The Future of Lapeer West High School??

And so it continues. Now the focus changes from closing elementary schools, to the future of our high schools, chiefly the possible closure of Lapeer West High School. The trends do not look promising. In the  most recent enrollment projections, for the year 2014-2015, the most likely trends are that we will have approximately 1951 students in grades 9-12 for East, West, and Community High School combined. That would be down almost 300 students from the 2230 we were at in 2010-11. While we will need updated projections in the next few years to better understand what is coming, it is not simply just about the numbers.

Many people are not aware that when a school building is closed, very little savings is seen from the actual building costs. Virtually all of the cost savings comes from the reductions of principals, secretaries, librarians, parapros, and custodians. For elementary buildings, the savings is around $330,000. It would be roughly doubled,  or $660,000 if a high school were to be closed. In our cash strapped times, the reality is that this could mean 6 teachers continuing to educate our kids, or keeping a building open, but there is much more to the story and it is not just dollars and sense.

Going from 2 high schools to just 1 would certainly impact the choices that our kids would have. Whether it is band, football, or clubs, their opportunities could be cut in half. While this should not be the main concern, it is no less a legitimate concern.

Then there is the concern about the resources we have put into West. In just the last few years, we have build additional Science Labs, and an auxiliary gym at West with a substantial cost to the taxpayers. These additions came from the Bond that the LCS community passed in 2007, While we can look at the decisions to build these additions and whether they were in fact necessary, the fact is that we must do our best to honor our commitment to our kids and to make the best use of the facilities that our community tax dollars have built.

Lastly, we must determine when, and at what point will the numbers say that keeping 2 high schools is not the responsible or feasible thing to do. This will be vital to making the right decision for our kids. Currently, there is a Facilities Task force made up of parents, staff, and members of the community that is working on finding out . I myself am on the task force and would encourage any who care to find the time to get involved. At this time and for the foreseeable future, we have way to many students to close a high school even if we wanted. But, if the trends continue, we will in fact reach a point where it may be better for our kids and offer more choices and opportunities to them to combine our 2 high schools.

In the last year, Lapeer Schools conducted a survey of our community asking about the possibility of combining high schools. It was a large sample of people both with kids in the district, and those with no direct involvement in our district. The overwhelming majority of people said that we should keep 2 high schools as long as it was economically feasible. I would and did totally agree with that conclusion. How ever, we must look into the future and be prepare for what might lie ahead. Our lack foresight has cost our kids and taxpayers millions and we cannot afford any more short sightedness when it comes to education in Lapeer Community Schools.

We all hope that things will turn around and we can return to the good old days. The reality is that we do not know just what the future will hold, but we must be as prepared as possible to give our kids the best education we can and make sure that the decisions we make are sustainable for the long term. For too long, we have made decisions that have not been sustainable for the long term. We cannot afford to get this one wrong. We need much more information to be able to make the right decision on the future of our high schools. Nothing will change for the foreseeable future, but as we travel down the road, we will have a better grasp of just where we are with our student numbers. We must keep all options open and do what is truly in the best interests of the kids. We all miss the good old days, but in ever changing times, we must sometimes learn to change with them. The fact truly is that only time will tell.

Cliff notes are not the same as reading the entire book.

  In the past, I have pointed out some of the areas where LCS could have done a much better job with the dollars that they received from the bond that passed in May of 07. It seems to me that our current circumstances are very much like when you are in a high school English class. If you have not fully read the book that you were supposed to, one of the ways that you can squeak by, is to read the Cliff notes of book that you might not have read through  a book completely. Yes, this will give you a basic summary of the book, but you certainly will miss most of the detail. This seems to have been the case with Lapeer Community Schools and the information that our Board was given regarding our future  student enrollment numbers.

