On March 17, 2022 teachers will gather from Grand Haven High Area Public School (GHAPS) buildings for their 4th Professional Development (PD) Day of the 2021-2022 school year. The featured speaker is Deanna Rolffs who has been written about extensively on Restore Ottawa for her far-left ideologies. This will be the 4th time she has facilitated training for the teachers but not the last. In all, she will have talked to our teachers five times. This contract was obtained through a FOIA request. It was discovered she has been hired to do five, 60-minute talks and her contract is worth $34,500. [1]
On March 1, 2022, Mary Jane Evink, the Executive Director of Instructional Services, wrote an email that reached the entire GHAPS community. In it, she wrote:
GHAPS hired Design Group International process consultants to guide us, and unlike traditional consultants who are hired to bring knowledge, process consultants pay attention to an organization's goals and help them progress towards them. [2]
It is very telling that in an email to the community, Deanna Rolffs’ name is not even mentioned when she is the focus of the contract and the primary contact:
The contract goes on to state that Deanna will: “serve as the consultant, co-planner, thought partner and facilitator” and “support Mary Jane to co-plan and co-create a scope and sequence for the DEIB team”. In fact, she is mentioned more than 10 times with various roles and her resume is included in the contract. The question that is left is why wasn’t Deanna Rolffs’ name given to the community and what do we know about Design Group International?
On, November 17, 2021, Deanna posted on social media that she started a new job at Design Group International:
Many people congratulated her on the position. The below comment and Rolffs’ response show her opinions of this company:
Deanna Rolffs replied to her friend that Design Group International—and the company GHAPS is touting for their expertise—is “a predominantly white organization, there’s a lot of work to do!” This statement elicits a lot of questions. It is unclear if she was hired to bring assistance to Design Group International in their own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs or if she was hired as one of their consultants to provide services. She herself says she is a “a white woman”. [3] It is ironic, then, that she says there is a lot of work to do because the company is already “predominantly white”. Her superiority is showing for all to see. How does this viewpoint towards a company translate to her other views, and is this what GHAPS teachers need for professional development? In the end, this company she works for and lambasts, is the company that is being used for GHAPS Professional Development days.
In light of this, it would be wise to consider some of these questions going forward. What other options were available for the Professional Development Day contract? Who chose Deanna Rolffs and if it was one person, did they consult with anyone else on her merits? Was the Board of Education consulted to help choose the speakers and plans for these important days? Going forward these questions need to be answered and the Board should be involved to better represent a diversity of thought and representation.
Endnotes
[2] Email from Mary Jane Evink, GHAPS Instructional Services Newsletter 3.1.22
[3] Powerful Women: Let's Talk, Deanna Rolffs, https://www.wgvunews.org/podcast/powerful-women-lets-talk/2021-09-13/powerful-women-lets-talk-055-deanna-rolffs