As I predicted 4 years ago - more fallout from Covid-related school closings

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M-Step scores are BARELY up this past year. I picked a random grade (6th) and proficiency rates are at 29% in math and 38% in English. Let me repeat those numbers. TWENTY NINE PERCENT of sixth graders who attend a public school are proficient at math and THIRTY EIGHT PERCENT are proficient at English.

If that isn't evidence that our public school system is in shambles, I don't know what is.

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/con ... 122847007/

Ann Arbor Public Schools is facing a 24-25 $25M deficit that was recently discovered related to cash reserve requirements. It is potentially on the brink of being assigned an emergency manager. If THAT doesn't tell you all you need to know about bad covid school board behavior, I don't think you are living in reality.

The author addresses the free technology, which seems unnecessary, but I was shocked to find that the district provides school supplies to all students. Those seem like low hanging fruits to me. Additionally, AAPS needs to look long and hard at the three high schools and determine if they are all still needed.

I have a kindergartener and I'd be happy to contribute to a modified model where supplies are funded by parents so there isn't a stigma for the kids whose parents don't have the same means as others. The childcare fiasco is another issue that needs to be addressed - all AAPS elementary schools should have access to before and after care, as existed pre-pandemic.

Finally, the school board fired the superintendent that had been in place since 2013 at the beginning of this school year and put the #2 in charge as an interim. They then contracted with a national search firm and came up with six finalists, including the interim. When the budget shortfall was announced, they decided to stop the search and name the interim the permanent superintendent.

I went to a few school board meetings in 2017 when the busing contract was coming up for renewal. The school board members were pretty clownish then. It doesn’t sound like that’s gotten any better. Swift never really impressed me either. They shut down for too long during Covid to boot. What a mess. This isn’t the first time they’ve had budget issues… in the late 2000’s they got themselves into trouble too. But this sounds worse.

[TC Talks]

Ann Arbor Public Schools is facing a 24-25 $25M deficit that was recently discovered related to cash reserve requirements. It is potentially on the brink of being assigned an emergency manager. If THAT doesn't tell you all you need to know about bad covid school board behavior, I don't think you are living in reality.
...

Finally, the school board fired the superintendent that had been in place since 2013 at the beginning of this school year and put the #2 in charge as an interim. They then contracted with a national search firm and came up with six finalists, including the interim. When the budget shortfall was announced, they decided to stop the search and name the interim the permanent superintendent.

And you blame the school board for moving to fix a deficit issue created by the past superintendent? Where are the auditors? Sounds like bad accountants.

The State requires certain checks and balances, when something like this goes wrong, there was a failure at several levels.

[bmw]

My personal experience having worked for a smaller public school and working directly with the school board on tech-related stuff - a school board is where people in the community who have a personal agenda go. Ours was a joke. All 7 members each had their own agenda and they almost never worked well together towards any bigger education-related goals.

I could bore you all with a storybook about my experience, but the short version is that I was fired for questioning at public meetings the wisdom of a 27-year, $9.7 million bond that the school was preparing to put on the ballot for approval.

TCT - every school has its own bylaws, but I assume that most work roughly the same. The superintendent prepares the budget, but the School Board is ultimately responsible for reviewing and approving it. So when it comes to blaming someone for a budget mess, the buck stops with the Board - literally. More generally speaking, the role of the Superintendent is to carry out the policies set by the Board.

[Matt]

Ann Arbor Public Schools is facing a 24-25 $25M deficit that was recently discovered related to cash reserve requirements. It is potentially on the brink of being assigned an emergency manager. If THAT doesn't tell you all you need to know about bad covid school board behavior, I don't think you are living in reality.
...

Finally, the school board fired the superintendent that had been in place since 2013 at the beginning of this school year and put the #2 in charge as an interim. They then contracted with a national search firm and came up with six finalists, including the interim. When the budget shortfall was announced, they decided to stop the search and name the interim the permanent superintendent.

And you blame the school board for moving to fix a deficit issue created by the past superintendent? Where are the auditors? Sounds like bad accountants.

The State requires certain checks and balances, when something like this goes wrong, there was a failure at several levels.

Sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut than to look like a complete idiot. I would have thought you would have learned that by now...

A play, in several parts:

Act 1 - September 14, 2023 - outgoing superintendent Jeanice Kerr Swift resigns

September 14, 2023

Hello AAPS Community,

It has been my tremendous honor to serve as Superintendent of Schools in the Ann Arbor Public Schools over these previous ten years.

I am deeply grateful for the close support and partnership of this AAPS team and school community, the many experiences we have shared, and am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved in our work together to support our students and staff, families, schools and community. I will always treasure the special relationships with so many across this Ann Arbor Public Schools community.

Today, I am sharing that I will resign from the Ann Arbor Public Schools. We all share the goal of working together to achieve a smooth and orderly leadership transition, keeping the support of our staff and the critical mission of serving our students as our primary focus.

Act 2 - November 8, 2023 - outgoing Superintendent Swift announces Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks:

November 8, 2023

Hello AAPS Team,

We are pleased to share that this evening the AAPS Board of Education has voted to approve their employment agreement with Ms. Jazz Parks, incoming Interim Superintendent of Schools; the first full day of service for Ms. Parks will be Friday, November 17th.

