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Highland Park K-8 schools merger is hoped to keep district open for now

By Lori Higgins Free Press Staff Writer

   The Highland Park School District will merge its two elementary schools and move its district offices into a school building. And officials hinted Tuesday that changes could be in store for Highland Park High School.

   These steps come as administrators — faced with a financial crisis that led Gov. Rick Snyder to appoint an emergency manager to oversee the district — try to cut costs and avoid having the district shut down in the middle of the school year.

   Barber Focus School, with 278 students, will close in the next two weeks and its students bused to Henry Ford Academy, which has 222 students. Each of the K-8 schools has the capacity to hold 800 students.

   The move was announced Monday, the same day Jack Martin, appointed Friday as the emergency manager, began his job. He said after a meeting Tuesday night that the decision to merge wasn’t his, but was part of Superintendent Edith Hightower’s plan to eliminate the district’s deficit.

   The decision, he said, “makes sense.”

   The district ended the 2010-11 school year with a $11.3-million deficit — a 51% increase over the deficit a year before. And earlier this month, the state said it had to advance the district $188,000 to help it cover payroll.

   Martin said the closing of Barber could help the entire district remain open through June. What happens after that is uncertain.

   “Enrollment, in my mind, is going to be key,” Martin said at a parents meeting Tuesday evening. If enrollment keeps declining, he said, “we have a huge problem.”

   Randolph Johnson, who has three kids at Barber and two at Highland Park High School, said Tuesday he is saddened by the closure. He and his wife have fought for years to keep the school open.

   “I feel for many of these kids — all of them really,” Johnson said.

   Hightower addressed parents at Ford on Tuesday night.

   “We’re trying not to disrupt the learning process. We just have to do this because we’re financially unable to maintain two buildings,” she said.

   Robert Davis, a member of the Highland Park Board of Education, said closing the school “is the logical decision.”

   Davis filed a lawsuit Monday in Ingham County Circuit Court, asking a judge to overturn the state’s decision to appoint an emergency manager for the school district on grounds that meetings to discuss the district’s financial situation were held in private, in violation of the state’s open meetings law.

   Meanwhile, the state Department of Treasury said Tuesday that a financial review team will examine the Muskegon Heights Public Schools’ finances. The district has had a deficit condition for three or more consecutive years. Its current year deficit of $8.5 million is greater than15% of its general fund revenues.