First let me say thank you to Mr. Wandrie and his hard working secretary and FOIA agent, Karen Rowden. After the September 6th Board meeting, Board Trustee Mike Nolan made a statement regarding the newly passed changes to Board policy to make sure that in future, all enrollment projections and information will be included in the budget process. This makes all enrollment information accessible for Board members and the public at large. While this a very good thing, he stated that "This was not information that we did not already have." After several requests from Mr. Nolan for clarification which went unanswered, and asking the entire Board directly, LCS was able to get me more information and was able to waive the $200 that they were going to have to charge to look up the information. As I have stated before, LCS has always been very forthcoming when ever I have had any questions, and this is no exception. This instance is no exception and I am grateful for being able to get access to this material

What I was given by the district were 3 pages that were given to our Board in July of 2008.  This is important because it give a snapshot of just what our Board was seeing at the time when they had to approve which facilities, and where the Bond money was being spent.
Here are the 3 sheets I was given:

Enrollment Figures Projected July 2008

Enrollment Figures Projected July 2008 

Enrollment Figures Projected July 2008 

This one in particular is the most precise of all and gives a good idea what our Board members were told to expect. in future years.
Enrollment Figures Projected July 2008


While this particular sheet does show significant decline, it is a compilation of all the projections from the 2006 projections. Notice the difference and lack of detail as compared to the full projections that they should have been using...

Lapeer Community Schools Enrollment Proj Dec 2006

The 08 summaries also wound up being off by over 300 students for the 11-12 school year. Had our Board members been shown the entire sets of numbers, over 20 pages, they would have seen a much more bleak set of possibilities. While I am not saying that anyone was intending to get it wrong, the fact that we have millions of dollars in buildings that we are not now using is proof that we did in fact get it wrong ar at a minimum, done much better for our kids.

To recap, we had projections for years 03,04,05,06,10, and 11. Over 120 pages of information and documentation that our district paid a firm thousands of dollars to aquire. As of today, I have been given a total of 1 page from 06, and 3 pages from 08 that our Board was given to make decisions on how to best spend the money allocated to our children. There may be more, and I am sure that the district will do their best to pass those on if any more are found.

As of September 6th, the LCS Board has voted to include the FULL and original documentation for any and all enrollment projections in the future. Our current Superintendent, Matt Wandrie knows the value of a fully informed Board. It also seems that our past Board members did not ever ask to see the original and complete documents. Had they done so, we might possibly done a better job building for our kids future.

Now that we know some of the circumstances of why things were done they way they were, we can put this information to use and learn from our mistakes. We can make sure that we always give our Board members full documentation regarding any issue that they must vote on to approve on behalf of our kids. We must also learn the lessons that our Board members must ALWAYS ask the hard questions and look at the full long term sustainability of any program or project for our kids. In these days of tight budgets we must make sure that we maximize all the dollars that we have available. This is one time that reading the whole book might have benefited our kids much better than the Cliff notes.

Transparency in our schools comes at a price $$$

Were some Board members aware that we would be losing 1000 kids within 5 years BEFORE they asked us to approve $56 Million on buildings that are now questionable whether we will be able to fill them?

 According to Board Trustee Mike Nolan at the September 6th meeting, this might be the case.

Complete Board video available at www.lapeerschools.org

At the September 6th meeting of the Lapeer Community Schools Board of Education (video clip above), the Board and Superintendent adopted some very positive changes. These changes will see that any future student enrollment projections are included into the budget process. This means that they will be brought into the public discussion. This is important because to this point, that was not the case, or so we were told.

After the new policy was announced, Mr. Nolan stated that these student projections were "Not new information" to the Board. Having emailed Mr. Nolan for more information but with no response, I sent a Freedom of Information request to the district to find out when, as per Mr. Nolan's statement, our Board was made aware of these projections. Had they in fact seen these enrollment projections BEFORE we were asked to vote on a Bond measure for $56 Million and not share these possible numbers with the public? Maybe they knew later in 2010 when millions were spent on now closed elementary buildings?

