Schools plan could change
Board member may switch vote, reversing decision
March 25, 2007
A close vote by Detroit school board members to reject a plan to close more than two dozen schools could be reversed as early as the next board meeting April 4.
That's when board member Jonathan Kinloch said he could change his "no" vote.
Kinloch said Saturday that discussions with school district staff after Friday night's 6-5 vote could lead him to change his vote if staff members make changes to the proposal. He declined to say what the changes could be. Parliamentary procedure rules allow members on the winning side to reintroduce a defeated measure.
"If some of the things that were discussed last evening become permanent, there's a possibility I could change my vote," Kinloch said.
Before Friday's vote, interim Superintendent Lamont Satchel warned the board that voting against school closings would require the district to lay off 1,800 employees and could put it in conflict with a state-mandated deficit-elimination plan that calls for closing 50 schools by 2010.
Most board members, including Kinloch, agree schools need to be closed. After all, the district has 119,000 students -- about 60,000 fewer than a decade ago. And the district has to repay a $200-million loan taken out to fend off a deficit.
The question is which schools should close. Lobbying before Friday's vote was intense by board members, parents, teachers, clergy, local businesses and community groups.
"Everybody lobbies," said board member Carla Scott, who voted to close schools.
Board member Tyrone Winfrey said he received many e-mails from people wanting to save schools, but he also voted to close them.
"What I felt was that people were passionate about their schools," he said.
Board member Annie Carter and six other board members are up for re-election in August. Carter said people were so opposed to closing schools that voting for the proposal could have cost her and other board members the election. She voted not to close schools.
"There were board members trying to figure out how the vote would go," Carter said. "They saw the handwriting on the wall. If we voted the way the district wanted us to go, we would have been voting ourselves out of office."
The same would be true, she said, if the board leaves the decision up to the incoming superintendent, Connie Calloway, who arrives July 1. "She would be doomed as well," Carter said.
Carter favors a solution that would phase in school closings by pinpointing what schools would close in future years.
Voting against the plan were Kinloch, Carter, Paula Johnson, the Rev. David Murray, Ida Short and Marie Thornton. Voting for it were Scott, Winfrey, the Rev. Jimmy Womack, Joyce Hayes-Giles and Marvis Cofield.
Meanwhile, many parents are in limbo.
"It doesn't make any sense," said Samuel Ivory, who has children at Hutchinson Elementary and Joy Middle School, both of which had been considered for closing at some point. "I don't know what they're planning to do. They might close eventually. But it's sad the way they keep playing with parents and students."
Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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