More School Closures Coming to DPS

More School Closures Coming to DPS

Are more schools closures coming to Detroit Public Schools? On the eve before voters of Detroit go to vote on a new bond proposal for DPS, it seems as if Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb is planning to close up to 70 more schools and lay-off up to 4,000 DPS workers by 2011, as part of a new five-year deficit elimination plan, according to a letter he sent to State Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan April 1. Under the $500.5 million bond Proposal S, however, the district wants to rebuild eight schools and renovate 13 others. The bond is a loan involving an added 3.62 millage (tax) using lower interest rates authorized by President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus initiative.

But Bobb has not yet laid out plans for $418.5 million in direct grant stimulus funds intended to retain staff and better academic achievement. His 2010 operating budget indicates that money is not included in the listed revenues. At a City Council hearing Oct. 27, a group of DPS social workers scheduled for lay-off Oct. 30 decried the plight of Detroit’s children under Bobb’s slash and burn policies. “We believe DPS is putting our children’s lives at risk, compromising their mental health, safety and security,” said Angela Gardner-Street, one of 41 social workers facing the chopping block. “What people do not know is that there is rising conflict and chaos in the schools, escalating violence just last week including the riot at Mumford where police maced the students, a shooting at Southeastern High School, and the rape of a girl at a school bus stop. We hold the front lines after these crises occur.”

Another social worker said a nine-year-old student committed suicide last week. Others said the merging of schools across the city as others close is a prime cause of the chaos. “The consultants Bobb has hired and paid all these millions of dollars have not come out to see what is happening in the K-8 day treatment program where I work,” Leonard Zabawski, who earned the Social Worker of the Year Award for Wayne County Region D, said. “Over 100 students with disabilities will be left with one social worker.” The Detroit Free Press has reported that Bobb has spent $42 million on consultants since taking over, and plans to spend another $93 million in the coming period.

So with 70 more schools set to close by 2011, why in the world are Detroit voters actually going to the polls to vote for Proposal S that will reopen at least a couple of the buildings that got shut down at the end of last school year by building brand new buildings of those schools (i.e. Finney) and remodeling others. It is clear that something isn’t right about Detroit Public Schools and no matter who is in control of the district, Bobb, the State or an elected Board, it seems that information such as this is not being shared with the public until after the fact. All DPS and the State of Michigan have to do is look at the City of Chicago, otherwise known as our brother or sister city, to see that school closures don’t improve academic standards when students are leaving one failing school for another.

In fact a majority of Chicago students affected by school closings were sent to schools that were low-performing, just like those they left behind—moves that had no significant impact on performance for most students, a study released by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research, which examined the academic effects of the closings on students at 18 elementary schools shut down between 2001 and 2006. To measure the impact, the researchers compared students age 8 and older with their counterparts in schools that had similar characteristics but continued to operate. The schools had a combined enrollment of 5,445 students at the time of their closing. “Certainly, when schools were closed for academic reasons, the idea was to try to change their educational prospects and what they might obtain. Unfortunately, we didn’t find that,” said Julia Gwynne, a senior research analyst with the consortium and the report’s co-author. “The main reason why that seems not to have occurred was because most students did not attend schools that were substantially better than the ones that were closed.”

A Chicago-style strategy is a feature of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s push for the nation to turn around its lowest-performing schools. Mr. Duncan was the chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools from 2001 until December 2008, when President Barack Obama nominated him as education secretary. School closings are one element of the so-called “turnaround” plans Mr. Duncan has promoted as secretary, which also include measures that would replace principals and teachers in persistently failing schools, which DPS finally did this summer to some degree or another but in some cases DPS sent a principals and staff from one failing school to another failing school in most regards. Also Bobb and his turnaround time did not take into account in many cases, the number of years a principal was at a failing school in order to measure the progress if any that school was making under the principal since that principal took over the school.

Nonetheless it is fair to compared Chicago Public Schools to Detroit Public Schools in so many ways especially since Arne Duncan has said he is having nightmares over what is taking place in Detroit’s schools. Still Monique D. Bond, a Chicago schools spokeswoman, said by e-mail, “It would be difficult to measure a student’s academic achievement based solely on a school’s closing” noting the district believes the consortium’s study is a “fair analysis.” “We need to review the data to get a better understanding of its findings, which will help to inform us as we move forward with considering our future school closing policies,” she said.

The 405,000-student district still closes and consolidates schools, but moved in 2006 toward more frequent use of a turnaround strategy that keeps students in their current buildings but replaces principals and teachers, an approach DPS adopted before the end of last school year under Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb. Still in Chicago, among the students displaced, 40 percent were enrolled in schools that were on probation, and 42 percent were enrolled in schools where Iowa Tests of Basic Skills scores were in the lowest quartile in the city, according to the study. Just 6 percent of displaced students were enrolled in schools with itbs scores in the highest quartile, the study shows. “If the findings are correct­—for Chicago, at least—we have to question the value of closing schools and creating the dislocations that would attend those school closings for little or no constructive result,” said Daniel L. Duke, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

Mr. Duke, who runs a university program that prepares leaders to turn around low-performing schools, said placing strong leaders who are supported by teacher-leaders and central-office employees has proved to be an effective strategy for many of the schools the program has worked with. While students who went from one low-performing school to another did not see achievement gains, the study says, those who transferred to some of the district’s highest-performing schools did show progress. The announcement that specific schools were closing had a negative impact on student achievement, the study suggests. The announcement was often made in January, a few months before students took standardized tests. In the year that closings were announced, students in schools slated to close fell 1½ months below the expected achievement level in reading and more than a half-month below the expected level in math, based on an analysis of itbs scores.

That negative effect was temporary, however. A year later, the displaced students were achieving again at their expected levels, the study says. Julie Woestehoff, the executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, a Chicago advocacy group often critical of Mr. Duncan’s initiatives as district chief, said the study’s findings are more evidence that the district’s reform strategies are not working. The group has called for the end of Renaissance 2010, a district program that closes low-performing schools and replaces them with charter and charterlike schools run by private groups, something that many people in Detroit feel is the next wave to take place with DPS schools.

“When Arne Duncan announced this program, he said it was going to lead to dramatically better education for the children. We were hoping that would be true,” Ms. Woestehoff said. “There hasn’t really been any payoff from all the money that has been spent and all the disruption that has been caused to communities and especially to students.” Chicago’s school closings returned to the spotlight this fall after a high school student was brutally beaten and killed in a fight near a South Side high school. Local activists have contended that the school closings created a dangerous mixture of students from rival neighborhoods. Mr. Duncan said earlier this month that blaming school closings for the uptick in violence was “absolutely ridiculous.” ("Outcry Against Violence," Oct. 14, 2009.) Chicago school spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment about the study.

The displacement of students after school closings also had an impact on student-mobility rates and participation in the district’s summer school programs, according to the study. Students were more likely to switch schools again not only in the summer after that first year in the new school, the researchers found, but also during the school year. Third, 6th, and 8th graders were less likely than their peers in similar schools to attend summer school in the summer after their schools had closed.

Rebecca Herman, a managing research analyst for the Washington-based American Institutes for Research, said policymakers should especially focus on making sure that students affected by closings are being placed in higher-performing schools, and ensuring that those schools are equipped with supports to help them take on the new students while maintaining quality. Particular attention should also be paid to the transition period after announcements of school closings are made, she said. Ms. Herman, who was the lead author of a federal guide on school turnarounds, said the Chicago study leaves some questions unanswered. For example, were there “differences in [students’] motivation and support for excelling in school that would help explain these findings?” she said. “If you wanted to apply this policy broadly,” she added, “how would you motivate those 94 percent of students [who did not enroll in top-scoring schools] to go to a school farther away and provide support for them?”

Andy Smarick, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, both in Washington, said the study shows the complexities of school turnaround efforts. “What really jumps out is what school you go to after the school closes is extraordinarily important. The important lesson here is that closures are only one piece of a broader strategy that a city has to develop,” he said. School administrators must take into account student-transfer policies, geographical considerations, and the impact on the grade levels affected, he said. Successful school administrators are able to show parents and the larger communities the closings are part of a bigger improvement plan, Mr. Smarick said. “I think a lot of people mistakenly think turnarounds are easy or that turnarounds often succeed. Sometimes there are institutions, whether they are schools, businesses, or nonprofits, that are just broken, low-performing, and they can’t be fixed,” Mr. Smarick said. “That is unsettling for people to think about when we are talking about schools.”

So with Detroit Public Schools slated to close 70 schools by 2011, how will the district go about deciding which schools to close and at the same time how will the district take into account student-transfer policies, geographical considerations, and the impact on the grade levels affected as Mr. Smarick mentioned when closing these 70 schools. It is clear that simply closing failing schools and sending students to another failing school is not the answer to education reform but something has to be done. Also simply closing failing schools and opening up charters in those schools is not the answer either but perhaps a combination of solutions needs to be drafted and put into place if DPS is to improve. Detroit Public Schools is years behind some of the alternatives Chicago has tried to fix its failing school system but perhaps it is for the best because the Chicago model should serve notice for DPS administrators, teachers, parents and students for how to fix failing schools in the district by avoiding some of the mistakes that Chicago Public Schools made in deciding to close schools and placing students in others schools.