This is be very valuable information to our district, as I have been notified that it will cost $200 dollars to find out just when our elected Board members were given the information that our current Superintendent is now using to re-structure our district. It will cost $200.00 to find out if our Board was given the same information that our district had in Dec. of 2006 when these numbers were acquired by our district. Shouldn't those we elect be willing to answer a couple simple questions? Please take a look and you decide.

District Reponse to FOIA on Nolan Statement

 Is it wrong to expect a transparency of not only our District, but those who serve on the Board? I surely hope that our district is not now in the business of "selling" transparency, but it would seem otherwise.   Wm. Gavette - LCS Board Candidate

LCS gets it right, but did the Board of Education get it wrong?.

   At the most recent meeting of the Lapeer Board of Education on 9-6-2012, I was very pleased to hear board member Denise Becker read about the new Board Policy requested by Superintendent Matt Wandrie. This new policy makes any future enrollment projections part of the budget process every year. This means that board members as well as the public will be able to have the same information exactly that our district Administration has as far as where our student numbers are trending for the future. This is a really good thing and the Superintendent and Board should be applauded for fixing this problem corrects years of our Board not being made aware of this vital information. At least that is what I thought.

You might remember that in the Spring,  I submitted a FOIA request to our district for any reports or summaries of any and all enrollment projections that our board members had received over the last 20 years. I did this because of communications I have had with some board members that tell me that they were never given the actual projections to view themselves. I have heard this same account from several of the members of the board. This is supported by the fact that what I was sent by the Administration was a 1 page summary given in a Board Packet in 2006, Each of these student enrollment projections are well over 20 pages each and there were 6 sets of projections that our district purchased.

So it was a big surprise when Board member Mike Nolan stated unequivocally just after the new board policy was announced, that this was not new information to the Board. The video below is from the LCS Board video in which he states that this was not new information to the Board.

Mr. Nolan's statement goes contrary to statements and emails from other board members and from the FOIA response I have received from the district. While I have never had reason to doubt information that I have received from the district, this is very troubling. I have written Mr. Nolan to try to clear up what he meant by his statement, but as of yet, no response. Did our past boards really have these enrollment projections at their disposal and just not look at them or not consider them important?

This is important because it is these same student enrollment projections that Mr. Wandrie and the administration are now using to justify, (in my opinion rightly,) the closing of 2 elementary schools last year and working towards possibly closing West, and reconfiguring our middle schools in the coming years.

Since 2006, we have spent what will cost the taxpayers $2.7 million in Bond money and another $1.3 million from the sinking fund money. That same year (2006) we got projections that showed we would have just a little over 6000 kids at the end of 2011. we actually had 5996. This was the "most likely" projection from that set of projections.

I am most upset as I worked as did many others to get this bond passed. I felt that it was a great thing for our kids to get good facilities, and make the best use of taxpayer money. The reality is that we may find that we will only be able to fill one of these as a true middle school. in just a few years. Our community trusted that we were working on something that would last our children for decades when they approved the bond,  not just a few years. I surely hope that Mr. Nolan and the other board members did not have access to reports that clearly showed huge declines in our student numbers within 5 years and not act on them. Especially while at the same time we were spending millions on buildings that we might only be able to use as designed for a few short years.

As bad as the $4 million spent (Bond and Sinking Fund) on now closed elementary buildings that might have been avoided, we spent over 20 million dollars on each middle school. If our board members even suspected that our enrollments might go down so drastically and did not even bring the information our for discussion with the public, we have way more serious problems than what I thought we did.

We must remember, that while some may say that these were just estimates of what our enrollments would be in the future and they really didn't mean anything, we are now using these exact same estimates for radically reorganizing our district today. My question to the Board, and especially Mr. Nolan is just why were these enrollment projections not important 5 years ago BEFORE we spent millions, but now we are are basing our future as a district on these same figures. I can only hope that others begin  to ask the district and our Board these questions, but I fear the answer may be something that our parents, taxpayers, and community members would rather not hear.

