Michigan School District

Rochelle Riley: Roy Roberts: Every DPS job, contract is on the line

Detroit Public Schools emergency manager Roy Roberts marched across his private conference room Wednesday morning and pointed to a whiteboard where he had drawn in black marker a chart showing the new top hierarchy for the school district.

It had only seven jobs, down from the current 30.

But we ain't seen nothing yet.

Roberts, the former General Motors executive who has been with DPS for only five weeks, said he expects to make massive employee cuts. He also plans to cancel and rebid every major contract in an effort to eliminate a $227-million deficit and run the city schools like a business -- a business that will pay dividends to the community by successfully educating its children.

Roberts, who said his prime mission is to fully educate children, said the district will keep only the number of employees it can afford, including all 4,400 teaching positions.

"We're the biggest employer in town. We need to figure out an organization structure," he said in an exclusive interview. "We're going to go through and say what's needed in every functional area and every job under that functional area. And we're going to put a name on every job. And when we run out of jobs, those left over are excess people."

Regarding contracts with DPS, he said, "a lot of people had set up a little industry inside of this company. We're going to stop it. We're going to take every contract, every major contract that is in here, and we're going to cancel it and ask people to keep working with us for 60 days. And we're going to bid it. That's the only way we'll get the best price."

The revelations came two days after Roberts joined Gov. Rick Snyder in announcing that some of Detroit's worst-performing schools would be assigned to a special statewide district to help them improve. Roberts praised Snyder for understanding that Detroit is the state's largest city and for helping people understand that Michigan cannot succeed without Detroit succeeding.

"I was a county commissioner, city commissioner and I've been a Democrat all my life," Roberts said, "and a Republican called me and said, 'Michigan runs through Detroit, and if I don't help get Detroit on the right track, then I can't reinvent Michigan. And the biggest single problem I have in Detroit is the Detroit public school system.' ... Every time we talked, it was about educating the kids first."

Snyder also announced that Eastern Michigan University had signed on as a partner in the agreement to create the Education Achievement System because the agreement needed two government entities to create a statewide one. Responding to immediate pronouncements from some EMU faculty that they would not teach in city schools as a show of support for DPS unions, Roberts said no one has asked them to.

Daily Grit by Wes Thorp: How many Michigan school districts are ...

Michigan's public schools are dependent on the state for their financial lifeblood.  It was purposefully designed that way back in the 1990's during the time of Gov. John Engler and a Republican-controlled legislature.  As our state tax collections inch back up, the present Gov. Rick Snyder and another Republican-controlled legislature has denied school district funds they need to maintain.

Take this example of the L'Anse Creuse School District in Macomb County just north of Detroit.  According to Capitol Confidential by the Mackinac Center, the school district's administrators are projecting severe financial deficits for the next few years.  If they can't eliminate these, the district risks being taken over by the state.

The story recounts how the district's board of education approved a three-year contract with its teachers and how one board member, a teacher in another district, voted against the new agreements because of its length.  With the dire projections she felt the length of the contract was too long and too risky.

Great point and it's illustrative of the condition of our state's school districts.  Many seem to be tottering on the edge. 

It seems like our school districts are on the edge of financial chaos at a period of time when they have never been more important.

Is that an overstatement?  How do you track their situation with the paucity of local news?  Should legislators and the governor be held accountable for whatever happens?

Take this example of the L'Anse Creuse School District in Macomb County just north of Detroit.  According to Capitol Confidential by the Mackinac Center, the school district's administrators are projecting severe financial deficits for the next few years.  If they can't eliminate these, the district risks being taken over by the state.

The story recounts how the district's board of education approved a three-year contract with its teachers and how one board member, a teacher in another district, voted against the new agreements because of its length.  With the dire projections she felt the length of the contract was too long and too risky.

Michigan school district response to a guaranteed tax base, a time-series cross-sectional analysis

The American school board journal

Directory of Michigan school districts

General school laws ...

The ... Michigan school district equity program, a workbook