Solvers Unite!

Parents demand answers on schools

Some fear Highland Park’s district will close

By Megha Satyanarayana Free Press Staff Writer

   After hints from Gov. Rick Snyder that their school district might be shut down in a few weeks, Highland Park parents demanded answers from administrators at a Tuesday night school board meeting.

   “Nobody’s telling these young seniors what their future is going to look like,” one said.

   State officials have explored assigning an emergency manager to oversee the district, which has a deficit of $11.3 million and took an $188,000 loan from the state to meet payroll about two weeks ago.

   Enrollment has fallen from 3,419 students in June 2008 to 989 as of this month. Parents told school officials that Snydersent them a letter indicating that the district could close if an emergency manager doesn’t come in.

   “We don’t know for sure if they are coming in to help the district or to dissolve the district,” Superintendent Edith Hightower said Tuesday night.

   She said a decision on the district’s future could come as early as today, and based on that information, she would set up informational meetings at each of the district’s three schools.

   At the meeting, Alan C. Young and Associates presented a financial analysis of the district. Expenses outstripped revenue by $3.8 million in 2010-11, which added to the 2009-10 deficit of $7.5 million.

   “Diminishing enrollment tells a good part of the story,” Young said.

   In his report, property taxes nearly doubled to $2.4 million in 2010-11, but state funding fell by about $3.7 million. Despite a drop of about $3 million in instruction spending in 2010-11, an average of about $600 more was spent per pupil, based on head count. But despite having fewer students, spending on support services stayed about the same, at $11.4 million.

   Closing the district won’t erase the debt, board President John Holloway said. Either way, Highland Park residents will have to pay.

   While hopeful that the district will remain open and without an emergency manager, Hightower said closing it at the end of February would be a disaster. “We hope they would wait until the end of the year,” she said.