![]() I’m glad they won’t be sweating in class. “It’s good more children will have air conditioning. They are saying even assistant principals may be laid off. There won’t be a nurse in each building we will have ‘traveling nurses.’ By then, I expect there will be a lot of cuts. But they are spending so much money on buildings! What about mental health? Or school nurses? They are already saying they will cut school nurses by the 2023-24 school year. Clark Preparatory Academy Elementary.Īliya pointed out, “Our buildings need upgrades. Blackwell Institute Elementary, Greenfield Union, Thurgood Marshall, and J. It will close Ann Arbor Trail Magnet Elementary-Middle, Catherine C. Under the finalized agreement, DPSCD will spend $281 million to rebuild five schools, $296 million on renovation, and $128 million to reopen previously closed schools, expand pre-K, build additions, and demolish or sell some vacant buildings. Instead, Greenfield Union Elementary School, known as a “hidden jewel” for its small classes and STEM focus, will be closed. It’s heartbreaking to see a school close because when a school closes the community dies.” After substantial community pushback, DPSCD placed the threatened closure of Sampson-Webber on “hold,” removing it from the immediate “phase-out” list. Speaking to the press on the fate of her school, Sampson-Webber educator Sheila Allen-Frazier told the media, “It hasn’t been very positive, it’s been kinda bleak. Marshall has a large population of special needs students, now called exceptional students, who will be uprooted. For example, Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy will get a new building, but Thurgood Marshall will close. ![]() Some will get new buildings, but at what cost? In exchange for closing schools down the street. “Many parents have been vocal about the reorganization of DPSCD. Well, I don’t want to be part of the illusion. “I’m told, if you don’t like it, go find a charter. Vitti even says the will get rid of books by 2025! We are going backwards. She reflected bitterly to the WSWS, “All the work we’ve done for equity-or was it the illusion of equity-and look at where we are! I am angry and frustrated. “Upstairs, one of the students recently took a fallen ceiling tile and tossed it out of the window, damaging a car.”ĭPSCD parent Aliya Moore diligently attended and spoke out at school board meetings. “I still have ceiling tiles falling in my classroom,” said a DPSCD high school educator to the WSWS. These measures purposefully left the DPSCD ham-strung with no means to cover infrastructure improvements. Workers, via their property taxes, were left holding the bag for the school system’s historic debt, incurred primarily by a series of dictatorial Emergency Managers. Additionally, following the contrived bankruptcy of Detroit, the Detroit school district was dissolved to pay off state bondholders. Michigan’s School Aid Fund provides no money for school infrastructure. After the union squashed the protests, the district soldiered on, making only the most minimal improvements. In 2015-16, educators mounted a series of sickouts-in defiance of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) and the Democratic Party politicians-demanding attention to the prevalence of mold, crumbling ceilings, buckling pavements and rodents common in the city schools. The plan document acknowledges that the measure is a band-aid, stating, “With continued rising costs, our Facility Master Plan proposes the most immediate investment needs totaling $700M out of a $2.1 billion need . The plan is financed by $700 million from Michigan’s $6 billion federal COVID relief and is a one-time infusion to the Detroit schools. And teachers and staff will continue to be underpaid and under-resourced. Some community schools will be closed, further devastating impoverished neighborhoods. Moreover, the school board will end the mask mandate June 30. There will be five new schools and others which gain air conditioning, but critically, the deal fails to upgrade all HVAC systems for air conditioning and protection from the aerosolized COVID virus. ![]() Focused simply on buildings, it fails there too. The Facility Master Plan entirely ignores the people who teach, drive buses, and provide critical support services.
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