 
Cooper
Member
Username: Cooper
Post Number: 13
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008 - 2:00 am: |    |
Detroit schools face $45M deficit
Unresolved, financial shortfall may mean state oversight of district for 2nd time in a decade.
Jennifer Mrozowski / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- The Detroit Public Schools system is facing a $45 million budget shortfall that, if unresolved, could potentially put the 106,000-student district under state oversight for the second time in a decade.
Superintendent Connie Calloway, who could not be reached for comment, is expected to announce the shortfall today at a press conference.
Board member Marie Thornton said the district might not be capable of shoring up its finances.
"I project there will be a deficit if we are not able to relieve the general fund expenditures from other sources, like special education funding," Thornton said. "This lets me know Dr. Calloway is not able to manage a school district this large, and she continues to point fingers at the past administration."
Failure to address the shortfall could put the district in default of a state-mandated plan to erase a $210 million debt and, possibly, in receivership. The district, which has a $1.2 billion budget, last was in a deficit in 2004, necessitating the refinancing of long-term bonds. To avoid a deficit now, the district must find ways to cut expenses or use money from other funding sources -- a tall order six weeks before the end of the fiscal year.
District spokesman Steve Wasko would not confirm the budget shortfall late Thursday. However, he said that if the district's financial situation changed at any point, the school system would follow a process mandated by the state to adjust its deficit elimination plan.
Calloway, who took the reins of the district in July, announced in December that the district was facing a $20 million deficit. At the time, Calloway said she discovered numerous expenses were not accounted for in the last budget year.
The unbudgeted items included: more than $1 million needed to pay for required background checks for 16,000 school employees; a $5.9 million penalty the state levied on the district because its "last chance" schools didn't meet teacher hiring regulations; and $8 million that should have been set aside last year for school realignment and closing expenses.
Board member Jimmy Womack said he has raised concerns for months about the possibility of ending the year in a deficit.
"I had some concerns that perhaps we had not adjusted our expenditures to reconcile them with our loss in revenues," Womack said. However, he said he has confidence in the superintendent and her team that they will resolve the issues.
To stay in compliance with its Deficit Elimination Plan and avoid possible interruption in State School Aid funding, the district has to notify the state of the pending deficit and attain approval of a revised Deficit Elimination Plan. Once the plan is approved, financial reports must be submitted for approval on a monthly basis.
The Council of Great City Schools, a Washington, D.C.-based organization representing 66 of the nation's largest urban public school systems, advised the district on its fiscal problems and is developing a review that covers areas such as finances, technology, instruction, facilities and organizational structure. The final report is expected in June, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council.
"The department commends the superintendent for commissioning this independent audit and for her leadership and commitment to financial transparency," said Michigan Department of Education spokeswoman Jan Ellis.
Calloway has said she has been wrestling with the district's financial woes from the start of her tenure. In October, she proposed a reorganization of central office staff to save the district about $1 million. She said at the time that the district was required to reduce central office staff as part of its state-mandated Deficit Elimination Plan.
Despite the ballooning budget shortfall, Calloway announced in March that the district would put on hold plans to close eight school buildings. According to a report assessing the impact of the closures, the school system lost $11.3 million in state funding this year after more than 3,000 students went missing from the 33 schools closed last year. The additional loss of students from more closures, as well as the expense of shuttering the eight schools, would have eroded any expected savings to just $700,000, the report concluded.
Detroit Public Schools also suffered a 12,000-student enrollment drop this year, which will amount to a $90 million loss in state aid next year. |
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 1022
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008 - 11:46 am: | |
Wonder what the city deficit is? |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7360
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008 - 11:57 am: | |
Once the EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS popping up like mushrooms. Parents will send their children to those schools. EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS have the best qualified academic surplies for every student plus they get more private and state grants. Early EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS when it used to be illegal was founded and funded by various colleges and universities and it gained lots of student enrollments.
By 2002 The Charter School bill was passed allowing public school districts to share their federal grants with various charter schools. While Detroit Public Schools and other school districts were suffering with union strikes, outdated textbooks, class sizes, more benefits. EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS recieve a sudden student enrollment boom. EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS are here to stay and DPS and other public and private schools must compete or perish. |
Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher
Post Number: 1285
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 6:46 am: | |
Danny: DPS has a few charters (they call them academies). IF public schools aren't making the grade then parents should have the right to send their kids to schools of their choice. DPS just has to step up to the plate and stop "losing" money and filter it back to the classroom instead of having it disappear. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7363
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 10:08 am: | |
Detroitteacher,
DPS installed their own competitive charter schools after the Charter School Act of 2002 to counter act the student enrollment luring kids from EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS back to their schools. It work for some, but for for all. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 218
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 10:50 am: | |
It seems to me tht DPS has miserably failed the students. I wonder how many kids graduating from DPS could have enjoyed a better life if they had been offered a better education. While not all Charter Schools are great, many are better than lots of public schools, which tend to do little more than babysit the kids. |
Irish_mafia
Member
Username: Irish_mafia
Post Number: 1280
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 11:14 am: | |
I guess I missed the total number of students that $1.2 billion is supposed to educate, but it is probably safe to say that if you handed them a check for the school of their choice, GP Academy, Liggett, University of Detroit Jesuit, and a whole bunch of parochial schools could serve the students of Detroit significantly better.