UPDATE: Since Mr. Nolan has not responded to my email request for clarification on just what his statement at the recent Board meeting meant, I have submitted a FOIA request to Lapeer Schools for just what were Mr. Nolan and the other LCS Board members aware of regarding our district enrollment projections and when did they know it. Was the LCS Board made aware that according to numbers our district had 4 months before the public approved a $56 Million dollar bond proposal (Dec. 2006), that our district would be down by 900+ students in 2011-2012 school year? When did as Mr. Nolan states, our Board members become aware that our numbers were going nowhere but down? 

Hopefully the district will be able to tell me just when this important information was passed to our Board as it seems from Mr. Nolan's statement that at least some of our Board members were aware of these falling numbers. It should not be this difficult to get basic information from our elected school board members. Shouldn't this information have been brought into the light of the public discussion  and at least discussed rather than been buried for only certain folks to know about? The alternative is that our District and our Board had full knowledge of these reports that clearly showed student levels falling, to a loss of close to 1000 kids in 5 years time, but failed to alert the families and taxpayers of Lapeer Community Schools so a bond could get passed that would renovate buildings, only to close them a few years later. I hope this is not the case, as we surely could have put a better bond together that would benefited our kids for more than just a few years and would have been the lasting gift that was envisioned by all the good people and volunteers that trusted our Administration and Board. We must remember that it was under the previous Superintendent that all of this took place. Only our Board members are carry overs from that time. I will let you know what our district says on this issue.   Bill Gavette

The price that Lapeer Schools is paying today should have been seen and dealt with yesterday, not hidden from our Board and ignored....

  It seems to me that our  Lapeer Community Schools Board of Education members and Administration should be accountable for the results of their actions just as they expect our kids to be responsible for their actions and not "sweep things under the rug" when mistakes have been made.

 Just like corporations, banks, cities, counties and states, our school districts are evaluated on how efficiently and fiscally responsible they operate their districts. Our district has previously had very strong bond ratings of Aa2. But that has begun to slide. To quote Moody's. "The district's utilization of reserves to balance budgets has strained financial operation" Also according to Moody's "$52.9 million in outstanding parity debt is affected by the rating action" You won't find this information on the district website, or in the County Press, but is is extremely relevant to the parents and the taxpayers of LCS. (Read Moody's report on the downgrade HERE)

At the end of June, Moody's Investment service downgraded Lapeer Community Schools  in their bond rating from Aa2 to Aa3. This may not sound like a lot, but it is the financial credibility of our district at stake. We currently have $52.9 million in outstanding debt. This is from our bond issue in 2007 that gave us our middle schools. Though I am told by the District that this wont have any impact on this debt, our district regularly borrows millions of dollars in short term loans. These are so that the district can make payroll in Aug, Sept, and Oct. School districts do not get their first state aid payments until the fall, so the district must borrow that money. Just as with any loan, the lower your credit score, the higher the interest rate you must pay.The downgrade WILL affect these rates.

In response to my inquiry about just what this downgrade might mean  to our district financially, I learned that the LCS was initially looking at a 2 level downgrade. This would have put us at a single A rating. According to our district, they were able to demonstrate that our district is working hard to get its fiscal house in order. This is supported by the fact that many of our neighboring schools had an even larger reduction in their bond rating than Lapeer did. Brandon Schools went from Aa3 to A1. That was a 2 level decline. This reduction of our district "credit score" will certainly cost us more to borrow money and take money away that should have gone to educate our kids. The fact that we did this to ourselves is even more frustrating.

Had our board of education members insisted that our administration be more fiscally responsible over the course of the last 5 years, this downgrade might not have happened. Even though our board members are all elected by the people to represent us and are ultimately responsible for what happens in our district, they were never given the enrollment projections that might have lead to more sound decisions, We might possibly have not put millions of dollars into buildings that were destined for closure. It is also a fact that not one LCS Board member ever formally requested to see any of this available information.  But that appears to be changing.

