Principal of Dexter Early Elementary Complex, Brooke Stidham, has been working in the education field for almost 20 years.
Stidham earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan, as well as her Masters degree in curriculum development. She then continued on to get her Administration degree from Eastern Michigan.
She began her career at Whitmore Lake Public Schools where she taught 7th grade math, technology and English. From there, she moved around and taught almost every grade from 1st-7th grade. After her 7 years at Whitmore Lake, she taught 1st grade at Ann Arbor STEAM.
Stidham said that she had a mentor that encouraged her to move into more of a leadership role within a school, which encouraged her to be a PBL coach for a year, and assistant principal, and eventually now the Principal of Dexter Early Elementary Complex.
About Dexter
The Dexter Early Elementary complex serves students in Young 5s-2nd grade. They have about 775 students within the building, housed in 4 different wings. They also have an Early Childhood Special Education program within the building.
Stidham’s role within the building looks a bit different each day. She said, “One of the things I really love about my job is that no day is the same. People sometimes ask ‘how many steps do you get?’. Our building is really big so somedays I feel that I am just bouncing around from class to class and supporting students.”
She also described some of the days being a bit more meeting heavy, with supporting students in a meeting for an Individualized Education Program for special education students, parent meetings and administrative staff meetings.
Stidham’s favorite parts of principal life
Stidham said, “My favorites are when I’m getting to actually work with kids, whether it’s in the classroom, or you know sometimes they’re down here for different break plans or support plans.”
Stidham continued, “It’s nice to know that you are making a direct impact on them or connecting with a family even at pick up or drop off, just to hear a small story of their success. So those are the good moments that keep us going on.”
Goals for the school
“I’ve got a really great staff here. We’ve got a lot of phenomenal teachers with a lot of experience and great support staff.” She describes how they can always rally around a student, new idea or event to make the biggest impact.
Stidham discussed two of the main goals for the school since she has been there. When she came in after the pandemic, they focused on social emotional learning. She said, “We know here that behavior is communication and every child is going to learn differently.”
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Stidham said they try to teach their students that “Mistakes are okay, we just have to work through them and problem solve and learn from them.”
They also have worked on literacy development through their new science of reading based curriculum.
Stidham’s personal life
Stidham shared that she has two older step children and a daughter who is a freshman at Dexter. She shared that she spends a lot of time driving her daughter around, because she is very active and involved. Stidman also said she enjoys spending time on their pontoon boat on the lake, kayaking, snowshoeing and overall just enjoying nature. She also enjoys to read.
Advice for transitioning families
There are a lot of transitions for students within Dexter Community Schools.
With the buildings in the district being in walking distance, Stidman discussed how they often have Mill Creek Middle School students do projects and reading buddies. Stidham said, “This helps to create a community feel … As a parent in the community I also know that we are all looking out for each other’s kids too.”
Dexter Early Elementary also does a program where they partner every 2nd and 3rd grade class together, so that they have a connection with older students when they make the transition to Wiley Elementary, the next step in their educational journey.
Stidham also talked about the transition into Dexter Early Elementary Complex. Kindergarten enrollment is coming up pretty soon, and Stidham mentioned they have many opportunities, such as a scavenger hunt and open house for parents to come visit the school and get to know the community.
She said, “There are things that parents are always worried about when they are coming in.”
She says families may wonder about such as, “Well, what if they’re not writing their name, or I don’t know if they’re ready.”
Stidham said, “There’s no checklist that we expect them to have numbers or alphabets or shapes down before they come to us. That’s our job. So we want to help support those things.”
