The Flint School District has lost nearly a quarter of its students in the past several years and has closed 12 schools since 2002. Still, Chief Financial Officer Andrea Derricks said the district has too many buildings for the number of students enrolled, including:
 

• 23 elementary schools for about 7,200 students
 

• Five high schools for about 3,900 students
 

• Two middle schools for about 1,900 students

That year also saw then-Superintendent Walter Milton Jr.'s reform plan call for more administrators, she said, even though enrollment had been declining for years.

"We lost a lot of money that year and that loss compounds," she said.

Some questioned whether this should have been caught sooner. Auditor Mike Frawley told board members that "probably more should have been done" to get the $10-million deficit under control back in 2007.

"There should have been better preparation and planning," said Hector Garcia, a former Flint teacher and administrator. "Now, there should be a freeze from top to bottom."

Derricks is in the middle of reforming the district's spending procedures, which she said were too lax. Upon taking office, Thompson undid some aspects of the reform plan, such as the additional administrators. Four schools closed in May and several middle school teachers were laid off last month.

Still, more cuts are needed, although it's not clear how deep those cuts will be. Thompson will begin meeting with administrators next week to form a restructuring plan.

"It's urgent, and it has to be done this year," she said. "It's tough but we'll come through this leaner and meaner."

Recommendations for building closures will be given to the school board in December. Ira Rutherford, a former Flint schools administrator who is heading the committee, gave an interim report recently, saying Flint Central High School is in extremely poor shape and Southwestern Academy is not far behind.

Thompson said it's too soon to speculate on which buildings could be closed, since the facilities plan is still in the works.

"I'm overwhelmed with this," board member Tracey Fountain said. "How do we educate our children now to compete ... when we don't have any money?"

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On top of that, the district is looking at a multi-million dollar deficit.

"People come out in droves when we talk about school closures," Thompson said. "It's an emotional, gut-wrenching practice, but if we don't do that, we'll close everything."

The next step in determining closures could happen before the end of the month, when the facilities advisory committee is expected to release an in-depth report on the 30-plus buildings currently in use, said Ira Rutherford, former administrator and head of the committee.

Rutherford said the 20-plus members have sifted for a year through mountains of information and have worked hard to tackle an issue "fraught with financial and emotional powder kegs."

He said past decisions on closings weren't made as objectively as they could have been.

"We're hoping this report will serve as a method of looking at (the use of facilities) more objectively," he said. "It's a good report, but there might be some heavy indictments in it."

He declined to elaborate.

Ultimately, the school board will decide which buildings should be closed or consolidated. Among the criteria in the report will be building capacity, location, operating costs, condition and renovation costs. Rutherford said information on new construction also would be included, though he wouldn't comment on whether one is feasible.

Thompson was tight-lipped about which buildings could be targeted, but said closing a high school is "really possible."

None of the four schools that were closed in May -- Cummings and Gundry elementaries, Johnson AAA and Whittier Classical Academy -- were high schools, which are the most expensive to operate, Thompson said.

Central High School is the oldest, most costly and in the worst shape of the high schools in use, according to last year's facilities report.

"Realistically, Central should close and they need to get down to two high schools," said former school board member Vernon Craig, who last served in 2004. "They're going to have to whittle where there's no place left to whittle."

But Central also holds 84 years worth of sentiment among members of the Flint community, and it has a strong alumni association against its closure.

Julie Lazar Taylor, president of the Flint Central High School Alumni Association, said it's a cloudy issue.

"We understand that it is very old and needs repair, but it's a gorgeous building," she said. "My concern would be: What are they going to do with all that space there?"

When Whittier closed in May, all of its students were relocated to Central, which is right next door. Closing Central would mean another move for Whittier students, and a lot of empty brick and mortar on Crapo Street.

"I do think it's worth saving," Lazar Taylor said. "But I guess they don't see it like we do."

Craig said he hopes the school board is able to objectively assess the facilities in light of the district's urgent financial situation.

"The public always starts out by saying, 'I know you have to close schools -- but don't close mine,'" he said. "That has always been the root of the problem."

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Flint schools committee to recommend closing 17 of 35 buildings, build new schools and seek tax hike, leader says

by Joe Lawlor | The Flint Journal

 

FLINT, Michigan -- The school district would close nearly half of its buildings, build new schools and ask taxpayers to approve a hefty tax increase if Board of Education members approve the recommendations included in an upcoming report.

Details of that report won't be made available until Dec. 17.

But longtime local educator Ira Rutherford, who is heading a committee charged with deciding what to do with the district's buildings, told board members during a Saturday morning meeting that the district should go from 35 school buildings to 18.

Rutherford, former interim superintendent in Flint and former superintendent in Beecher, said a new high school and possibly a new elementary school should be constructed, and all remaining buildings should receive renovations.

The price tag: $140 million to $150 million, which would go before voters in a yet-to-be-determined millage increase.

Resident Balicia Young, who was taking her son sledding at Kearsley Park, said she's happy with the pre-school program at Eisenhower Elementary School and would hate to see it close.

"Didn't we just close a bunch of schools? This is ridiculous," Young said.

Rutherford said the report will detail different scenarios on where to house students. Two of those scenarios are:

• 14 elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools.

• 12 elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools.

He said the report won't say specifically which buildings should close, but it will rate the buildings based on their condition as evaluated by THA Architects.

Rutherford said the plan should stabilize the district's building situation for several years.

"The schools should be a beacon of stability for the students," Rutherford said.

Flint resident James Collins, who has grandchildren in Flint schools, said he doesn't like the idea of closing that many schools.

"They should have built a new Central High School 10 to 15 years ago like they said they were going to," Collins said.

Rutherford said part of the problem is that the district has not closed enough schools to keep up with its declining enrollment, resulting in Flint having too many excess schools. And, he
said, there hasn't been enough maintenance on existing buildings.

Board members realized that the big decision is going to be on in their hands laps soon.

"The ball is in our court now. What are we going to do?" said board member Fred Bashir.

Superintendent Linda Thompson said she's pleased with how the committee has done its job, as it has been studying the issue for several months.

"This is the most objective way we have gone about closing buildings," Thompson said. "They're being evaluated without emotional attachments."

Jeff Bennett, president of THA, said learning can happen even in the buildings that are in the roughest shape.

"I've visited a lot of the schools, and the teachers were in control and the kids were learning,"

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All that inaction and opposition must come to an end though, because the Flint school system no longer has any other choice. It is going to bankrupt itself if it keeps trying to carry twice as much space as it needs. It seems the district leadership understands, and has taken an important first step by appointing a committee that's giving a hard, thoughtful look to facility needs and is expected to report its findings this week. What the committee recommends will be dramatic: the closing of many schools, the renovation of others and probably the construction of a new high school. The price tag will be considerable, up to $150 million. Superintendent Linda Thompson said the committee has done a good job of separating emotion from objective analysis. Once the findings become public, the school leadership and the community must be willing to do the same. People have strong emotional attachments to their neighborhood schools, and there remains great reverence in Flint for the era when our schools set the standard for academics and innovation. But much has changed since then in Flint and in the school system, and the time has come to deal with the hard realities of today. The recommendations to be released this week will offer good guidance on how the district must position itself for the future. We encourage the community to be realistic, open-minded and supportive as the school board and administration come to terms with realities that have been long ignored and will not go away.