At the June work session of our LCS school board, new Board President Mike Keller formally requested that the Superintendent work with the board to change the board policy so that the board of education members will be notified and given the same information that the Superintendent and administration have available to them as it relates to future student enrollment numbers and or projections. When this change in board policy is completed, we might take some comfort in knowing that those we elect to represent us on the school board will always be given the same facts and information that the Superintendent has so that they will make the most informed decisions possible. Up until now, this information has been at the discretion of the Superintendent.

How would an informed school board have impacted our district? Would Lapeer Community Schools have spent the money differently or made different decisions? No one can say for sure just what would have happened had they been given the information about where we were headed, but here are some facts that can not be disputed:

• All school districts are funded by the state based on the number of students they have attending

• Our fund balance in June of 2007 was $9.3 million dollars. Today it is just over $3 million. A loss of over $6 million in 5 years.

• We have spent over $1.8 million in bond money in now closed elementary buildings that will cost the taxpayers between $2.4 and $2.8 million through the year 2037.

• The "best estimate scenario" from the 2006 five year student enrollment projections said we would have 6026 kids in 2012. We had 5996.

• Our school board members were never shown ANY of the student enrollment projection documents by the district. This includes 2003,2004,2005,2006,2010, and 2011 projections. This also includes our new Superintendent Matt Wandrie. Not until I personally emailed them a copy  of these documents were they aware that they existed.(Though I have spoken at least 4 times this year about their existence and shown them to the board.)

• Over the last 10 years, a 1 page chart in 2006  is the only information that our administration deemed fit to inform our board members to be made aware of about our future numbers of students.

• We kept Seaton open for an additional year, at a cost of additional hundreds of thousands of dollars to the district. Our board pinned their hopes on acquiring new students  to Seaton who were never there.

• LCS in June closed Maple Grove, this was the elementary building that we have spent the most money in of all our present and past elementary campus's in recent years. Between bond money and sinking fund dollars, over $2 million have been spent since 2006 on this building alone. 

Let us move forward in the process of educating our Lapeer Students in the best way we can. But to move forward, we must know how we got to where we are. It seems that some would not like the public to know just how much money we have in now closed buildings, or that elected representatives were never given full disclosure on where are student counts were trending.  From here on out, we must insist on accountability and full transparency. The days of being told what we want to hear must be gone, and we must insist on being given ALL the facts, good, bad, or indifferent. It is our RIGHT to expect that our elected officials be given all the information they need to oversee our schools. It is also our RIGHT to vote them out if they fail to ask pertinent questions to protect our kids interests.

If a  manufacturing company had put $2.5 million into non needed manufacturing plants that would result in a loss, these plants would be forced to close and new company management would be appointed by the stockholders. If the city of Lapeer were to put money into buildings that would cost the taxpayers $2.5 million dollars and then had to sell the  buildings for lack of purpose, there would be an investigation and people would be held accountable. But I have had LCS administrators and board members tell me that even though Maple Grove had 1 Million in bond money spent and it only was used for 2 years, that that was not a waste. I would beg to disagree and I believe any responsible parent would. We can and must do better for the children of Lapeer Schools

I have just 3 words that will work in any school district:

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Accountability

Those should be requirements of all perspective board members, administrators, employees, and anyone who touches the lives of our kids. To expect any less is beneath us does not do our kids justice.


UPDATE: Lots of other districts are in trouble. Here is a better list of those Michigan entities and their bond ratings. http://michigan.municipalbonds.com/bonds/moodys_reports/sort:MoodysReport.title/direction:asc

Why an informed School Board matters

Starting in 2005, Lapeer Community Schools started getting appraisals on buildings that it might be looking to take off-line and sell down the road. This started under Superintendent Tom Gay, and it continued under Debbie Thompson. This was a very reasonable thing to do since they were aware that our numbers were trending down. Unfortunately, our school board members were not given the same information that the Administration had.

