Dexter school board fails to listen to voters
Editor’s note: This is an edited version of a letter originally submitted by a reader to the Dexter school board prior to their meeting this past Monday.
There have been a number of newspaper articles about Washtenaw County school districts scheduling public forums and meetings to get input from residents about cost cutting. What kind of article can we read about for Dexter Schools?
Obviously it will NOT be how the district invited the community to participate this Monday, nor how the district tried to educate us about the budget revisions that the board will vote on this Monday.
When will the district address its fiduciary responsibility? Why just a few months ago you unanimously voted to approve discretionary raises for administrators that the superintendent recommended. You unanimously voted to approve a 10 percent increase to the board's line item budget, yet asked for reductions in all other departments. You intend on spending all of the millions of interest from the 2008 Millage instead of paying down the debt (I did not vote for that).
The residents of this district voted "no" on the enhancement millage. The residents of this district voted "no" on state mandated funding increases for education. Hear the messages and act accordingly.
Who amongst you will step up and be the voice that finally speaks for the voters of Dexter?
Shawn Letwin Webster Township
Comments
Salinedad
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 : 9:45 p.m.
Salinemom, Well we are making progress, it looks like you have validated the first two examples of where the Saline School Board ignored the express wishes of the community. As it relates to your last comment about weighted grades and the way the Board has handled this matter. Here are some additional facts. The survey was conducted by the High School Principal with the support of the Supt. and sent to each family in the High School. The notice was sent via distribution email and broadcast voicemail to all members of the High School distribution system. This notice was not sent to 1800 families due to multiple members of the family attending the high school. According to the Supt. and the Principal the survey was sent to 1000 families and each family used the Parent Portal sign with assigned id (used to check grades of the students by their parents)to vote to control abuse of the voting, only one vote per parent sign in access. On that basis, the numbers were actually much higher than the 15% response rate, but let's not argue about the actual response rate, but it was closer to a 50% response rate from all high school parents in the district with a 83% positive response rate to the question about weighted grades. As it relates to conversation with the community at the Policy Meeting, the Board did not engage in a conversation with the members at this meeting but it was similar to a British House of Commons session with the Prime Minister, each Board member expressed their view with each other and only during the public comment section were members of the community able to clarify with facts to the uninformed views of the various Board members. That is not a conversation with the community.... We are in agreement about the lack of pro/con conversation, the School Administration had previously rejected a recommendation from a number of parents to form a joint task force of parents, educators to investigate this matter. (similar to what Saline does for sex education, MADD and curriculum committees) So sorry the facts are not twisted, just not very positive about how the Saline School Board engages with the community they are representing nor about how they have followed the wishes of the community for many years.
SalineMom
Tue, Dec 8, 2009 : 5:32 p.m.
@Salinedad - I stand by twisted... (3) recently the School Administration did a survey of the community (it went out to the high school e-mail loop, which I will concede is part of the "community") about adopting a weighted grading system for AP and Honors classes. This survey generated a 83% positive response rate (from 313 people of about 1,800 families at the high school) to this idea only to be told by the Board (I must've missed this at a meeting - could you reference the meeting minutes) that they did not accept this vote (I guess the word vote and positive response to a survey are the same? The millage was a VOTE) and has refused to meet with interested parents to discuss this matter for over four months (wasn't the policy committee meeting in October? - two months ago? - and wasn't there discussion there?). The survey is also suspect, since it contained no mechanism to control how many times people voted, nor, in fairness, did it explain any pros and cons of the issue....twisted
Salinedad
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 : 10:56 p.m.
Salinemom, Actually the number of attendees at the Policy Meeting was attended by over 30 members of the Community who were given less than 12 hours notice of the meeting and you should know that afterward the one Board member who made this group aware of the meeting and of our right to speak at this meeting was later in trouble with her peers for making us aware of the meeting. The rest of the Board did not want to meet with the public about the question of weighted grades. In fact when this group of individuals have asked to meet with the various members of the Board to explore this topic, we have been told to sent our thought to them via email and they have refused to meet with the members of the community they were elected to serve. The 83% figure was from a survey of High School Parents and 2009 graduates and the 15% response rate is higher than most Board of Education elections and about the same as the last 2 millages. The 73% was from the District wide survey done in 2004 and was conducted by a professional hired by the School Distict to determine the community view on this topic. It was after that survey that the then Supt. announced a one year temporary program for School of Choice and commited to a resurvey the next year. This resurvey was never done. As it relates to attending Board Meetings, I have been a regular member of these sessions for over 15 years and seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the oversight of Saline Schools during this time. Those are the facts Salinemom, and those facts are not "twisted" but the actual facts to these examples. Don't believe me, then look it up at the Saline School Distict Business Office, they have the records which will validate this information.
SalineMom
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 : 10:23 p.m.
@Salinedad and #3. Maybe you missed the district policy committee meeting where about 18 or 20 parents and the policy committee had some conversation about weighted grades. In fact, a sub-committee of the policy committee has been charged to take a look at the issue. If you'd read some of the information on the district web-site you'd see that the 83% was from 313 total responses, a 15% response rate at best if you only count parents of high school students, not the entire district. I don't remember casting my vote yes/no on schools of choice - where did the 73& come from? Twisting of facts only makes your points less believable. You need to ATTEND the board meetings and get all the facts and listen to the dialog. The board minutes are not word for word and you miss some good stuff. Try it, you might like it.
Otto Mobeal
Mon, Dec 7, 2009 : 9:05 p.m.