Education reform is critical in not only Detroit but throughout America and a one model fits all approach won’t work because different school districts, cities, towns and states require different approaches. Therefore it is now or never for many school districts, cities, towns and states to find out what works in their area and make sure they strengthen it while replacing what doesn’t with different alternatives that will improve academic achievement in all students. The time is now to fix DPS but closing more schools might not be the answer to fixing the districts academic problems and simply sending kids from one failing school to another is definitely not the answer either. Lastly sending administrators and staff from one failing school to another failing school is not going to help our youth either so now is the time for educational think tanks who care about educational learning and student achievement to get together and create the new vision for educational reform that DPS and other urban districts all across America need now more than ever.

Plan B for DPS

As Detroit Public Schools asks City of Detroit voters to pass Proposal S which is a $500.5 million dollar bond proposal that Detroiters will have to pay for until 2039, it seems as if the Detroit News has unveiled Plan B for the district if the bond proposal doesn't pass. However the quote unquote plan B isn’t really a second option because it will happen regardless of what the voters of Detroit do. There is a new effort that will build new state of the art high schools in Metro Detroit.

The Detroit News article said, “A new effort should help create quality high schools in Metro Detroit. Compelled by the profound void of 21st century high schools in Detroit and its older suburbs, Michigan's top foundations will spend millions to rapidly develop such schools. Lead by the Kellogg and Skillman Foundations, a handful of local foundations are committing more than $11 million this fall to what they are calling a "high school accelerator" that will develop high-quality, Knowledge Economy local high schools.”

“The effort is the first broadly based philanthropic effort to build schools not only for urban children but also for teens in inner-ring suburbs where many parents struggle to find exceptional open enrollment high schools. Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit, will manage the High School Accelerator program. Its leader, Lou Glazer, says the program will create 11 new high schools within five years, starting in 2010,” wrote the Detroit News Editorial.

The News also wrote that Glazer and his team have larger ambitions: opening 24 more high schools over an additional four years for a total cost of about $50 million. "We will need national funders to scale up to the level where we want to be," Glazer says. There is no doubt of the need for such an effort. Michigan students' comparative test scores have remained stagnant in recent years, and are being outpaced by those in other states.

What's unique about the school accelerator is that it actively addressed local education deficits without getting tangled in ideology-driven debates. It will fund the creation of any kind of school -- charter, private or traditional public -- as long as it meets the core characteristics of high-performing schools, such as performance-based teacher hiring. "We want to build an alternative system around quality, not around governance," says Glazer. "The real choice should be between high quality and low quality."

The Detroit News also wrote, “The focus will be on building highly talented teachers and principals. Glazer hopes to work with the state's top education schools to develop that human capital. The Accelerator Program should put the Detroit Federation of Teachers on notice. Glazer's team would be open to funding exceptional new high schools for the Detroit Public Schools -- but only if new schools could meet its selection criteria. The teachers union would need to agree to clear bureaucratic obstacles to innovation and allow leaders to staff their schools with the best-performing teachers, not the ones with most seniority.”

“Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb needs such funding support to rebuild the district and better compete with charter schools. Yet the union remains staunchly opposed to changes in seniority -- a sticking point that will drag out negotiations for another month. The union's resistance to real contract modernization threatens to continue to sabotage its own students and schools. The new High School Accelerator should be both welcomed and supported,” wrote the News.

However when hearing about this new idea, I too welcome it because like a policy partner of mine, Akindele Akinyemi recently said and something I have said, Detroit Public Schools should look to create public-private partnerships to build new schools. The fact that Glazer along with the Kellogg and Skillman Foundations are creating a foundation to build nearly 24 high schools in 4 years in Metro Detroit makes me wonder why DPS hasn’t thought of this. Why can’t the City of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools create such a foundation to rebuild and remodel many of the schools in DPS instead of asking voters to pass another bond/mileage that extends debt on the homes of Detroit?

Already Robert Bobb has re-established the DPS Foundation and while he is out campaigning for Proposal S and telling voters it is no plan B for how to build new schools or remodel others, perhaps there is a plan B to do such a thing with the new High School accelerator plan that is being unveiled. Why can’t DPS use their newly reestablished foundation to raise funds to build and remodel schools in the district instead of asking taxpayers to add more debt to their homes to do so?

This is Plan B for the district but it should have been Plan A instead of the Bond proposal that is currently on the ballot. Detroit Public Schools and the residents of Detroit both currently as well as in the future would be better off if the district started using all of its partners to fund the building of new schools and remodeling of others. Imagine if the Skillman Foundation, the United Way, the Michigan Chronicle, The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit branch of the NAACP, the Detroit Urban League, the Council of Baptist Pastors, Congressman John Conyers, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, the Detroit City Council, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and all the other people as well as organizations who are a part of the Vote Yes on Proposal S Coalition would threw their financial support into investing into the DPS Foundation than imagine how many schools we could build and remodel besides just the 18 currently being talked about.

Imagine if DPS used its own foundation to build new school schools and sought after grant dollars from the government not bonds but grants, what DPS could do to bring state of the art technology to DPS. Also imagine how much money DPS would be saving taxpayers of the city and would be saving from borrowing from the state to pay on the interest on the bond when the revenue of the city is low due to a low tax base. Detroit Public Schools could not only invest itself and become more self sufficient but it could pave the way for how new schools could be built and remodeled throughout America without always asking taxpayers of cities to pay for such things.

It is time to think outside the box and it is clear that if the Skillman and Kellogg Foundations can come together to begin to build 24 high schools in Metro Detroit over the next 4 years than DPS can use its own foundation to do the same thing to build and remodel more than just 18 schools. It is time for Detroit Public Schools to be dependent on funding itself rather than depending on bonds that only add debt to the homes and businesses of Detroit residents. It is time to change the thinking of Detroit Public Schools and by changing how they fund themselves to build or remodel schools; it could lead to innovation in other areas for the district. The time has never been greater and it is clear that if DPS is to compete with charter schools than it has to do so by becoming more self sufficient in how it is funded.

The Final Plea to Vote No on Proposal S

As Detroiters head to the polls on November 3, 2009, it seems as if this will be my final plea for Detroiters to vote no on proposal. Now I want to make it clear that I am not against new schools being built in DPS as long as it is not always on the backs or should I say the houses of Detroiters. There are other ways to build new buildings that Detroit Public Schools and the children of the district need. However this is even more reasons why Proposal S needs to be voted down because over the last 2 weeks, DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb held three “investigative” hearings regarding overspending on previous DPS real estate deals using the 1994 $1.5 billion bond.

In the two weeks prior to the Nov. 3 Prop S vote for an extension of the 1994 bond, Bobb held the hearing to give the public insight into the past misspending, all of which was under the first state takeover. School board member Marie Thornton called the hearings a “dog and pony show,” saying most of the information was not new. During the first hearing, Bobb said he had “no authority” to take any action against those involved in the multi-million dollar deals. However, he earlier said the FBI and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy would bring the full weight of the law to bear against school workers for allegedly stealing relatively small amounts of lunch money and computers.

In a 2007 memo to then Interim Superintendent Lamont Satchel, Thornton objected to the 2003 DPS transactions with the Farbman Group involving the Fisher, Albert Kahn, New Center and Lothrop Landing buildings. A study done by the law firm of Floyd Allen and Associates showed that DPS spent $24,150,000 of the 1994 school bond to buy floors 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 of the Fisher building on a condo basis and is also spending over $1.9 million a year from its general fund to lease other space in the buildings from 2003-2013. “We are under a Deficit Elimination Plan and the District volunteered to close 50 schools to satisfy the debt that was approved by the State of Michigan,” Thornton told Satchel at the time. “You as the Interim General Superintendent sit relaxed in your office. ... In addition, there are Central Level Administrators that are sitting in these plush offices.”

The report said the district deliberately negotiated a purchase deal from Farbman in order to use the bond money, which could cover only capital purchases. Thornton said the sale of the old School Center Building on Woodward to Wayne State University brought in no more than $11 million. On the second day of hearings, testimony revealed that the Farbman Group and a real estate brokerage firm profited inordinately from the 1994 bond. The DPS ended up buying land for the new Cass Technical High School and the School of the Arts valued at $57,000 for $743,000 after it passed hands several times in one day.

It has been known for some time that the new Cass and DSA schools were among the most expensive in the country. Cass cost DPS $262 per square foot and about $47,000 per student. The Detroit High School for the Fine, Performing & Communication Arts had a price tag of about $391 per square foot and $80,600 per student. Then to add to this evidence, an auditor says Bobb shouldn’t handle contracts. Robert Bobb should not handle contracts. That was the conclusion of the auditor for the Washington D.C. council. In 2005, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb worked as the City Administrator for Mayor Anthony Williams. As the Administrator, Bobb circumvented procurement laws, according to a report by D.C. auditor Deborah K. Nichols.

Bobb is currently leading a campaign for Detroit voters to pass Prop S which would raise half a billion dollars. Last week, the Michigan Citizen reported that Bobb and his committee alone would control the bond money without public oversight. “The chief issue is one of public accountability. It is never a good situation when you have one person in control of everything. The public should be allowed to view a transaction in its entirety, not only in terms of the decision but the decision-making process and that is difficult under a reform process because you have a total lack of external control,” says DPS School Board member Anthony Adams. The school board does not support the bond proposal.