We will continue to work closely together, as we have throughout this time, to ensure a strong transition in leadership as we continue our focused work together in support of our students and staff, school and district leaders, parents and families, and the Ann Arbor Public Schools community.

Act 3 - November 16, 2023 - AAPS announces Jazz Parks:

Ann Arbor, Michigan...The Ann Arbor Public Schools, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Jazz Parks as Interim Superintendent.

Ms. Parks has served as Assistant Superintendent, School Leadership, in the Ann Arbor Public Schools since 2020. She served as Executive Director, K-8 and Middle Level from 2016 to 2020. Highlights of her leadership during this time include facilitating the District Equity Leadership Team, co-leadership of the District Crisis Response Team and work to implement comprehensive K-8 and middle school programming.

...

Several months later

...

Act 4 - March 13, 2024 - Interim Superintendent Parks notifies community of $25M budget shortfall:

This past November, as part of our regular budget review and audit process, the prior Superintendent made the Board of Education aware of a shortfall in our current school year budget. After being named Interim Superintendent, I authorized Marios Demetriou, retired AAPS Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, to perform a comprehensive top-to-bottom review of district finances to thoroughly assess our financial picture. We are also working with Plante Moran, a third-party independent financial expert, to confirm our analysis of district finances to ensure we have an accurate picture and can proceed on solid footing.

The initial review has revealed some significant budget challenges for our district that will require immediate and long-term actions, some of which will be painful. These challenges result from three main historical factors:

1. Staff has increased by 480 in the last 10 years

2. Student enrollment has decreased by 1,123 over the last 4 years

3. Recent agreements with our staff, including well-deserved and well-earned raises for teachers and staff, approved by our Board of Education resulted in increased staffing costs

As a result of these factors, our district is facing multi-year budget shortfalls that must be addressed immediately. According to the financial analysis, the district will need to cut approximately $25 million from the 2024-25 operating budget to comply with state and Board of Education requirements.

Act 5 - March 21, 2024 - Jazz Parks offered permanent superintendent position:

As the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education, we are committed to providing a world-class education that prepares our students for success and careers.

At our Wednesday, March 20, meeting, the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education voted to name Interim Superintendent Jazz Parks as our next superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools. Ms. Parks will assume the leadership post immediately, pending finalization of the contract.

We are genuinely excited to have Ms. Parks, with her 16 years of experience in Ann Arbor Public Schools, take over as the leader of our incredible district. Ms. Parks was selected from an impressive field of six qualified candidates, and we appreciate all our applicants for their passion, thoughtfulness, and experience.

Act 6 - March 22, 2024 - Interim Superintendent Parks announces survey and in-person meetings on 4/8:

We are seeking community input through a survey open to staff, parents, high school students, and community members. Please take the survey here. It will be open until Friday, April 5th. We are also reviewing the feedback and data from the superintendent search engagement process and last spring’s listen-and-learn to glean stakeholder priorities and inform our next steps. We will not make decisions regarding reductions until we hear from our Ann Arbor Public Schools Community.

Students in grades 3 through 8 will have the opportunity to share their feedback by completing age-appropriate surveys in school after Spring Break. Members of the district leadership team have also been meeting with diverse, representative groups of students to hear directly from them about their priorities regarding their school experiences. We plan to visit as many schools as possible over the coming weeks to engage with staff and students to get feedback and input.

We are also hosting a series of community input meetings to gather feedback and suggestions from the AAPS community, which will inform our next steps.

The meetings will be held on Monday, April 8, at Pioneer High School.

Secondary School Staff at 4:00 PM
Elementary School Staff at 5:30 PM
Parents and Community at 7:00 PM

Act 7 - April 7, 2024 - (still?) Interim Superintendent Parks cancels in-person feedback meetings, moves it virtual a week later:

As we return from spring break, I want to provide you with an update on the community meetings originally scheduled for April 8. We have received significant feedback regarding both accommodating the many events staff and families have scheduled for the historic solar eclipse on April 8 and expanding access to the community meeting for people who cannot attend in person. To better meet the needs of all in our community, we are shifting the meeting date and format originally scheduled on April 8 to a virtual town hall meeting on April 15 at 6:30 PM instead. This change will allow us to accommodate staff and families that cannot attend an in-person meeting as well as honor the requests to schedule the meetings after the upcoming historic solar eclipse and important religious holidays. The meeting will be recorded so AAPS community members will be able to view it at a time that meets their schedule if they cannot watch it live. During the virtual town hall, we will share a brief presentation and then answer questions from our staff and community. We will share more information about the format for April 15 as we get closer to the date.

[TC Talks]

Where was Plante Moran when things started to go down?

This timeline tells me that accountants were asleep at the wheel. How can a school board be blamed where there is bad data?

I too will be out of town for the eclipse.

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Where was Plante Moran when things started to go down?

This timeline tells me that accountants were asleep at the wheel. How can a school board be blamed where there is bad data?

I too will be out of town for the eclipse.

Ultimately the school board has some responsibility to ask questions of the accountants. "They are accountants of course they can do math" is a pretty good example of famous last words.