Flint Schools May Close More Buildings To Deal With Deficit

Flint Community Schools are at risk of losing more schools as the board works to deal with a more than $5 Million debt.

The board of education met Wednesday night to discuss future plans dealing with the huge deficit. An audit last week revealed that the district is running with about $5.7 Million structural deficit. The audit sited bad spending as one of the reasons, but that's definitely not the only reason.

We all know that the district is shrinking, and even though the geographical area stays the same size, the student count gets lower every year. I had hoped that the constant talk of closing schools every year had slowed down, but it doesn't appear that way. After the meeting Superintendent, Derrick Lopez issued the following statement.

The Flint Community Schools district is working closely with the Michigan Department of Education to pursue a deficit elimination plan to manage the district's long-term debt. The district's current financial hardship is a result of longstanding loans to be repaid, in combination with a disproportionate number of students requiring special education services, compared to state averages. We are unwavering in our commitment to providing an education designed to meet the whole needs of our students, and are committed to finding a path forward that does not compromise on classroom sizes or resources available to students. That being said, the scale of the deficit will require difficult decisions to be made, as outlined in the proposal we put forth

The board agreed to submit the deficit reduction plan to the state, but they did not make the details public yet. The details will be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday November 19th at Southwestern Academy starting at 5:30pm.

The schools that have been brought up for closure are Pierce, Eisenhower, Scott, and Northwestern. Parents of students at those schools are obviously not happy, and they made their voice heard at the meeting Wednesday night.

Nothing is for certain right now, but I am betting that Tuesday's meeting will be a heated one.