Plan to ax Detroit schools rejected
26 buildings spared for now, but future closings inevitable; 1,800 layoffs threatened
March 24, 2007
The rejection of a plan Friday to close more than two dozen schools in Detroit was met with enthusiastic applause from parents, but the school board's action leaves the district's financial picture cloudy and the jobs of 1,800 employees in jeopardy.
The board voted 6-5 to reject the plan, which would have closed 26 school buildings this year and possibly nine more in 2008.
The plan was revised several times over the last two months, as district officials tried to find a set of closings that would be palatable to the community and a majority of the board.
The plan was still evolving in the hours before the meeting as the proposal offered to the board was scaled down from a plan approved by a board committee Wednesday. That one would have closed 37 school buildings this year and up to 16 in the future.
It was a contentious and emotionally charged meeting, one that erupted in a furor at one point after board President Jimmy Womack commented that many in the audience could not read a financial report. Womack later apologized for the remark, but the the meeting had to be adjourned for several minutes.
Interim Superintendent Lamont Satchel warned the board that voting not to close schools 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.
"What we're talking about is the demise of the district," Satchel said. "The financial condition of the state will not allow any savior plans."
Voting against the plan were Annie Carter, Paula Johnson, Jonathan Kinloch, Reverend David Murray, Ida Short and Marie Thornton. Voting for it were Womack, Joyce Hayes-Giles, Carla Scott, Tyrone Winfrey and Marvis Cofield.
Thornton said after the meeting that the district should wait for the July arrival of Connie Calloway, the new superintendent that the board voted to hire earlier this month, and keep working on a closings plan.
"We know there are some schools that have to close. Wait for Calloway, but have a Plan B and a Plan C there for her."
Outrage over comments
Womack suggested politics played into some board members' votes, saying some used the vote as a way to campaign for re-election. Seven members are up for re-election.
"This is an election year. ... They made statements that were absolutely not true," Womack said.
Womack was frustrated that board members -- again by a 6-5 vote -- rejected an attempt to have the board hear a presentation on the district's financial condition.
It was that effort that resulted in an exchange that had the audience in an uproar. When some suggested the audience could read the report, Womack responded: "For those who can't read it, because many can't, they deserve to see a presentation."
Womack recessed the meeting as the audience jeered and shouted in response to his remarks. He reconvened several minutes later, apologizing: "It was not my intent to insult you now or in the future."
But the board vote pleased many in the audience, who cheered and applauded.
Among them was Juanita Thompson, 14, a ninth-grader at Murray-Wright High School, where the building would've stayed open, but the Douglass Academy program would have replaced the traditional high school.
"I'm excited because we're freshmen, and I was really excited" to be a student at Murray-Wright.
Some parents saw the vote as a new beginning.
"We have another chance," said Sherrie Davis, a parent with a child at Guyton Elementary School, which was slated to close in 2008 if enrollment did not increase. "The school my child attends is still in the neighborhood. Keep the neighborhood schools open."
Reality: Some schools must close
While parents felt their schools were being saved, the reality is the district will have to close schools. Satchel said if the district doesn't comply with the deficit-elimination plan, it could be found in noncompliance and forced to pay off a $210-million loan the state allowed it to refinance in 2005.
Some suggested that a vote against closing schools would bring the district closer to a state takeover.
"Local control of our school system is in very real jeopardy," Hayes-Giles said. "Unless we eliminate our deficit, receivership is just around the corner."
Satchel said he would notify the state financial review committee about the board vote, and meet with his administration team this weekend to "evaluate where to go from here."
He said layoffs are a possibility, as is more outsourcing and privatization.
Scott, who supported the closings, said during the meeting that she didn't like the alternative -- having to lay off so many employees.
"By not realigning the schools, we are potentially laying off 2,000 people ... so we can save buildings. I think that is irresponsible."
But Carter, who rejected the closings, said the board needs a plan that does more than close schools.
"Every time we cut it's at the children's expense. ... Can we lay off some central office staff?"
Friday night's vote came after months of debate, several meetings and dozens of impassioned pleas by parents and students. It also came just hours after Satchel said he would present his own plan for closing schools, one that closed far fewer schools than the board's facilities committee approved Wednesday.
The last-minute change only added to the frustration of some parents.
"It doesn't make sense to keep messing and playing around. Now they're talking about a new list and we don't know what's going on, as parents," said Samuel Ivory, who has children attending Hutchinson Elementary -- which would have stayed open under the plan rejected Friday -- and children at Joy Middle School, which could have closed under the plan.
Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 586-469-4681 or pwalsh@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2007 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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