By Tom Tolen / news@whmi.com


The Brighton Area Schools will soon be looking for a new assistant superintendent for labor relations and personnel.

Sharon Irvine, who has been in that position in the Brighton Area Schools for a year and a half, confirmed at Monday night’s virtual Board of Education meeting that she will be leaving soon to become the Southgate Community Schools’ new superintendent. She will replace Jill Pastor, who is retiring after over 25 years in the district. The Southgate Community Schools Board of Education voted to hire Irvine as its next superintendent at its Nov. 30th meeting. Irvine told WHMI she will start her new position on Jan. 4th.

Irvine assumed her current post in Brighton on July 1st, 2019, replacing Greg Gray, who had held the dual posts of superintendent and human resources director. When she came aboard to head human resources, it freed up Gray to devote more of his time to his main job as superintendent. Irvine came to Brighton from the Warren Consolidated School District, where she was assistant superintendent, chief operating officer and human resources director for six years. Four out of those years in Warren, the Ypsilanti resident was also president of the Ypsilanti Board of Education. Before that, she was assistant superintendent for human resources in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and a building principal there, as well as in Plymouth.

It’s no secret that Irvine has been seeking a higher position in a school district. She was a finalist in 2013 for the superintendent’s position in Tecumseh and a candidate for superintendent in Livonia two years later, in 2015. Most recently she was one of three finalists for the position of Brighton superintendent — the board ultimately settling on Matthew Outlaw for the job earlier this fall. Irvine said, in her words, “It is the right time in my career to take on the superintendent’s role, and I’m exited to take on the (responsibility).”

Irvine continued that she has “the utmost respect for the (Brighton) staff and board. “Brighton has been such an outstanding district,” Irvine said, "…and you have some great things ahead,” Board Vice President Alicia Reid told Irvine that her “grace and professionalism just made all the difference,” perhaps referring in part to her position as the district's chief negotiator during the difficult contract discussions with the teachers’ union which led to a recent agreement.

According to the professional networking service Linked in, Irvine has a law degree from Wayne State University and is a candidate for a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Administration from Eastern Michigan University. At last report, she was also a member of the advisory board of the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.