcox’s first administrative leave;
Catherine Cost, former Wyandotte schools superintendent, was hired as interim superintendent in February 2025 replacing McHenry;
Wilcox was reinstated to her position in May 2025;
Mills, former Taylor superintendent who left the district in August 2023, hired in July 2026 during Wilcox’s second paid leave.
In March 2026, the board voted to buy out the remaining three years of Wilcox’s contract. She declined the $996,000 offer that included salary, benefits and retirement, insurance, merit pay and vacation days.
According to 2023 data, Hazel Park is among the smallest of Oakland County’s 28 school districts ranking 23rd with 2,957 students and 21st with $53,118,772 in revenue. It’s 10th, however, with $17,964 in per student aid.
As of March 2024, according to a signed contract, Wilcox’s annual salary was $183,333.94. The contract runs through June 2029. That ranks 20th among the county’s superintendent salaries in 28 districts, based on compensation data from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
But while her salary is among the lowest compared to her peers, paying it and the daily rate of the interim replacement will add up quickly.
Roughly calculating her wages for an entire year, Wilcox earns $502 a day without considering the other compensation in the contract.
Combine the daily payouts to Wilcox and Mills and the cost to Hazel Park district taxpayers to maintain two superintendents is $1,302 a day for salary alone. The total is much higher, however, because Wilcox’s calculation only includes her salary and not the value of other compensation.
Hazel Park Superintendent Amy Wilcox remains on paid administrative leave as the school board approved a contract for an interim superintendent.
Photo courtesy HPSD
And district taxpayers could be on the hook for even more.
Sidelining Wilcox and possibly replacing her could result in attorney fees for potential future litigation, potential monetary awards following a lawsuit or settlement, a possible buyout of Wilcox’s current contract, the price of an executive search firm, other recruiting costs and a new superintendent’s salary and compensation.
As debate began Monday on the interim contract, Hinton was asked who recommended Mills for the position.
“A lot of names were thrown out when we got Catherine (Cost), and I talked to MASB (Michigan Association of School Boards),” said Hinton. “I talked to a lot of people I know and so when it came about, with this situation, I just checked to see.”
President Hinton said she kept a list of three or four names and Mills was on that list.
Mills is the former superintendent of the Taylor school district, where he served from 2020 until August 2023 when he resigned.
Secretary Beaton, who was adamantly opposed to Mills being hired after having a motion sprung on the board less than a week ago, remained skeptical.
“Mr. Mills’s last superintendent evaluation does list him as minimally effective. Mr. Mills has never been an educator,” said Beaton. “Mr. Mills was asked to voluntarily resign from his position in Taylor. And again, that was in 2023 … We received this contract 30 seconds before we were expected to vote on it.”
According to an August 2023 story published in the News-Herald, his professional experience before Taylor hired him as their top administrator included serving as athletic director and a high school assistant principal with the Ypsilanti school district. He also worked for several years in Tennessee.
Beaton also raised concerns about language in Mills’ proposed contract.
“We were ambushed at our last meeting with his name, with zero resume and zero information about him, and we now have a contract that we are going to put out into the public that very clearly states we are in the process of selecting an individual to fill the office of superintendent on a permanent basis,” she said. “We have been put on notice, our law firm has been served, we have open litigation against us already for doing something like this. We cannot vote with this language in the contract.”
Wilcox’s attorney, Heidi Sharp, notified the board at the end of the special meeting to keep all their internet searches, emails, phone records and texts.
“I’d like to place each of you on a litigation hold,” she said “I’ll be sending formal notice … but if you’re unaware, a litigation hold indicates that you need to keep all documents … as they will all be subject to litigation in the future for Dr. Wilcox.”
Trustee Becker also pointed out the problem with the contract language.
“We have a superintendent of schools that’s on paid administrative leave for the second time, and I don’t think that (language) should be in there at the very least,” said Becker. “It’s hard to function as a board when you have members coming to the table that aren’t prepared because they haven’t been given the proper information.”
The board approved the contract with the paragraph removed that stated the district is in the process of selecting a permanent superintendent.
Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said in an email the department was sent four complaints about the Hazel Park special education department.
“A single Hazel Park School Board member filed four state complaints regarding the school district’s special education programs and services,” he wrote. “Two of the state complaints did not include all the required components and were determined to be insufficient for the department to investigate.
“The department has completed its review of one state complaint and found that special education substitute teachers lacked required permits,” he wrote. “The district has until July 2027 to correct this issue. The district agreed to submit a corrective action plan.”
He said the final complaint is still being reviewed and a final decision will be made by Aug. 25.