Wife joins husband on Eastpointe Board of Education

EASTPOINTE — As Jon Gruenberg begins his 20th year on the Eastpointe Community Schools Board of Education, his partner in life — wife Cassie Gruenberg — literally will be right by his side.

Cassie just began her first-ever term on the seven-member school board.

Voters elected Cassie to the school board in an uncontested election Nov. 8 along with Addie Richardson and Chineva Early, who was reelected. The terms are for four years.

Cassie decided to run for school board after she met district Superintendent Christina Gibson at a fundraiser last year. When she told Jon she was running for public office, “I was kind of surprised at first,” he said. “Are you serious? I was kind of shocked.”

But once the idea settled in, “he was all for it,” Cassie said.

Although they are married to each other, they will both have their own voices on the board.

“We don’t agree on everything,” Cassie said.

“We have strong differences from time to time,” Jon said. “I think it’s important you have different ranges of opinions. We’re both opinionated. Anyone in our household knows that.

“Somebody asked me, ‘Are you going to have a problem with this?’” Jon said. “I said no. She has access to the same things. Just the other day, she said, ‘I’ve got to do my studying.’ She’ll read it, and I’ll read it. Then we’ll go to the board table to vote on it.”

Jon and Cassie have known each other just over 40 years. They met in the summer of 1982 at the Taco Bell at Nine Mile and Kelly roads. The couple had an almost Valentine’s Day wedding. They married Feb. 13, 1986, at the 37th District Court of Michigan in Warren.

“We got married on Friday the 13th,” Cassie remembered. And instead of snow, it rained.

The Gruenbergs have deep roots in the community. Cassie’s grandfather’s sister graduated from East Detroit High School (now Eastpointe High School) in the late 1920s.

Cassie is a 1982 Roseville High School graduate while Jon was a member of the East Detroit High School Class of 1978. His mom and her siblings also earned their diplomas from EDHS.

When Jon and Cassie married, they only looked at three houses — all of them located in Eastpointe, which at that time was known as East Detroit.

Prior to being elected to the school board, Cassie was very active in the Parent Teacher Organization at Woodland Elementary School. The school’s principal, Lois Johnson, was someone Cassie always admired.

“I attribute a lot of my success to Dr. Lois Johnson,” Cassie said. “It was just a great atmosphere for six years.”

“She knew all the kids,” Jon said. “All the kids would come up to her.”

Over the years, raising their four children — three sons and one daughter — kept them busy.

“There were so many sports,” Cassie said.

Now they are grandparents to five grandchildren, with two of them attending school in the district.

This isn’t the first time two Gruenbergs have been on the school board at the same time. Their son, Jon, served one term on the school board in the 2010s alongside his dad.

“That was kind of unique. He was youthful. He had a different viewpoint on things,” Jon said of his son. “I could tell he did his research. He was serious about it.”

Rounding out the school board are Robert Roscoe, Edward Williams and Mary Hall-Rayford

“The board is very engaging,” Jon said. “We do stuff in unity. We’re on a good path.”