“Our issue is about the process and public accountability. Oversight needs to be established before the bond issue, not after the fact. What they have proposed is virtually no accountability and then you have the EFM chairing the process? I don’t know how the fox can guard the hen house like that.” The Washington D.C. audit described payments made by Bobb and former D.C. Mayor Williams, to “friends and associates” who were allowed to begin performing services without a contract. The services in question were related to the District’s lobbying for the establishment of a major league baseball team and a trip to China to induce trade.

A subsequent Washington Post editorial dated June 15, 2005, cited Nichols’ June 3 report on Bobb’s “failure to follow city procurement law.” “The city administrator’s action of identifying friends and associates, principally from Oakland, Calif., for non-competitive, sole source ‘deals’ with the District government resulted in transactions that were not: above reproach, ‘arms length,’ completely impartial and free from the appearance of preferential treatment,” the auditor concluded in her report. At that time, Nichols recommended that Washington D.C. appoint an independent official to handle contracts.

Bobb had arranged to pay four consultants more than $150,000. The report further stated that the Office of Contracting and Procurement, which operated under the mayor’s control, should be made “truly an ‘independent’ agency free from any pressure or constraints” from Williams (D) or Bobb. The report further states that: “These transactions, or business opportunities were not publicly disclosed or subjected to a credible competitive procurement process. The transactions examined by the Auditor were financed with public funds, and thus should not escape or be exempt from public scrutiny and complete accountability.”

The beneficiaries of Bobb’s included consultants Melinda Yee-Franklin, Liliy Hu, Rosie Rios of Red River associates and former Oakland City Council member Jane Brunner — all former associates of Bobb’s during his time as Oakland city manager. Also cited in the report were payments made to Ira Sockowitz for overseeing a trade mission to China by Franklin and Hu, according to a Washington Post article dated June 8, 2005. In a June 27, 2005, article in the Washington Post, Nichols also criticized a city award of $300,000, described as a sole-source contract, to Strategic Advisory Group LLC in January 2003. That contract was twice modified, breaking city law prohibiting extensions of sole-source contracts, increasing its amount to $977,000.

According to recent reports, in Detroit Bobb has awarded no-bid contracts in the amount of at least $42 million. Washington’s political insiders say it was the news of the no-bid contracts that scuttled Bobb’s political ambition to be Mayor of Washington D.C. Bobb was also ousted as D.C.’s school board president when Mayor Adrian Fenty seized control of the district’s schools. Still with all of these reasons presented before us that many people don’t know about Robert Bobb and the major news outlets will not present, I am asking all Detroiters to know the facts regarding why there are more questions to Proposal S than answers.

Proposal S will build or remodel 18 schools but some of the buildings are buildings that have been currently closed and the reality is that the proposal will extend the debt on Detroiters homes from ending in 2033 to 2039 or beyond if the district borrows from the State at any time during the current bond proposal. Thus I urge Detroiters to ask Detroit Public Schools and Robert Bobb to find another alternative to building or remodeling schools by seeking to invest in the DPS Foundation that can get funds from public and private businesses and organizations in order to build the new buildings that the district seeks to create with Proposal S money. Thus Detroit, we can do this by voting no on Proposal S which only adds additional debt to the homes of Detroiters.

Vote NO on Proposal S Detroit!

New or Remodeled Schools Don’t Educate Our Youth

Education is the key to the future and that seems to be the saying going around everywhere especially in Detroit. However if that is the case than why are people in Detroit ignoring the numbers that show that our youth in the city need more than just new or remodeled schools. This summer the ACT and SAT testing boards released their data based off of the class of 2009 and it showed that less than 25% of our nation’s youth are college ready. What was even more interesting is that the 2009 class overall numbers were 5 or more points lower than the class of 2005 and even 4 or more points lower than the class of 2008.

Then if we just look at Detroit Public Schools numbers in regards to the MEAP than we see that our students are performing badly all across the board when compared with the averages for the state. Thus, the problem that plagues the students of DPS is not being in new or remodeled schools but it seems that the district lacks academic consistency. This is the problem that we as citizens of Detroit should be talking about. The fact that as a district we only graduate 70% or less of our students compared to the state average which is 85% or above. This clearly shows that DPS problems is not simply building new, more modernized schools when as a district our students are not learning despite what they don’t have. Therefore what insurances can our students get that they will learn properly once they have the proper resources?

While it is no denying that some of our schools do need to be torn down and rebuilt but the notion that doing this must be tied to taxpayers homes is ridiculous. Also the notion that once this is done, than our youth will be able to learn better is even more false because there is no correlation between new or remodeled schools educating youth more than any other school. Just look at the fact that less than ¼ of nation’s youth are college ready as an example as to why our district needs to get serious about educating our youth rather than just trying to build new schools or remodel others.

Until DPS shows some academic consistency and get serious about education reform by showing that they have the teachers as well as administrators in place for our students to academically succeed than the results will continue to be the status quo. DPS students deserve better than they are receiving and we the taxpayers deserve better on our return to invest in our district than what we are getting. Continuing to tax the homes of the residents of Detroit while not showing any academic consistency from DPS, is not a good investment for Detroiters.

Right now, Detroiters especially students and parents should not be asking for new or remodeled schools from the District or from the taxpayers but instead should be demanding better and adequate teachers to teach them year round. What should be demanded from DPS now more than ever is that our youth have qualified teachers teaching core subject areas from day one of the school year rather than some students getting that teacher 6 or 8 weeks into the school year? While everyone wants new or remodeled schools for their child with state of the art technology but the reality is that, what good is that technology if our students aren’t learning without it right now?

Therefore it is clear that the best thing DPS can do to educate our youth today is not by building new schools or remodeling others but is to show some proven academic consistency when it comes to the districts GPA average, attendance average, MEAP scores, ACT/SAT scores, graduation rate and most of all schools making AYP. No longer can DPS expect the citizens of Detroit to help out a failing an investment when the investment is not shown any proven academic consistentcy worthy of continued rewards and perks such as taxpayers taxing their homes for 30 plus years.

With that said Detroiters would be wise to vote “No” on Proposal S. And should ask Robert Bobb and the district to seek a plan B to build new schools and remodel others that doesn’t involve taxing Detroiters homes when the district has not shown that they deserve any more rewarding when it doesn’t have a successful academic or financial track record. Until DPS gets serious about educating our youth than and only than should we the citizens of Detroit invest financially in the district again because money alone doesn’t educate our youth and clear DPS doesn’t understand that. Vote “No” On Proposal S Detroit.

Proposal S lacks Clarity

As emergency financial manager Robert Bobb and the Vote Yes on Proposal S Committee which consists of Detroit’s Mayor, City Council, Detroit Parent Network, Detroit Urban League and the NAACP to just name a few go around the city telling voters why they should vote yes on another bond proposal, there are still too many unknowns. While no one in the City of Detroit will deny that many of Detroit Public Schools need to be modernized or torn down and rebuilt. The reality is that many questions linger about the original bond proposal of 1994 where money was misspent, inappropriately used and in some cases wasted.

Thus as Bobb and the Vote Yes on Proposal S Committee go around talking about stimulus dollars will be used to pay for 8 new news and 10 modernizations to others. What is unclear is if stimulus dollars will be used why do they have to be paid to taxpayers in the City of Detroit houses? Yes Detroiters will be required to continue to pay on the original bond proposal of 1994 way past 2010 when the 15 year payment was suppose to end but instead will end now in 2033 and by passing Proposal S won’t end until 2039 unless the district borrows from the state. Secondly there are no insurances that the district will not borrow from the state to make any payments when even right now the City of Detroit had withheld part of the 1994 bond proposal money just last year to pay off city finances. Thus that situation was not spoken on again as to if the city ever gave the school district its money.

Also to add more uncertainty to Proposal S is the fact that DPS have already overspent by $21 million in the first 3 months of the school year. Therefore why should Detroiters expect anything differently once the bond proposal is passed since the district is continuing to have a spending problem which is why it has an emergency financial manager in the first place. Nonetheless the Vote Yes on Proposal S Committee and Robert Bobb are now trying to tell voters that voting yes for proposal means that 3,725 direct jobs and 7,000 indirect jobs will be created for the city. However there are not any insurers whatsoever that all those jobs will go to Detroiters who need it.

Still Detroiters are asked to pass this bond proposal that is tied to people paying the taxes on their homes in a time when many Detroiters homes have been foreclosed on the City of Detroit has no repopulation plan to increase its population. Now while it is no doubt many DPS schools do need modernizing or need to be rebuilt, what is unclear is why is Bobb and other key officials asking Detroiters who can barely pay their mortgages to pay for such modernizations or new building creations. In fact no one is offering up a plan B to what DPS can do if proposal S doesn’t pass.

Bobb and others have not even thought about any other plan to get 8 new schools built and 10 others modernized. The fact that no way is presenting a plan B for how DPS can get buildings built and others torn down, is the type of problem that plagues the district. DPS needs to get innovative and should be trying to seek the type of public-private partnership that helped to build a new Cass Tech which not built with just taxpayers dollars. Bobb and the Vote Yes for Proposal S committee never thought that because if they did, they would know that the Skillman Foundation has invested millions into the district yearly but what has Skillman seen in terms of results.

With Skillman, United Way, the Kressege Foundation, the Knight Foundation and other entities involved with many DPS schools and students, it is clear that such private and public partnerships can be the gateway to how the district builds new buildings and remodels others without asking the taxpayers to vote on any building bonds. However Bobb and others have not thought about this. DPS already has nearly 100 plus vendors along with many other community partnerships that do hundreds of programs in DPS schools that are suppose to help with student achievement but the results are just not there academically. Imagine if Bobb, the Council of Baptist Pastors, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, Congressman John Conyers and all the others who sit on the Vote Yes for Proposal S Committee would get together to raise funds for the newly reestablished DPS Foundation, how many new schools could be built and how many could be remodeled without taxpayers having to vote for anything.