But why let the welfare of the students get in the way of a money grab by the clowns in that school system? |
Firstandten
Member
Username: Firstandten
Post Number: 191
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 11:35 am: | |
In giving a very SMALL defense of DPS. The public school system has to accept most anybody and try to educate that person. We are talking all kinds of students with social and economic disadvantages. Your GP Academys,Liggetts and parochial schools of the world don't have to deal with those kinds of issues and the resultant behavior that goes along with it. Even the Charter schools will cut you loose after count day if they get a whiff that you're going to be a problem student. Thats why those school can educate students with a lot less money. |
Irish_mafia
Member
Username: Irish_mafia
Post Number: 1282
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 12:22 pm: | |
Understood.
Unfortunately, that argument has been used to damn the great many students that are not problem children.
Not acceptable.
Educate the educatable first. It is a sin to do otherwise. |
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 1029
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 1:37 pm: | |
DPS has used so many excuses for their not being able to do the job that maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if they gave up the ghost. How could anyone else do a worse job? |
Irish_mafia
Member
Username: Irish_mafia
Post Number: 1283
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 2:06 pm: | |
Except they won't give up. There is too much money involved.
They need to be evicted. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 223
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 4:48 pm: | |
It sounds like they really do need to be evicted. They are playing with the future of every student. It's not just Detroit, either, but it seems like Detroit has a huge problem. Don't they care about these kids? (I'm not talking about teachers, but about administrators. I have no doubt most teachers care very much about their students.)
A good educational system could mean the difference of a kid going on to college and becoming successful, or selling drugs on the street. |
Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher
Post Number: 1286
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 5:24 pm: | |
My solution would be to hand over the district to teachers that have proven themselves to care about the kids. We know how to pinch a penny and get more bang for our buck. Kids would be the priority. Most teachers I've talked to agree that central admin should take residence in one of the vacant schools (or several for easy access for parents) instead of renting multiple offices in multiple bldgs downtown. We'd filter more money into the class. We know what programs work and which don't work. We know our kids best. No one on the board or in central admin can say they know any of these kids and what works for them. In order to keep things current, rotating teachers to run the district would be necessary. Things have changed since most of these "administrators" have been in the classroom (if they've ever been in one at all)and they have unrealistic expectations of what we need to do. They tend to put a bandaid on things instead of treating the whole child.
No one would be allowed to hire any friends, family, etc. Contract bidding would have to go through the parents, other teachers, and stakeholders prior to anyone being given a contract for work. More accountability would be demanded. Ineffective teachers would be gotten rid of...every teacher doing his/her job is tired of those who don't. We need just ask the kids. They are brutally honest about good teachers (those with high expectations) and bad teachers (those who just don't give a damn). We would also get rid of those kids who continually don't follow the rules, bring weapons to school (that whole zero tolerance thing in DPS is a farce), and cause havoc in the buildings. Sending them to an alternative school would be a good idea. They only disrupt the learning for those who do want to get an education. By having teachers in control, better teachers would want to come to DPS knowing that they have a central admin that care not only for the kids but for the people in the trenches, as well.
I might be in my own little world here, but that is how I envision the district pulling itself out of the grave its dug for itself. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7364
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 6:26 pm: | |
Sometimes EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS can have the power to kick a trouble student out of their schools of they not eager to learn. EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS means business. Get an A or get out! |
Retroit
Member
Username: Retroit
Post Number: 88
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 7:22 pm: | |
Detroitteacher, you get an A+ on your description of how a school system should be run! |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 224
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 7:30 pm: | |
Detroitteacher, you have my vote! It must be very difficult to see promising students, and to see them become turned off because of the administration cretins, who apparently don't care what happens to the poor kids, as long as they get theirs. Your hands are tied now. I am hoping that won't be so in the future. You could do so much good for the kids, if given the chance. |
Firstandten
Member
Username: Firstandten
Post Number: 193
Registered: 05-2006
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 7:31 pm: | |
Here's the question Do you know of any Big city public school system that's doing a good job of educating its students?
There is a need to come up with a new model for educating the average American citizen, the one we are using is outdated. For the most part any large cities school system is nothing more than a jobs creation machine whose primary function is to keep itself going.
Regardless a certain percentage of kids will still get educated.
However a larger percentage will fall thru the cracks. If a student lacks motivation,or has poor parents the chances that student will not graduate or graduate with skills so poor he really can't do anything with them increase.
I've not done the research but I bet Detroit is not unique in the sense that the district is in debt vs comparable districts across the country. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 227
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2008 - 9:56 pm: | |
I agree, firstandten. There are a lot of taxpayer dollars spent on failed educational systems around the country.
