Flint School District Debt

The Flint School District is officially facing a $4 million deficit. Sounds bad, but it's actually much worse than that. Blake Thorne of mlive reports that an audit recently revealed that the district is really $11 million in the red.

The budget for the Genesee Area Skill Center is, and has for years, concealed a larger deficit in the district's K-12 general fund, said several board members and Mike Frawley of Yeo & Yeo, the accounting firm which conducted the audit.

The GASC is a vocational program operated by the district but serving students throughout the county and operating as a separate school. 

However, Frawley said, the state considers the deficit to be $4 million and the GASC budget has been allowed to be included in the general fund for more than 30 years.

"We're lying to ourselves," said board member Vera Perry. "We have to stop lying to ourselves and face it head on."

Board member Isiah Oliver agreed, saying the district has to face the deeper structural problems of an $11 million shortfall.

"I'm bothered, not as much at the $11 million, but by the fact that I'm digging to get someone to say that's the reality," Oliver said. "If that's the case, let's just deal with it."

Tough Decisions on Flint School Closings

It appears the only thing tougher than actually closing schools in Flint is deciding which schools to close.

Blake Thorne of The Flint Journal reports on a meeting between parents and school board members last week to discuss various options:

One of those proposals included moving all high school students to two buildings.

The other included a system of all three high school buildings operating as grade 7-12 schools.

Both plans initially included closing Bunche, Carpenter Road and Summerfield elementary schools along with McKinley Middle School and Zimmerman Center, which houses Mott Adult High School.

Under one of the plans, all middle school students would move to the building that houses Southwestern Academy and Classical Academy, with those students moving to Northern High School.

That means Southwestern and Classical would still exist as the programs they currently are, but would operate as programs within Northern High School rather than having their own building.

The other plan calls for moving all secondary schools to the 7-12 grade configuration for all three high school buildings.

Plans, especially at the elementary level, have been changing and evolving, board and administration members told the crowd.

For example, closing Carpenter Road was abandoned after an outcry of community members complained there would be no elementary in a large area of the city. The plan became to close Pierce Elementary instead, but the board seems to have abandoned that idea as well.

School Board Spending

Kristin Longley of The Flint Journal investigates how Genesee County school districts are spending money, and the results raise more than a few questions:

Most local school districts are slashing their budgets this year, but none more so than the Flint School District which is closing schools to deal with a projected $19-million deficit.

Just weeks after declaring a fiscal crisis in November, five school board members and the superintendent went on the five-day trip to Atlanta that cost more than $9,000 to attend the National Association of Black School Educators conference.

Flint school board President Vera Perry said members of the board travel to conferences out of state to gain insight on and meet with officials at urban districts similar to Flint. As for in-state expenses for board certification classes, Perry said those are extremely valuable.

"That's to improve the board," she said. "Those are educational classes."

She said she does not think five board members is too many to send to an out-of-state conference. The district also receives grant funding for some travel.

"You want the board to be as educated as possible," she said.