This is the type of clarity that Detroiters need that Proposal S doesn’t answer even if Bobb stays or goes. If Bobb stays, it should not just be to watch over Proposal S and to make sure it is implemented properly but it should be to make sure the district flourishes financially and academically by seeking a public-private partnership to create the 21st school district needed to serve the students of Detroit academically and safety wise. Proposal S should be voted down immediately and DPS needs to create a plan B that doesn’t add any more debt to Detroiters homes.

Rebuttal: Voters should approve Detroit school bond, if Bobb stays

Rebuttal: Voters should approve Detroit school bond, if Bobb stays

The fact that the Detroit News thinks we the voters should approve the bond if Bobb stays is yet another reason why the bond is not right for Detroit. Bobb staying another year will not ensure us that the bond proposal money will be spent correctly but instead perhaps Bobb staying until the completion of all the projects is insurance that all Detroiters can trust that Bobb is truly in.

Nonetheless the bond proposal is not good for Detroit not because of just how the previous bond proposal was misspent and misused but because Detroiters can’t afford it. Look around our communities; we see more abandoned houses and vacant homes than any other point in our city’s history.

So if the bond proposal is passed who will pay for it when perhaps more than half of Detroit’s population rents meaning only a select few of Detroiters own. However the bond proposal will affect everyone including renters because their rent will continue to go up and the price of goods they buy will see increases as a result of passing this mileage.

Bobb staying for another year and getting academic control will not change this. Still instead of the Detroit News telling Detroiters to vote no, you all want to play in “if” scenarios that are hypothetical. Instead let’s do real life scenarios like the incident at Cobo that shows just how tough economic times are for Detroiters. Then let’s look at the fact that DPS under Bobb’s leadership has already over spent by $21 million three (3) months into the school year.

If Bobb was sent here to fix DPS’s budget but the district is overspending under his watch than why should we as voters think it won’t happen with the passage of the bond.

Detroiters should vote no on Proposal S because there are too many if’s and we can’t afford it.

Hodari P.T. Brown
Graduate of John J. Pershing H.S. Class of 2003
Tennessee University Graduate 2008

The Truth About Proposal S

Below is a message that I received entitled the truth about Proposal S where the individual defines many of the definitions contained in Proposal S which is set to be the ballot for Detroiters to vote on Tuesday, November 3, 2009. I have to admit that person does a great job defining what the bond proposal really means and he even gives his own analysis of what Robert Bobb is really saying to voters. Everyone knows that I am against proposal S but when you read what this means and what the words bond, borrow, debt, defray, levy, tax, and a host of other words mean, how or why would you support such a proposal that is aimed at adding more debt to the homes of Detroiters that are already financially strapped as its. It is already bad enough that the City of Detroit has to take out $94 million dollars worth of bonds to pay its bills at a rate that is unheard of since the city’s bond rating has been at junk for almost all this year. Therefore it is clear that Detroiters are being asked to pay for a bond to build new schools or modernize others for Detroit Public Schools when DPS has shown no type of consistent track record of academic success.

So Detroiters read the message below and I hope that everyone votes “NO” on Proposal S because it is the right thing to do in a time when our youth need to be educated better rather than simply being given new or modernized schools that don’t guarantee that our youth will be educated any better than they are already being educated. Detroit wake up and realize what Proposal S really means.


Proposal S
BOND PROPOSAL

Shall the School District of the City of Detroit, County of Wayne, Michigan borrow the principal sum of not to exceed Five Hundred Million Five Hundred Forty Thousand Dollars ($500,540,000) and issue its unlimited tax defraying cost of:

Constructing new replacement buildings and or additions to existing buildings.

Remodeling existing buildings, including energy conservation, safety and security improvements.

Acquiring, improving and developing sites, including playgrounds, playfields and outdoor athletic facilities in the School District.

Furnishing, refurnishing, equipping and requipping School District buildings; and

Acquiring and installing instructional technology equipment in and connecting School District buildings?

The estimated millage to be levied in 2010 to service this issue of bonds is 3.82 mils ($3.82 per $1,000 of taxable value) and the estimate simple average annual millage rate required to retire the bonds of this issue is 2.56 mils ($2.56 per $1000 of taxable value).

The debt millage levy required to retire all bonds of the School District currently outstanding and proposed by this ballot proposal is currently estimated to remain at or below 13.0 mils.

The bonds may be issued in multiple series, payable in the case of each series in not to exceed thirty (30) years from the date of issue of each series. If the School District borrows from the State to pay debt service on the bonds of this issue, the School District may be required to continue to levy mils beyond the term of the bonds to repay the State.

(Under State law, bond proceeds may not be used to pay teacher or administrator salaries, routine maintenance or repair
costs or other School District operating expenses )

YES
NO

VOCABULARY WORDS DEFINED FROM
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY

Bond – A certificate of debt issued by a government or corporation of the original payment of the
original investment plus interest by a specified future date.

Bondage - The condition of a slave or serf; servitude.

Borrow – To obtain or receive (something) on loan with the intent to return it.

Debt – The condition of owing (indebtedness – obligated to another beholden).

Defray – To undertake the payment of pay.

Levy – To impose or collect (a tax). To confiscate property.

Principal – The (capital-wealth in the form of money or property) of a financial holding as distinguished from the revenue
from it. A sum of money owed as a debt, upon which interest is calculated.
* Five Hundred Million Five Hundred And Forty Thousand Dollars ($500,540,000)*

Tax – A contribution for the support of a government required of persons, groups, or businesses, within the domain of the
government. An excessive demand; strain.



Friday night October 23, 2009 on The Jay Leno Show with special guest Michelle Obama. Jay did a skit with Arsenio Hall entitled “ This Is What They Said This Is What They Meant ” We all have heard what Rob Bobb has been saying about the benefits of Proposal S. But do we know what he means and who is really going to benefit from this proposal us or him.
Upon carefully reading, repeatedly reviewing and defining words to make sure I understand exactly what’s being presented.
It sounds to me like he is saying;

I want you dumb ass illiterate Detroiters to borrow a half billion dollars from the State of Michigan, give me the authority to do whatever I want to do with your money. Like giving no bid contracts to my associates and friends, which you have already seen me do. Leave town with Jennifer (I mean leave town when Jennifer’s term as Governor is over.) And we have spent up all of the money you borrowed for me. Keeping you, your children and possibly your children’s children in bondage/debt for the next 30 years or longer to the State Of Michigan.

--Adecious

Staying for Proposal S is not a Good Reason to Stay

Why aren’t Detroiters asking themselves why is emergency financial manager Robert Bobb talking about staying now since Proposal S was put on the ballot and polls showed that many voters were skeptical of voting yes for it because of how they previous 1994 bond was mishandled. Thus here comes Bobb talking about he is staying to ensure that Proposal S is not mismanaged. However the fact that Bobb is staying for Proposal S and not because he wants to turn around a failing school year makes me wonder who really cares about our youth.

All those who are on the Vote Yes for Proposal S committee seem to not mind that Bobb only said he is staying to make sure Proposal S if passed is done correctly. This is the type of question that newspapers should be asking but instead people are not so I have to. Secondly another question that should bother Detroiters is why did other cities get millions in stimulus dollars to for projects that aren’t tied to citizens paying taxes on their homes but the City of Detroit residents is being asked to continue to tax their homes way into the future with perhaps no end in sight of when the taxes will end since we already borrowed from the state to pay some of the interest on the 1994 bond mileage.

Right now, Robert Bobb should be staying in Detroit because he has fallen in love with our city and with our school district. Bobb should be staying because he believes he has not done enough o improve the districts academic success and he doesn’t expect that success to be seen in just one year. However it seems as if Bobb and others are only concerned with passing the mileage but are forgetting that district doesn’t just have financial problems but it has academic problems. Nearly half the district’s schools did not meet AYP which is Adequate Yearly Progress meaning that our schools are not even sufficiently educating our youth.

No one is denying that some of Detroit’s schools need to be torn down and rebuilt but the facts are this, new or modernized schools don’t educate our youth. Until Bobb and his academic czar Barbara Byrd-Bennett show some academic success in the district than why should Detroiters invest even more of their tax dollars in this district especially putting their homes on the lines once again. And what’s even more disturbing is that no one knows how for sure how long Detroiters will be paying on this bond mileage with earlier estimates saying until 2039 unless the district borrows from the state to pay any of the interest which means it could be for even longer if the state decides.

Then to make matter worse is that the district hasn’t thought of a Plan B for how to build or remodel schools. Well plan b for the district should be to build a create a public-private partnerships with organizations like the NAACP, the Detroit Urban League, the Skillman Foundation, the Council of Baptist Pastors, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, and other politicians to raise funds for DPS’s newly reopened DPS Foundation that should be aimed at raising the money necessary to modernize the school district. This is the type of plan which shows that the district is not simply looking for government or taxpayer handouts but instead is doing what it can to raise the funds necessary to invest in a new and better DPS.