It's time to give teachers like Detroitteacher a chance. The outmoded systems in place all over the country are not working. Instead of being last in education, my guess is Detroit could eventually lead the nation's large cities. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7365
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - 8:06 am: | |
Detroitteacher,
Be careful! Trying to pass school board powers to the teachers only can turn themselves into corrupt leaders who don't give a hoot about our kids future. There's have to be laws to promote checks and balances within the school board. |
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 1070
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - 11:59 pm: | |
It would be nice if more parents cared about their kid's education. Too often teachers don't get the backup they need. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1320
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 12:12 am: | |
Detroitteacher hit the nail on the head. I teach a lot of DPS teachers (in graduate school) and he or she knows of what s/he speaks.
I was horrified the first time I had the occasion to visit one of the "area buildings" years ago, a very plush building with all new furniture, very nice restrooms, etc., while a nearby elementary school was struggling with a leaky roof, dirt-ass-old textbooks, no chalk, and a thousand other problems brought about by neglect.
The DPS bureaucracy exists only for itself and doesn't give a flying fuck about the schoolchildren it throws under the bus every damn year. Most of the teachers and most of the principals want to do right by the kids and want them to succeed. I say blow up the structure entirely, decentralize and let each school get the funds for every child it educates, and make the whole district school-of-choice. That way the ones that do well will succeed, and the ones that do not will not, and the parents will have some kind of choice regardless of their economic situation.
And a lot of useless chaff will lose their phony-baloney jobs, not a bad side effect. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1321
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 12:17 am: | |
Oh and by the way:
1. I went to public schools all through K-12, but well-run schools, not like Detroit.
2. I know "useless chaff" as I used it is sort of redundant; I was trying to be emphatic. I would have cussed, but I already have in that post, and I only get so many swear words a day, so I don't like to waste a bunch of them in one post.
3. I exclude principals from "the DPS bureaucracy"; my definition of a school-system bureaucrat excludes anyone who actually works in a school building.
Just to clarify...
Prof. Scott |
Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher
Post Number: 1288
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 6:38 am: | |
Prof: The correct pronoun is "she"  |
Retroit
Member
Username: Retroit
Post Number: 165
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 10:54 am: | |
Danny, the time of worrying about the corruption of leaders has passed (in other words: we have them already!). It's time for a new way of doing things. I trust teachers more than bureaucrats. The "checks and balances" should be between the teachers and the parents.
But, I do support EVIL CHARTER SCHOOLS as well. |
Gaz
Member
Username: Gaz
Post Number: 265
Registered: 04-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 11:14 am: | |
Teachers have the education to make much more money with less heeadaches in another profession. Most choose not to because they really care about the kids, and what kind of future they are going to have. It sounds like they are hamstrung by egocentric bureaucrats who are either incredibly stupid, or don't care about the kids who are losing out on a decent future. Either way, the teachers deserve a chance. They are NOT stupid, and they do care about the kids' futures.
Detroit, and other rust belt cities, most especially need a good educational system to give the kids a head start. |
Kevgoblu
Member
Username: Kevgoblu
Post Number: 115
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 11:17 am: | |
My mother was a schoolteacher, and I've heard many of the same concerns you voiced about occuring in the suburban districts too. Administrators handing out contracts to friends. Principals passing failing students. Lack of administrative support to address (get rid of) disruptive kids.
Problem is, like Firstandten said, the urban districts have disproportionately high numbers of economically disadvantaged kids. And along with that usually comes parents who dont have the time or the will to get involved to promote high academic performance. So what occur on the fringes in most districts, becomes nearly mainstream in the urban district. |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 1419
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 1:29 pm: | |
Per Newspaper today it is a $400,000,000.00 deficit.
That new math they've been teaching people threw the numbers out of whack a little. What's 350 Mill? |
Higgs1634
Member
Username: Higgs1634
Post Number: 532
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 1:38 pm: | |
To echo lefty... both papers say Four HUNDRED MILLION dollar deficit..not 45 Million. WTF?
quote:Detroit Public Schools is facing a $408 million shortfall and predicts enrollment will fall below 100,000 students for the first time since the 1917-18 academic year, according to a draft budget, revealed Monday, that shows the school system's projected deficit continuing to balloon. |
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 1156
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - 2:20 pm: | |
Connie has a lot of explaining to do.
I can't see them staying in business for long. Either they fold up their tent or someone else needs to take over the mess.
You'd think some people would be going to jail if this were a real business. |
Detroitteacher
Member
Username: Detroitteacher
Post Number: 1297
Registered: 06-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - 8:38 am: | |
I'd really like to know where the money is going. We are working with bare bones staff (in the buildings), few textbooks, CC did away with all of the programs that we use (Accelerated Reader is one that was working in our building), no subs (teachers cover classes for those who are absent), horrid facilities (no heat in winter, stifling hot in summer, leaky roofs, bathrooms that don't work)...
Even with a decrease in funding from the state, I just don't see what they are doing with the money they SHOULD have had. It isn't hitting the classroom and teacher salaries and retiree benefits aren't eating away THAT much cash. |