Mr. Letwin, please go to High School and take Government again. If you do, you will learn that the School Board was voted in by the voters, and if THEY don't like the way things are handled they can vote them out. That is how we remove people who don't listen to us. I am glad that you have the time to be the lone watch dog of the school board, but most of us work and have families so don't have the time, that is why we have a representative form of government, not a direct democracy. I am sure that being a school board member is a VERY stressful job in these difficult times, while it is easy to criticise, what can we do to support them?
Steve Norton, MIPFS
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 : 11:59 p.m.
@chalkboardjoe, I can tell you why retirement contributions are projected to go up from 17% of payroll to 20%: the stock market implosion, and health care cost increases. Retirement contributions do not go into individual accounts; current contributions help maintain the system's solvency (for pensions) and pay for current benefits to retirees (for health care). The Legislature has played some games with valuing the retirement system's portfolio to skirt budget problems (most recently in 2007), but now the 2008 stock market plunge gets factored in to the 5-year rolling average and there is no way around it. When the assets of the system fall below the projected payments for current retirees, accounting rules force the system to hit school districts up for the difference. The health care portion of retirement benefits is pay-as-you-go, like Social Security. What school districts pay in is going right out the door to pay for current health benefits for seniors who are in the system. In the last year, when inflation was negative, the average cost of health insurance (in employer-based plans) still went up 5% nationally. So, the amount that districts must kick in for retiree health care goes up as well. The pension system (MPSERS) is run by a state agency, the Office of Retirement Services in the Treasury Dept., and is controlled directly by the state legislature.
chalkboardjoe
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 : 11:05 p.m.
@St. Julian Local voters in Dexter did vote on what they wanted for local school funding and voted NO on the enhancement millage and NO on the Recreation Millage. As for my assessment, the editorial I wrote and the points I brought up speak for themselves. I do not consider giving raises to administrators this past summer, nor the Board approving a 10% increase in their line item budget being a "balanced approach" to the issue of school funding. I can write knowledgeably (and spell correctly) because I was at both meetings I write about. In fact I was the only citizen in attendance both times, and oh so many other times. If you don't go, how can you "Know"? @stunhsif I commend you for starting to go to board meetings. I have been attending Dexter Board meetings since 2002, reviewed meeting minutes since 1998. It took me about 6 months of going to meetings before I got the lay of the land. Suggest you pour through the Saline webiste to look at prior board meeting minutes, agendas, etc. Also, consider going to the EducationReport.org website to read insightful articles about education issues throughout the state and sign up for their free weekly newsletter. You won't regret it. Finally start trying to figure out why teachers retirement contributions are going up 3% (17% rising to %20) over the next three years. Good luck to you! Shawn Letwin
stunhsif
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 : 10:41 p.m.
@Salinedad, Could not agree more, excellent email. David Friese and David Medley are the two you speak of. My two oldest kids are out of high school now but I have a 10th grader currently attending Saline. I have never atteneded a school board meeting but I am commited to going from here forward. Are you aware of any groups being formed to demand change at Saline Schools. We have somehow got to have a way to counter and expose the SEA to the public?
st.julian
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 : 9:09 p.m.
Mr. Letwin seems to forget that there are other voters in the district who do not agree with his assessment. I believe that the administration is listening to the all parties and taking a blance approached to the filaure of education funding controlled by the state. perhaps th evoters have to take control for scoll funding back form the state so local voters can determine the levle of school funding.
Salinedad
Sun, Dec 6, 2009 : 8 p.m.
This comment also applies to the Saline School District. Why do our School Board's think they can ignore the views of the community they were elected to serve? Why? because in many cases, these individuals work for the interests of the MEA rather than the community they were elected to serve. For example, in Saline our School Board President and Vice President are both retired School Teachers, former Union Presidents as well as MEA negotiators and they added another member of their voting block who had the SEA Vice President as her campaign treasurer. Is it any wonder why Saline did not negotiate its contract this past June, even through a simple costing of the contract would have shown that the district would become insolvent before the contract expired, unless the "enhancement millage" was passed? Since this Board leadership has taken over, the Board President regularly is rude to the public who attend Board meetings and is disrepective of his peers on the Board who may disagree with his position. Additionally, he regular posts comments that infer he is representing the position of the School Board, contray to the bylaws of the School District, without being censured for his conduct. Why? because the SEA controls the School Board. This is the same individual who thought it appropriate to work as a sub. teacher within the District while serving on the School Board. It took a opinion from the State Attorney General's office to get him to understand how he was in a conflict of interest. Who's interest do you think he represents? Not the community he was elected to serve that is for sure. In Saline, the Board has repeatedly ignored the wishes of the community. Here are three examples: (1)School of Choice - 73% of the community opposed this, it was passed as a 1 year trial with a survey of the community to be held the following year - no survey was done and the Board has quietly continued to support School of Choice contray to the expressed wishes of the Community, (2)Saline's Long Range Planning Committee recommended smaller class sizes in 2004 and recommended introducing premium sharing for teachers beginning in 2005 to cover this additional expense -Saline Teacher still pay nothing toward the cost of their health insurance premium and class sizes are 8 kids per class larger than they were in 2003, (3) recently the School Administration did a survey of the community about adopting a weighted grading system for AP and Honors classes. This survey generated a 83% positive response rate to this idea only to be told by the Board that they did not accept this vote and has refused to meet with interested parents to discuss this matter for over four months. This just shows how important it is for every parent, every student and every citizen in the area to get engaged with the community conversation and force our School Board's to be responsive to the clear message from the November vote. Our School officials need to quit passing the buck onto Lansing, quit representing the interests of the MEA, WEA and in our case the SEA, but step up and actually represent the interests of the community they were elected to serve and not the special interests of the MEA and it's affliated organizations.