However the district and Bobb as well as others have not figured this out and want to continue to place the burden of paying for a less than sufficient educational system on the backs of Detroit taxpayers yet alone their homes. So staying for proposal S is not good enough for the district or the citizens of Detroit. If Bobb wants to show he is serious about saving and repairing DPS than he will stay because he wants to improve the districts academics and finances but he can only do that by staying for at least 5 years to see the fruits of his labor. No one seems to demand this and this is why DPS will not see a rebirth until such a commitment from leadership is made.

Proposal S is bad for Detroiters

It seems as if the news media especially the Detroit News don’t understand why the timing of Proposal S is just not right for the type of economic conditions that Detroiters are facing right now. In Sunday’s edition of the Detroit News, an editorial read, “Voters should approve Detroit school bond, if Bobb stays.” However the fact that Proposal S is dependent upon if Robert Bobb just goes to show how the timing of the proposal is not right because voters should be considering a bond proposal because the timing of it would be benefit our children. The fact the passage of the bond proposal is dependent upon Robert Bobb who has done some good things is just how flawed the proposal really is.

Nonetheless even when the Detroit News wrote its editorial, it seems as if it didn’t take into the consideration the incident that took place at Cobo Hall just a few weeks ago that showed how bad economic times are in Detroit. The long lines and the hundreds as well as thousands of people who crowded into Cobo and nearly pushed and shoved each other to death just to get government assistance to help many from being homeless and others with their utility bills. The scene was broadcasted all across America and wrote about in nearly every major news paper in the state and nationally but it seems as if the Detroit News has forgotten that. Well I haven’t. I was already against Proposal S before then but the reality is that while the bond proposal won’t care any new taxes on us as residents already, if you look around the city now compared to 1994 when the original proposal was passed, much has changed in Detroit.

One of the major changes that have occurred in Detroit is the fact that most Detroiters are no longer homeowners because the Great Recession and the housing crisis that continues to plague most of Southeast Michigan. In fact many Detroiters are walking away from their homes that they own and we can see this all across Detroit where we see vacant lots and homes bordered up. Simply having Robert Bobb here to stay will not solve this problem but what the Detroit News and others don’t want to recognize is that the 1994 bond proposal was suppose to be for 15 years meaning it would expire next year since the money didn’t go until affect until 1995. However now it seems as the bond proposal doesn’t expire until 2033 and if Proposal S is passed than Detroiters won’t be done paying on it until 2039.

Still there is the fact that a part of the bond proposal reads “The bonds may be issued in multiple series, payable in the case of each series in not to exceed thirty (30) years from the date of issue of each series. If the School District borrows from the State to pay debt service on the bonds of this issue, the School District may be required to continue to levy mills beyond the term of the bonds to repay the State.” Thus if you are reading this correctly the whole notion that the state would be done paying on this bond proposal until 2039 is not true because if DPS borrows from the state than we could be paying on this until 2069 or longer. When reading that, I believe that with the current conditions Detroiters are facing, it is virtually impossible to believe that DPS will be able to pay for the bond proposal without borrowing if in 1994 we had a population of nearly 900,000 and had to borrow from the state than which made the original bond proposal expire in 2033 in the first place than, what’s to say it won’t happen again and another 30 or more years isn’t added.

Simply Robert Bobb staying won’t solve Detroit’s population problem and the fact that we don’t have a tax base who can afford to stay in their homes during this housing foreclosure which hasn’t ended in Detroit by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore with all the economic problems facing our city and DPS as a school district, the timing of the bond proposal is not good business for a city still trying to recover and pull itself up by the bootstraps. Passing Proposal S right now would be just foolish and insane for us a city especially considering that just a few weeks ago we were being portrayed as a desperate city under chaos where poverty and despair had hit its all time high in the nation’s eyes. While Detroit unemployment is nearly 30% and this bond proposal will create some jobs, what type of insurance is there that Detroiters will get these the 3,000 plus direct jobs that this will create. What insurances are there that the 7000 plus indirect jobs will be given to Detroiters and how will the bond proposal as well as the math by the state agency that created these numbers created considering that the state just reported that state revenue isn’t coming in as fast as it predicted and thus another $127 must be cut from the K-12 budget.

So how can we as Detroiters depend on the state’s numbers right now when they are wrong about other estimates they made as the budget negotiations come to an end. Detroit we can’t afford proposal S no matter how much we would like to build new schools for youth, the reality is that we can’t afford to build these buildings right now when we can’t afford it. There are several reasons why Proposal S is bad but timing is just the main reason why we can’t afford it considering the fact that our economy in the city is more dicer than it has ever been and Robert Bobb staying won’t fix that. While the Detroit News avoids this, we as Detroiters can’t avoid the fact that in these tough economic times, we are being asked to add a long term burden on future Detroiters when our city doesn’t have a plan to how to repopulate the city and Detroit Public Schools doesn’t have an academic plan for how to educate our youth yet alone a plan to ensure that an investment in new or remodeled school buildings will lead to our youth taking care of those buildings unlike they have done with the paint jobs done this summer where graffiti can be seen on many walls.

These are the things that should be mentioned but are not and this is why Proposal S is bad for Detroit and we should vote on it come Tuesday, November 3, 2009.

Bobb Defends Turnaround Teams Efforts

In Saturday’s edition of the Detroit Free Press, stat appointed Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools wrote an article entitled, “DPS story an inaccurate portrayal of turnaround.” In the article, Bobb begins by saying, “The Oct. 10 story regarding Detroit Public Schools' use of consultants ("Pricey consultants raise questions on DPS budget") is filled with inaccuracies and disingenuously portrays our turnaround team's efforts. It is simply untrue that $40 million has been "set aside ... to pay for consulting fees ... for a turnaround team" I have assembled to radically correct the dangerous course on which this city's school system had been heading.”

Bobb goes on to say, “Contracts reviewed again this week by the Office of the Auditor General -- and made available to the Free Press -- total $4.9 million, not the $40 million alleged in the article. The work of the teams brought in to transform DPS systems has saved tens of millions of dollars, funds that can be used to reduce our long-term deficit and place more resources in the classroom, and that exceed many times over the cost for the turnaround team. On health care alone, by removing 3,903 illegal dependents from our health care rolls we are saving $13.3 million, and through restructuring we will save an additional $16.1 million. On Medicaid billings, we anticipate receiving $13 million or more, in comparison with $5 million collected annually in previous years. Reductions in taxicab services and reorganizing yellow bus routes will save us $7.6 million. Functional reviews of special education services have saved $15 million. Haircuts taken by vendors seeking past due payments have saved $6.9 million. We discovered $3.4 million in overbillings and miscalculated fees from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. We are proud of our work to rein in spending, establish controls, create audits and uncover cases of waste, fraud, abuse and illegal activity.”

Then Bobb went on to say, “It is true that, outside of the emergency financial manager's immediate turnaround team, there is indeed a line item in the district's budget that sets aside funds for contracted services. The work of the turnaround team and normal contracted services should not be confused. We are, in fact, pursuing opportunities for managed competition, as has been done in the past. In areas such as student transportation and facility operation and maintenance, if it can be proven that our employees can perform this work better and at lower costs, then employees will do the work. If it is shown to be better to bring in private firms, we will do so.”

Within the article, Bobb said, “The reference to Kevin Clinton, a DPS employee who fills a position that had previously existed, fails to note his achievements to make $16 million in unspent Title I funds available for summer school programs and his efforts to help DPS avoid returning an additional $89 million in federal aid. The article fails to note that Angela Joyner, the DPS budget director, fills roles previously held by two full-time administrators. The article also fails to mention that 40% of one consultant contract has been covered by the prestigious Broad Foundation. In the 227 days that we have been on the ground, we continue to root out waste, fraud and abuse, save tens of millions of dollars and transform this district into one filled with centers of excellence at every school in every neighborhood. Inaccurate reporting, while it does not slow our efforts one minute, does a disservice to your readers who deserve to know the whole story.
Now the Detroit Free Press stands by its story and it should because let’s be fair, Robert Bobb and his team has done some good things for the district in terms of trying to fight corruption to some degree. Still, while Bobb and his team have done good things, they have done some questionable things as well and for any news outlet or the community to ignore it than it would be an injustice to all of us. For instance, what Bobb doesn’t address in his rebuttal to the Free Press is the fact that the deficit-ridden district has leased riverfront apartments for consultants, as well as paid $400 a week per person for food in addition to airfare to fly some out of town for weekends, according to invoices and school officials. Some of the consultants come from Washington, D.C., and Cleveland -- cities where Bobb and his top academic consultant previously worked.

While Bobb tries to make it seem as if the Free Press was getting his turnaround team confused with the daily staff that is permanent in Detroit however in the Free Press article written by Chastity Pratt-Dawsey, she clearly states that Bobb is set to spend $40 million on advisors for DPS meaning he hasn’t spent all of it yet. Also Bobb didn’t deny that such funds have been set aside either and in fact he somewhat says it is in this statement, “It is true that, outside of the emergency financial manager's immediate turnaround team, there is indeed a line item in the district's budget that sets aside funds for contracted services.” So clearly the Free Press was alluding to this issue and in no way was trying to make it seem as if the turnaround team and normal contracted services were the same.

The fact is that some of the contracts given out are not necessary normal whatsoever. Bobb’s attempt at addressing the Free Press allegations didn’t take into account the allegations regarding the fact that after clearing out hundreds of administrators from the historically management-heavy schools system, Bobb has approved no-bid contracts to dozens of out-of-town contractors and firms to lead several departments. The short-term troubleshooters are budgeted to cost $38.8 million this year -- twice the cost of the administrators who were released from those jobs, according to documents obtained by the Free Press. Their contracts also include payments for expenses such as airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, meals, taxis, parking and office supplies. Last year, the district spent about $8.5 million on outside consultants, records show.

