Do the Math

Highland Park schools might be shut down

Snyder: District down to its last $40,000

By Dawson Bell and Bill Laitner Free Press Staff Writers

   The Highland Park school district is on the brink of financial collapse and could shut down as early as next week without emergency intervention, Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday.

   Widespread and long-term mismanagement have left the district virtually broke, with only $40,000 on hand to meet the payroll Friday, Snyder told reporters in a briefing at the Capitol with state Superintendent Michael Flanagan, Treasurer Andy Dillon and Jack Martin, whose appointment as the schools’ emergency manager has been suspended as the result of a lawsuit over the process by which he was selected.

   “It’s a terrible situation,” Snyder said. “We’ve got to come up with an option for these kids. This is not business as normal at all.”

   Snyder and Flanagan said they will ask the Legislature for authority to contract with another school district or a charter school to operate Highland Park for the rest of the year. Such a contract could cost “several million dollars,” Snyder said.

   The governor also said he hopes to be able to reappoint Martin quickly.

   In the meantime, the district is back in the hands of the elected school board and superintendent.

   “If the Highland Park board has a solution (to meet payroll and other financial obligations), we’re happy to let them,” Snyder said.

   But Dillon said the district has not demonstrated the wherewithal to operate on its own. Twice this school year, the state has had to make accelerated school aid payments to Highland Park, he said.

   Although the district is among the highest-funded in the state, at about $14,000 per pupil per year, the district spends about $16,000 a year per pupil and finished the 2011 school year with an $11-million deficit, Dillon said.

   Highland Park also has seen a precipitous decline in enrollment, from 3,179 in 2006 to fewer than 1,000 now.

   Martin asked to meet with the board Tuesday evening to discuss the situation, said Robert Davis, a school board member and plaintiff in the lawsuit that challenged his appointment.

   Davis said the emergency manager process is “fatally flawed” and called on Snyder and administration officials to work with the district’s elected officials to address the crisis.

   If money is available to pay another district or charter operator to run Highland Park, why isn’t it available to pay the district to run itself? Davis asked. “Their actions show they would rather play politics … and just take over,” Davis said.

   Snyder and Flanagan said the crisis is complicated by the lawsuit Davis filed, challenging the right of state financial review teams to meet privately. An Ingham County judge ruled last week that the private sessions violated the Open Meetings Act.

   The review team is to meet publicly today in Detroit, and Snyder expressed confidence they would again recommend he appoint an emergency manager. But Snyder said it will take cooperation from the school board to get Martin back on the job quickly.

   Hours after Snyder’s announcement, four of the seven members of the Highland Park School board and Superintendent Edith Hightower met with Martin in the board offices.

   “Effective today, they are now back in charge of the school district,” he said, before sitting down with two board members at a time — avoiding a quorum of at least four that would violate the Open Meetings Act, he said.

   “My big concern is for (administrators) to talk to the teachers and let them know — this situation is not permanent, but we may be missing one payroll,” Martin said, while meeting with board members Alma Greer and Debra Humphrey. Teachers were to get paychecks Friday but likely won’t, he said. The last payroll was about $260,000, and the district could be short more than $150,000 of that, he said.

   “We’ve really borrowed all we can (from the state). It really is out of the governor’s hands until he sees where the Legislature stands” on extending further aid to the district, Martin said in a second meeting, which included board President John Holloway.

   Holloway and other board members agreed with Martin’s suggestion that the board call a special meeting for 7 p.m. Thursday to respond to whatever recommendation is issued today by the state financial review team. Holloway, 79, a former Highland Park police chief, said Davis’ lawsuits put the district’s leadership into temporary confusion.

   “He’d doing what any citizen has a right to do” in challenging the state law, Holloway said.

   Davis is a well-known activist whose lawsuits are known for challenging laws he considers anti-union.

   Several school board members said they were just getting to know Martin, a dapper Bing-ham Farms-based accountant, before Davis’ lawsuit led to Martin’s suspension Tuesday as the district’s emergency manager. Snyder appointed Martin on Jan. 27, but Martin’s authority was challenged after a judge ruled Feb. 15 that the appointment process was illegal.

   Board members said they were split on whether to accept Martin or anyone as financial manager, although he was given a mostly positive reception by parents and some board members in a meeting three weeks ago at Highland Park Community High School.

   “I couldn’t see anything but good coming” from his appointment, Humphrey said Tuesday, while awaiting her turn to meet with Martin. “He kept everybody informed (and) has not taken anything away from the district,” she said.

   Martin could have dismissed the school board but asked board members to keep meeting and advising him, she said. And he could have dismissed the superintendent, who said she earns $125,000 a year. Martin was paying himself at the rate of $100,000 a year to manage the district, he said this month.

   ! CONTACT DAWSON BELL: 517-372-8661

   OR DBELL@FREEPRESS.COM  

Gov. Rick Snyder says emergency action is essential to keep Highland Park schools going. “We’ve got to come up with an option for these kids,” he said Tuesday.