Board member says review team violated Open Meetings Act
Today, newly-minted Emergency Manager Jack Martin had his first day on the job. To celebrate the occasion, school board secretary Robert Davis asked a Lansing judge to issue a temporary restraining order, halting Martin from taking over.
A Highland Park school board member is asking a judge to void the recommendations of a state-led financial review team that resulted in the appointment of new Emergency Manager Jack Martin for the district.Robert Davis, board secretary of the Highland Park School District, filed the emergency request Monday before Ingham County Judge William Collette, who will decide Feb. 8 whether to issue a temporary restraining order against the review team, Gov. Rick Snyder and state education Superintendent Mike Flanagan.
In the filing, Davis said the review team violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by holding private meetings, failed to post public notices for those meetings and failing to keep meeting minutes.
A Highland Park school board member is asking a judge to void the recommendations of a state-led financial review team that resulted in the appointment of new Emergency Manager Jack Martin for the district.
Robert Davis, board secretary of the Highland Park School District, filed the emergency request Monday before Ingham County Judge William Collette, who will decide Feb. 8 whether to issue a temporary restraining order against the review team, Gov. Rick Snyder and state education Superintendent Mike Flanagan.
In the filing, Davis said the review team violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by holding private meetings, failed to post public notices for those meetings and failing to keep meeting minutes.
This is the first such attempt since Governor Rick Snyder took office. I have been critical of Davis in the past because of his effort to unseat Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts simply because he took his oath of office a few weeks late. This effort, however, may have a bit more validity.
The school district has been fighting tooth and nail to control its own destiny. They believe the state has made things more difficult for them and is not helping at all.
“The district does have a plan to alleviate the crisis — it’s called a Deficit Elimination Plan and it gives us targets to accomplish over a four-year period,” said Randy Lane, financial director for the district. He testified before state treasury officials and members of an independent review team, which determined a financial emergency exists at HPS.“An emergency manager is not needed in Highland Park Schools,” Lane testified. “We have a competent staff that reflects the community that can solve problems.”
Lane said the state has been well aware of financial problems in the district dating to 2007, and district officials have reduced the budget by 48 percent since 2009.
But over the last year, Lane said the state chose to use “a heavy hand” with the district, pulling money back when enrollment came in lower than projected, denying a request to defer state aid to avoid cash shortages and losing federal dollars. Those actions created some of the district’s cash shortfalls, he argued.
“But no matter how hard we tried, the state decided not to work with us,” Lane said.
As I have said before, Highland Park schools’ problems are not primarily the result of mismanagement or corruption:
This situation is not primarily the result of mismanagement, it is the result of the fact that HPS student population has plummeted from around 3,000 to just over 1,000 in the past six years. Every student lost is money to the district lost and that is why they are struggling. Governor Snyder’s answer is to shove the elected officials aside to come in and run things their own way which will surely include outsourcing everything not nailed down and eviscerating the collective bargaining agreements of teachers and other school staff.Can someone please alert the tea party? I think we have a Nanny State clean up in aisle two.
Never a dull moment in Michigan these days, that’s for sure.