Bobb tries instead to focus on the fact that the consultants will more than pay for themselves. In the past six months, the contractors have identified about $20 million in savings so far in the areas of health care, transportation and overdue vendor payments, according to a statement the district released Friday. About $6.5 million has been saved so far because of layoffs. The DPS consulting bills could balloon to $94 million because an additional $54 million is budgeted to hire a private company to run facilities maintenance. "The fact of the matter is that DPS staff, as it was constructed, did not have the capacity to effectively operate a school district," DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said by e-mail Friday. "Children and parents have been suffering the pain of a grossly mismanaged school district. The cost of consultants are virtually a nonissue when compared to the enormous problems DPS faced."

Maybe that explains why in the first 3 months of the school year the district has overspent by $21 million already, there goes that $20 million in savings by Bobb’s contractors and consultants. In fact at the end of the 2008-09 school year, Bobb eliminated about 72% of the curriculum and instruction department -- about 181 people, including 11 department heads. Those cuts are to save DPS about $16 million a year, Bobb announced this summer. For now, vendors and consultants with connections to Bobb and the chief academic accountability auditor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, run major departments. For example, Kevin Clinton, the executive director of the Department of State and Federal Programs for DPS, and Bobb worked together for Washington, D.C., and for the city's school district. Clinton was a fiscal officer for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education for Washington, D.C., and Bobb was the state school board president.

DPS budget director Angela Joyner and Bobb worked together in Oakland, Calif., when he was city administrator and she was a budget analyst and again in Washington when he was on the state board and she was the district's budget director. Byrd-Bennett, a former chief executive officer of Cleveland's public school system, brought with her at least six consultants who are collectively being paid more than $700,000 for about nine months of work. Their addresses were redacted on the contracts obtained by the Free Press, but public records confirm they have worked with Byrd-Bennett in Cleveland or New York. Her office has already overspent by $40,000 its $754,000 budget for consultants, according to DPS data.

Byrd-Bennett's $176,828 contract spans from May 11 to March 2. She also has a personal driver -- an armed DPS police officer. One of the more controversial contracts was given to the Philadelphia-based PFM Group, which used to employ Bobb as a senior managing consultant. PFM received a $972,000 no-bid contract to help develop a new financial plan for DPS, according to officials. The contract with DPS was not made available, however, despite a Free Press request under the Freedom of Information Act. Bobb doesn’t address any of the overspending whatsoever in terms of Bennett’s contract and office. In fact Bobb doesn’t address why a chief academic accountability auditor needs her own personal security, I have never heard of such security for someone in academics like that. Nonetheless Bobb tried to say that Kevin Clinton, a DPS employee who fills a position that had previously existed, says the Free Press fails to note his achievements to make $16 million in unspent Title I funds available for summer school programs and his efforts to help DPS avoid returning an additional $89 million in federal aid.

However what Bobb doesn’t mention is what actual academic achievement was achieved during the summer school academies and if I am not mistaken I thought Bobb asked the State’s Superintendent for permission to use Title 1 funds to fund summer school academies so while it fine to say Clinton made those funds available and saved the district from returning an additional $89 million in federal aid, it is unclear what accomplishments if any were achieved in summer school academies across the district. Bobb also tried to say the article fails to note that Angela Joyner, the DPS budget director, fills roles previously held by two full-time administrators. The article also fails to mention that 40% of one consultant contract has been covered by the prestigious Broad Foundation. Still Bobb avoids the fact that the Free Press wasn’t mentioning Clinton or Joyner and what they did but more their connections to Bobb or Byrd-Bennett and how they got their contracts or jobs in the district now.

Still Bobb’s article failed to answer why Comprehensive Financial Management Consultants, with an office in Southfield, sent DPS bills for $493,325 for dozens of auditors to work for one month to reconcile the schools' financial records and bank deposits. Is that the fair value market rate for such audits and how many audits were exactly performed that justifies paying a company nearly a half a million dollars for just one month’s worth of work. Bobb also didn’t address why the Portolan Group, based in Berkeley, Calif., was contracted to fill the role of chief operations officer to assess and make recommendations about the performance of facilities and food services. The firm was to be paid $193,800 for 1,160 employee hours. The dismissed chief of facilities and food services had earned $127,906 a year plus benefits. In an amendment to the contract, the company will be paid an additional $196,700 from Aug. 1 to March 1 for one full-time executive and other part-time staff to work one to two weeks per month.

Bobb’s article fails to address why the New York-based firm Alvarez & Marsal was contracted at $500,000 -- including travel and lodging -- for a four-month period to review special education services, then design and implement an improvement plan which hasn’t been made public to my knowledge. Bobb doesn’t explain why Fanning Howey Associates, an architectural firm in Alexandria, Va., is contracted for $647,150 to assist in the summer construction program and long-range planning for the capital bond application to the state. In fact the summer construction throughout the district should be questioned when people tell me some schools lockers look like keys on a piano meaning some lockers are missing and other schools have new paint jobs but graffiti already been seen on walls, lockers and desks in these schools.

Still Bobb’s article to try to fight back for the district is not very transparent and doesn’t address the fact that Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates, PC, of Washington, D.C., have billed the district $333,606 for 2 1/2 months of financial consulting, including about $45,000 in travel expenses for nine workers and why McCrary Security Consultants of Florissant, Mo., billed DPS $58,960 for two consultants working two weeks to assess the DPS security department, including expenses. Afterward, a contract was signed for $53,600 a month, plus $5,360 for expenses for the two experts to work as needed through October. These type of contracts and amounts are a lot and make me wonder how is that possible especially considering the fact if you contracted a group to assess DPS security at those large amounts than why do we still have lazy security who don’t clear halls or campuses.

Anytime someone drives past a high school and see youth outside before 2:30p.m., it’s a problem. Anytime you go to a high school and kids are in the hallways before bell time and are hovered around the security booth, it’s a problem. Therefore while I am proud to say Bobb has done some good things for the district and much needed things, he still avoids critical questions that were raised by the Free Press article. While Bobb has been more transparent than previous school superintendents and the school boards, he still is not transparent enough with the DPS budget and where the shortfalls lay as well as how the district overspent in the first 3 months of the school year and the month of October is not even over yet. There are so many questions that Bobb failed to address in his first article to a major news paper in the city and it is clear that he would rather highlight things the public already knows than to address allegations of putting aside money for contractors and paying high no-bid contracts to consultants that are not delivering ordinary services when people are employed to those services right now.

Bobb would have gained my respect even more if he had of addressed many of the contractual issues that the Free Press addressed as well as the connections between many of the companies getting the large contracts. Bobb would have made his case a whole lot better if he just had addressed the issues that Free Press article are accusing the district and Bobb of. However Bobb and my beloved school district continue to hide from the hard hitting questions that seem to always plague DPS such as how contracts are being given out, nepotism, overspending and full transparency of the facts. If this continues than Bobb’s reign as EFM is no better than other previous boards or superintendents because those are the pressing issues that have plagued DPS and have resulted in a budget that is out of control and our children failing at a rate that makes me angry and should make everyone else angry. Accountability begins at the top first and it is clear that while Bobb and his team have done good things, they still have many questions to answer and they missed a golden opportunity to do so.

DPS Budget is called into question over Pricey consultants

Detroit Public School’s budgetary woes is being called into question since State appointed Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb is set to spend $40 million on advisers for DPS. Robert Bobb, the state appointee overseeing the Detroit Public Schools, has set aside nearly $40 million to pay for consulting fees and perks for a turnaround team he assembled to strengthen the district's financial management, angering unions that have suffered 2,500 layoffs since summer. The deficit-ridden district has leased riverfront apartments for consultants, as well as paid $400 a week per person for food in addition to airfare to fly some out of town for weekends, according to invoices and school officials. Some of the consultants come from Washington, D.C., and Cleveland -- cities where Bobb and his top academic consultant previously worked.

DPS officials said Friday the consultants will save more money than they cost in the long run and have saved about $20 million so far in which the district has really already spent since they are over budget by $21 million in less than 3 months into the school district according to a Detroiter News article on Friday. "Mr. Bobb has done an outstanding job of recruiting some of the best educational and financial specialists," said Steve Wasko, a spokesman for the district. Union leaders balked at the spending on consultants. "It's a hard pill to swallow when you tell people you have no money and you continue to spend money," said Ruby Newbold, president of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees union, whose members average $26,000 a year.

So the pricey consultants raise questions on DPS budget. After clearing out hundreds of administrators from the historically management-heavy schools system, Bobb has approved no-bid contracts to dozens of out-of-town contractors and firms to lead several departments. The short-term troubleshooters are budgeted to cost $38.8 million this year -- twice the cost of the administrators who were released from those jobs, according to documents obtained by the Free Press. Their contracts also include payments for expenses such as airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, meals, taxis, parking and office supplies. Last year, the district spent about $8.5 million on outside consultants, records show.

