Another Quiet Board Meeting

This time in Detroit. The scale is larger, but there's just as much fun.

"It's gonna hurt": DPS school board OKs massive budget cuts
by: Minehaha Forman
Wednesday (07/02) at 15:23 PM

Angry mood at meeting

A buzz of anxious voices carries through the crowded auditorium of Martin Luther King High School in Detroit. It's 6 p.m. on Monday, time to start the last Detroit Public School (DPS) board meeting before the proposed budget for the 2008-2009 school year is voted on and submitted to the state, but there's one problem: The budget has not arrived.

When the meeting finally begins at 6:40 p.m. without copies of the budget, many are not shy about vocalizing their frustrations. There are shouts from the crowd, demanding to see the budget. About 10 DPS security and Detroit police officers with watchful eyes line the walkways leading to the door. One man who is referred to as "Elder" goes up as the meeting begins and asks School Board President Carla Scott to change the order in which the meeting will be conducted so that action items, or issues the board would vote on, would come after they heard public comments, not before. Scott said she heard him but called one of the DPS security officers to remove him from the microphone.

Within the first five minutes of the meeting, it became clear that there was a split in the audience between the more reserved supporters of Scott and Superintendent Connie Calloway and those who were vocally opposing them by shouting insults even as they spoke. Board members Marie Thornton and Tyrone Winfrey -- the two who voted down the budget -- seemed to be more in the protesters' favor.

But one woman felt there was no escaping tough times ahead for DPS no matter who was in charge. "It's gonna hurt. It's not gonna be pretty," Maureen Stapleton said about fixing DPS' plight. "I think [Calloway is] doing the best job she can do with the situation. But there are people throwing bombs at her, keeping information from her so nothing gets done."

The school board voted 9-2 Monday night to approve a budget proposal calling for $500 million in cuts for 2009 and 2010, including more than 1,700 layoffs, seven school closures, and delaying contractual pay raises for union and non-union workers. The board faced a record $400 million budget deficit for this year and next.

State legislators have been watching DPS, too. Over the weekend, the Michigan Senate passed a resolution for a state investigation of DPS finances after reports of questionable money management. Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) sponsored the legislation and has been criticized by community leaders and Senator Irma Clark-Coleman (D-Detroit) for "plotting" to dismantle public education in Detroit.

DPS officials project enrollment to drop this fall to 98,356, a record low that would take away DPS' first-class title and with it the state limit for the number of charter schools that can open in the district. Under current law, a first-class district is defined as having enrollment over 100,000 and is qualified the for extra funding of more than $15 million annually. More charter schools would make the enrollment drop for DPS even more steeply, and further stretch the deficit, leaving DPS in a grim situation. In fact, some are speculating that it could mean a dissolution of public education in Detroit.

One parent was very upset about the whole situation. "[The government is] dismantling public education," said the parent who did not wish to give her name. "It's happening all over the country. They're closing schools because of so-called deficits." She sighed and put her hand on her forehead, then continued in a softer voice, "No one cares about the children."

The revised budget met some criticism from the two board members who voted not to approve it. "Why is the state beating up on Detroit?" Thornton asked, to some cheers from the audience. "Birmingham, Benton Harbor … these school districts are in debt. No one is threatening to shut off the lights on them. This is a scare tactic, this is racism," Thornton said.

Throughout the meeting, Connie Calloway hardly spoke. She observed the proceedings and interjected when she needed to answer a question. For the most part she simply nodded or shook her head. Most of the hostility in the audience was directed at Carla Scott and Joyce Hayes-Giles.

Ruby Johnson, a teacher at Marquette Middle School, felt there was something missing in the board's discussion. "The children are my main concern with all of this. Students are getting lost in this. We need a corporate person who knows about money to take over the money so that the superintendent and the school board focus on the children."

Another concern in the meeting was the proposal to cut out social workers and school psychologists from DPS and "outsource" the jobs to a third-party agency, leaving no social workers in schools. The council voted down this strategy to loud applause.

"If you look around you'll see the loud people are the ones that get attention," said parent Steve Perkins, who sat listening quietly throughout the entire meeting. "This meeting is tame compared to the last one. Usually the police have to take somebody out."

Standing outside after the meeting, one laid-off teacher was sharing his frustrations with other DPS workers. When asked if he was content with how the meeting went, he responded quickly, "I'm never happy with anything they do. Everything is political."