Union officials and school board members are crying foul because the consultants' pay and perks come after 2,500 DPS employees were laid off. More budget cuts loom because of state education funding reductions. The district has an estimated $259-million deficit from previous years and has overspent by $21 million so far for 2009-10. Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said it's hypocritical of Bobb to budget so many consultants. "When you look at how we got into this financial mess in the first place, a lot had to do with getting into contracts with consultants and vendors," Johnson said. "The very things Robert Bobb said he's seeking to clean up, he seems to be perpetuating."

But school officials said the consultants will more than pay for themselves. In the past six months, the contractors have identified about $20 million in savings so far in the areas of health care, transportation and overdue vendor payments, according to a statement the district released Friday. About $6.5 million has been saved so far because of layoffs. The DPS consulting bills could balloon to $94 million because an additional $54 million is budgeted to hire a private company to run facilities maintenance. "The fact of the matter is that DPS staff, as it was constructed, did not have the capacity to effectively operate a school district," DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said by e-mail Friday. "Children and parents have been suffering the pain of a grossly mismanaged school district. The cost of consultants are virtually a nonissue when compared to the enormous problems DPS faced."

At the end of the 2008-09 school year, Bobb eliminated about 72% of the curriculum and instruction department -- about 181 people, including 11 department heads. Those cuts are to save DPS about $16 million a year, Bobb announced this summer. For now, vendors and consultants with connections to Bobb and the chief academic accountability auditor, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, run major departments. For example, Kevin Clinton, the executive director of the Department of State and Federal Programs for DPS, and Bobb worked together for Washington, D.C., and for the city's school district. Clinton was a fiscal officer for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education for Washington, D.C., and Bobb was the state school board president.

DPS budget director Angela Joyner and Bobb worked together in Oakland, Calif., when he was city administrator and she was a budget analyst and again in Washington when he was on the state board and she was the district's budget director. Byrd-Bennett, a former chief executive officer of Cleveland's public school system, brought with her at least six consultants who are collectively being paid more than $700,000 for about nine months of work. Their addresses were redacted on the contracts obtained by the Free Press, but public records confirm they have worked with Byrd-Bennett in Cleveland or New York. Her office has already overspent by $40,000 its $754,000 budget for consultants, according to DPS data.

Byrd-Bennett's $176,828 contract spans from May 11 to March 2. She also has a personal driver -- an armed DPS police officer. One of the more controversial contracts was given to the Philadelphia-based PFM Group, which used to employ Bobb as a senior managing consultant. PFM received a $972,000 no-bid contract to help develop a new financial plan for DPS, according to officials. The contract with DPS was not made available, however, despite a Free Press request under the Freedom of Information Act.

With the top consultants' contracts set to expire as Bobb's contract expires March 2, it is unclear who will pick up the baton when he and the consultants leave town. Bobb said last week that his administration is creating a road map for DPS to follow. "What's really important is putting in place the controls for whether I fall off the face of the Earth, the business" of DPS "will go on," he said. Tom White, a consultant and former executive director for the Michigan School Business Officials, said it's typical for school leaders to bring consultants whom they trust to a new mission. "All of the people probably realize they're not in a lengthy gig, so DPS is going to have to pay a premium. It's a specific, difficult," White said. "You'd have to look deeper to make sure they're doing everything right, but conceptually, there's nothing extraordinary."

Bobb has a loyal following of parents and students who surrounded him at last week's enrollment count day. Parent Tanya Cooley personally thanked Bobb for setting a no-nonsense tone in DPS. "Last year was chaos; it's more calm this year," she said. Meanwhile, critics and school board members who lost control over the budget when Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Bobb, wonder whether his team of consultants can study and fix the district in a year's time. Board member Ida Short said the governor and Legislature need to track Bobb's spending. "We've been pimped, we've been hoodwinked and the public needs to get wind of this," she said. "He's supposed to be here remedying our debt, not spending our money. This is what the last state takeover did to us."

A closer look at some key consultants with significant roles in the restructuring of Detroit Public Schools:
-- Comprehensive Financial Management Consultants, with an office in Southfield, sent DPS bills for $493,325 for dozens of auditors to work for one month to reconcile the schools' financial records and bank deposits.
-- The Portolan Group, based in Berkeley, Calif., was contracted to fill the role of chief operations officer to assess and make recommendations about the performance of facilities and food services. The firm was to be paid $193,800 for 1,160 employee hours. The dismissed chief of facilities and food services had earned $127,906 a year plus benefits. In an amendment to the contract, the company will be paid an additional $196,700 from Aug. 1 to March 1 for one full-time executive and other part-time staff to work one to two weeks per month.
-- The New York-based firm Alvarez & Marsal was contracted at $500,000 -- including travel and lodging -- for a four-month period to review special education services, then design and implement an improvement plan.
-- Fanning Howey Associates, an architectural firm in Alexandria, Va., is contracted for $647,150 to assist in the summer construction program and long-range planning for the capital bond application to the state.
-- Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates, PC, of Washington, D.C., have billed the district $333,606 for 2 1/2 months of financial consulting, including about $45,000 in travel expenses for nine workers.
-- McCrary Security Consultants of Florissant, Mo., billed DPS $58,960 for two consultants working two weeks to assess the DPS security department, including expenses. Afterward, a contract was signed for $53,600 a month, plus $5,360 for expenses for the two experts to work as needed through October.

Thus as I have reported previously, Bobb has done some things good for the district but at the same time, paying these high salaries to several consultants and the fact the district has already overspent 3 months into this school year is not what Bobb was hired to do. It doesn’t sound like we are reigning in spending to me and it definitely doesn’t sound like we are making sure as much money go toward the classroom as we can deliver there. So when reading about what the consultants were paid to do, I can begin to tell you that if we hired a consulting firm to asses DPS security department for only two weeks and got billed for $58,960 that doesn’t sound right to me and from being in the schools and hiring from several other educators, it seems as if DPS security department or police, whatever you want to call them, they haven’t approved under Bobb’s watch when I see kids in the hallway during class time and outside of the school building particularly high schools between 1-1:30p.m. Therefore it is clear that our state legislator and Governor Granholm need to question this type of spending and the amounts given especially considering that one state EFM is currently under trail for paying himself more than what he was suppose to get paid by the state.

So in order to avoid another black eye, Governor Jennifer Granholm and the state legislator should properly investigate Bobb’s spending habits and all the large sums of money these consultants are being given especially since the last consultants Bobb hired to be over high schools such as Edison don’t have a stellar track record of academic success. Detroit we can’t be fooled no longer. I know we all want to see a more viable and better DPS where all our kids are learning what they need to learn to succeed and our district knows how to balance its budget and not overspend. However that can’t happen until we get the truth about who is getting what of our money and how does their services justify the amount they are getting. Bobb can’t continue to say DPS is broke but pay what seems to be top dollar for all these consultants to do less than a month of work in some cases that hasn’t yielded any positive results in certain areas based off the amount of time they spent in assessing that area. We deserve better Detroit and people like Steve Wasko need to stop trying to protect Bobb when Steve himself has simply been making a paycheck for supposedly marketing the district but has failed at it for years until now with Bobb’s efforts to promote all the good the district has to offer.

Nonetheless, we as Detroiters have to hold Bobb, the Governor and the state accountable for how our money is being spent and why we are paying for consultants at a time when Bobb was hired to simply reign in spending and fix our budget but so far Bobb has overspent the first 3 months of the 2009-2010 school year but he wouldn’t tell you that but instead would love to promote the fact the district has save quote unquote $20 million but let’s talk about the $21 million the district has already overspent this year. Detroit demand more accountability from Robert Bobb, Governor Jennifer Granholm and our state legislators who sent Bobb to DPS to balance the budget and reign in our spending habits but so far his spending habits are just as badly as the status quo of DPS. So to a degree Detroit, we are being hoodwinked, tricked and bamboozled by Bobb and the state. Where’s the accountability people that’s what we as Detroiters need now more than ever.

So until we get real accountable and reign in DPS’s spending habits, we can’t support Proposal S and we can’t allow Bobb or the state to get away with the hiring of consultants who get paid over $50,000 for only doing two weeks’ worth of work. What does that sound like you? It sounds more like Wall Street rather than a struggling school district trying to stay afloat. A Change has to come to DPS and it is clear that Bobb’s idea of change has both successes and consequences that remind me of the status quo rather than a change in the right direction to put DPS on stable footing. What is DPS’s budget because it is clear the district isn’t as broke and bankrupt as some would want us to believe? The pricey consultants call DPS into question and for good reason and the state needs to investigate this properly.

DPS Board disapproves of Proposal ‘S’

Finally I can report that the Detroit Public School Board of Education has done something I agree with although I think it was more of a political or jockeying for power move for some board members rather than a legitimate move. Nonetheless the DPS board voteed against backing bond issue otherwise known as Proposal S. The $500 million bond issue Detroit voters will decide on the Nov. 3 ballot got the official snub from the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education Thursday night.

The board voted 8-1 to withhold support of Proposal S, the bond issue Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb has been touting to renovate eight schools and build eight others. Board member Tyrone Winfrey abstained from voting. It would have been nice if all 9 members who were present voted against supporting Proposal S and it would have been even greater if all 11 board members were there to show unison for the first time since us as Detroiters got our elected board back. Still Board members expressed concerns over poor management of a 1994 $1.5 billion bond and uncertainty surrounding future leadership of the district. Bobb has not said whether he will stay past his one-year contract.

Board member Anthony Adams, who initially was supportive of the proposal because of the chance to build new schools, voted no because of concerns over management and Bobb's lack of consultation with the board. "There's too much uncertainty. We don't know (who) is going to be mayor, on City Council or if there is going to be an elected board," board member Annie Carter said. DPS overspent millions of the 1994 bond money to buy property for new schools and floors in the Fisher Building, according to an audit commissioned by Bobb. But if approved, strong oversight measures would be put in place, Bobb said.

Though Bobb says the bond won't amount to a tax hike, board members said it will cost Detroiters money at a time when they are grappling with a recession. "We can't afford it. Don't be tricked. Now is not the time," said board member Marie Thornton. Bobb launched a new Web site Thursday – “http://www.detroitk12.org/proposals” -- to explain the bond issue and address concerns over how the 1994 money was spent.

Proposal S
For those who don’t know Proposal S strives to rebuild and modernize schools. On Nov. 3, voters will have an opportunity to consider Proposal S, a bond referendum which seeks to take advantage of $500.5 million in stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama made available to build new schools and modernize existing schools. Detroit Public Schools seeks to build eight new schools and modernize 10 schools. The funds would come to DPS in the form of no-interest and low-interest bonds available under economic stimulus packages. These dollars must be spent quickly—within 3 years. DPS received the 6th largest allocation of qualified school construction bonds in the country. If the district does not use these funds, it will lose them. There will be no tax increase if Proposal S is approved. Taxes will remain the same.

Under Proposal S, $246 million — nearly half of the bonds — will be re-paid at a 0% interest rate. The program also will stimulate the economy. According to the State of Michigan’s formula, Proposal S will create nearly 11,000 jobs and will result in $500.5 million being spent in Detroit neighborhoods within a 3-year period beginning in January 2010. Proposal S will improve the district’s progress toward creating safe, new, state-of- the-art Centers of Excellence in Detroit neighborhoods and public schools. It is the district's goal that any Proposal S fund savings would be redirected to improve the safety, technology and quality of life in the district Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, is holding town hall meetings on Proposal S. He also will accept invitations from any community or school groups, senior citizens or any others to make a presentation on Proposal S.

Town Hall Dates
The dates of the Town Hall meetings, open to the public, are as follows:
Sept. 21 Denby, 12800 Kelly Road, at 5 p.m.
Sept. 22 Finney, 4180 Marlborough Street, at 5 p.m.
Sept. 23 Maybury, 4410 Porter Street, at 5 p.m.
Sept. 30 Vetal, 14200 Westwood Street, at 5 p.m.
Sept. 30 Hanstein, 4290 Marseilles Street, at 7 p.m.
Oct. 5 Henry Ford, 20000 Evergreen Road, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 6 JR King, 15850 Strathmoor Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 7 Southwestern, 6921 W. Fort Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 8 Mumford, 17525 Wyoming Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 12 Western International, 1500 Scotten Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 14 King HS, 3200 E. Lafayette Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 14 Marcus Garvey, 2301 Van Dyke Street, 7 p.m.
Oct. 20 Cooley, 15055 Hubbell Avenue, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 20 Duffield, 2715 Macomb Street, at 7 p.m.
Oct. 21 Durfee, 2470 Collingwood Street, at 5:00 p.m.
Oct. 27 Northwestern, 2200 W. Grand Boulevard, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 27 Noble Elementary, 8646 Fullerton Street, at 7 p.m.
Oct. 28 Bethune, 10825 Fenkell Street, at 5 p.m.
Oct. 29 Mark Twain, 12800 Visger Street, at 7 p.m.

Resources
Proposal S
Proposal S Brochure
Proposal S description document
Proposal S Town Hall Press Release
Proposal S Ballot Language
Proposal S Bond Referendum (English)
Proposal S Bond Referendum (Arabic)
Proposal S Bond Referendum (Bengali)
Proposal S Bond Referendum (Hmong)
Proposal S Bond Referendum (Romanian)
Proposal S Bond Referendum (Spanish)

1994 Bond
Under the 1994 $1.5 Billion Bond Program, the District built 3 new High Schools, renovated 2 others, built 16 other new school buildings, in addition to providing over $600 million in capital improvements to over 175 schools within the District, including bathroom and kitchen upgrades, lighting and electrical improvements, athletic facilities and wiring for the internet.
1994 Bond Spending Distribution
1994 Bond Project Cost Totals (csv format)

Universal PreK-8 School Model
Detroit Public Schools is moving toward a universal PreK-8 school model. The Proposal S bond program will deliver 5 new and 5 renovated PreK-8 schools within the next three years. These schools will follow a consolidated schools model that creates “academic centers” within a single school / campus. The centers will typically group administration, PreK – 5, academic support (media center, resource rooms), Arts and Athletics, and 6 – 8 into these separate but contiguous areas.
Typical configuration of these spaces and relationship between the centers.

Proposal S Frequently Asked Questions
What is a bond issue anyway?
A bond issue is a way to borrow money to finance capital projects. Capital projects include building new schools; school renovations such as new heating and cooling systems, electrical repairs, security provisions or window and floor replacement; and installing the latest education technology equipment in the classroom. Bond issues must be approved by voters.

What will the money from Proposal S be used for?
Financing from the passage of Proposal S will be used to build eight new schools and modernize 10 other schools. Schools that are modernized will be renovated with new heating, electrical and security systems and equipped with state-of-the-art technology. These projects can include:
Media centers
New heating systems
New plumbing and restrooms
New flooring, windows and lighting
Infrastructure improvements for air quality and lighting
Renovated swimming pools
Geothermal alternative energy to lower costs

If Proposal S is passed, will my taxes increase?
No. If voters approve Proposal S, there would be No tax increase. The current bond repayment millage, which is now scheduled to expire in 2033, would remain at the current level through 2039.

Will Proposal S create new jobs?
Yes. The state of Michigan estimates Proposal S will create nearly 11,000 new jobs in Metro Detroit, including 3,725 direct jobs and 7,000 indirect jobs. Direct jobs are those directly connected to each project, such as construction workers, painters and architects. Indirect jobs include jobs like truck drivers and restaurant workers.

Will any provisions be put in place to make sure Detroiters get jobs if Proposal S is passed?
Yes. The bond program will include Local/Small Local Business Enterprise programs and incentives such as First Source programs to encourage hiring Detroiters and mentoring and student employment programs to train a new generation of construction professionals.

Why can’t we use this $500.5 million to eliminate DPS’ deficit?
Money from a bond referendum can only be used for capital projects. It cannot be used to reduce debt.

Why will some neighborhoods get new or modernized schools and others will not?
The 18 schools selected for the bond project were chosen based on a number of criteria including number of students, how much of the building is used and the condition of the building or the cost to keep the building a first-class school. Schools that met these criteria were considered for renovation or rebuilding.

What about schools that are not on the list?
Savings from the project budgets will be used to support a district-wide security initiative, which will include:
Interior and exterior digital cameras
Updated alarm systems
Keyless entry
Campus perimeter fencing
It will also be used for technology upgrades in the classrooms, such as Smartboards and creating access to the Internet.

What interest rate will DPS get on the $500.5 million bonds?
Nearly half of the bonds, $246.5 million, will be repaid at a 0% interest rate. The remainder, $254 million, will be repaid at a 0 to 2% interest rate. Both rates are far below what DPS would receive if it attempted to sell bonds on its own at this time.

How were the funds from the 1994 Bond Proposal used?
A full report on the 1994 Bond Proposal and the use of funds is available at www.detroitk12.org/ProposalS.

Is there an oversight committee planned for Proposal S?
DPS Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb will establish an oversight committee of respected community leaders that will review every aspect of ongoing construction and funding. The DPS Bond Advisory and Fiscal Responsibility Committee will include parents, as well as government, industry, labor and community leaders who are committed to ensuring that the project has proper accountability and oversight.

What else is the district doing to secure funding?
Detroit Public Schools has aggressively pursued more than $800 million available in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds for K-12 school systems.

What Will I See on the Ballot?
Proposal S Ballot Language

All of this information comes directly from the DPS website that Robert Bobb and his team created to garner support for Proposal S but the truth of the matter is if we spent $1.5 billion in 1994 to do work to nearly 200 plus schools either to build new schools, remodel, or make improvements to the district in some way, shape or form than why are we being asked to spend a $500,540,000 million for just 18 schools. Does this sound right Detroit and to add misery to the matter, did we not see the chaos that happened at Cobo over getting aid to fight homelessness < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-r8rMPwp-A>. That melee should be a clear signal of just how desperate Detroiters are to stay afloat in these tough economic times. Detroiters can’t afford the continuation of paying for the rebuilding of DPS.

According to the DPS website, the 1994 bond proposal that I originally thought we would be done paying on it in 2011 isn’t set to expire until 2033 and if we pass Proposal S than it won’t expire until 2039 unless we borrow from the state to pay any of the interests on the loan than it could expire in 2069 at the earliest if the state decides so. Read the language people, the current bond mileage we are under was suppose to be for just 15 years but 30 years have been added to it already and another 30 years can be added to it if we pass Proposal S on November 3rd. Detroit we can’t afford Proposal S right now so let’s vote no. Well it is true that Proposal S won’t increase our current taxes but as of right now, look around your communities Detroit and if you have stayed in that area for as long as I have stayed in my childhood community than you know that many of the vacant lots and abandon houses you see used to be places where people used to live. Therefore Detroit vote no on Proposal S because we can’t afford it and there are too many unknowns regarding who will get the jobs that the proposal will create.

DETROIT VOTE NO on PROPOSAL S!