As our district closed Attica and Irwin, I did a FOIA request to obtain copies of all the buildings that appraisals had been done for. What you won't hear from the administration or the newspapers are that while we are selling Elba Elementary for $150,000, just a few short years ago in 2005, the Burgoyne Appraisal Company out of Ann Arbor, a 3rd party Appraisal firm, Appraised Elba's value at $800,000 (View Report HERE). That does not include the additional $110,000 dollars "invested" from the 2007 bond.

Hadley Elementary will be selling for less. That building will go for $100,000. According to a separate report by the same firm obtained for Hadley Elementary, that building was valued at $500,000.(View Report HERE) Again, that was in the fall of 2005. We only put $69,837 dollars of bond money into that particular building.

But what should outrage every parent and taxpayer in the Lapeer Schools district is that our Administration knew what the buildings were worth, knew that our enrollment was trending down at an alarming rate, and they NEVER shared this information with those we elected to oversee the district.

The LCS Superintendent and board of education have been made aware of this problem. I am hoping that policy can be put in place to insure that our elected board members are informed of all future information, and given access to full reports relating to student counts and enrollment. I am waiting on a response to see if such changes are being worked out. Otherwise, there is nothing to say that a future board of education might not be given access to information that they need to make the best choices possible for our kids, again.

My point in all of this is not to demonize the administration, but to point out a major flaw that MUST be addressed. I have been speaking out on this for the better part of 6 months, and so far there have been no changes. It is time for people to start asking our school administration and board members why they are not addressing this issue. If we look at the budgets over the last 5 years, is it not reasonable to think that if the good people from our board had known where our enrollment trends were headed they might have demanded more of the hard choices earlier on? Might they have made choices that could have saved our district money, or at the least not spent money on buildings that would be closing?

   It seems to me that the answer to that question should be yes. I would urge people to ask our School Board members and Administration to address this issue. We must insure that this type of "lapse" in communications between our board and Superintendent never occur again.

With 2 more schools sold, will we really break even??

As I read in the June 24th edition of the Lapeer County Press, I see that our district looks to finalize the sale of the now closed Hadley and Elba elementary buildings. On the face of it, it seems like good news. The district will be out from under the burdens that unused buildings cost us to maintain. Also, this will mean money into our fund for repairing the buildings that we are still using. According to the paper, the combined sale of $250,000. This is good news, but what is troubling to me is that we have over $180,000 in bond money invested into these buildings that we, the taxpayers, will be paying for until 2037 and at this point we still have not done our best to insure that we do not make the same mistake in the future.

As I have written in previous posts, LCS, like many other districts, regularly purchase 5 year projections from a specialized company to evaluate what our future facility and staff needs will be for our incoming students. In a field where your revenue is based on the number of students sitting in the classroom, this is a pretty important thing, or at least you would think so. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case and there is no telling how badly this mistake has hurt us.

We elect citizens from our ranks to be our children's representatives on the school board. We expect that they will be given all the tools and information that they need to do a good job. As it turns out, they were given only the most limited information, to base their decisions on things like budgets, building closures, staffing needs, and all the other things involved with running a modern school district.

My most recent FOIA (Fredom of Information Act) request to Lapeer Schools realized my worst fear. The only information that had been shared with our board members was a one page summary presented to our board in October of 2006. Keep in mind that these projections are well over 20 pages each, and we have projections from 03, 04, 05, 06, 2010, and 2011. That is over 120 pages of information about our district that our school board was not given to view. Is there any case that can be made for not giving this information to our elected board members? While ALL of our district employees are expected to take a 8.7% cut in pay this year, isn't it reasonable to think that had our  board been given this information in 2006, 2007 or at any time, they might not have spent bond money which will cost the taxpayers between $2.4 and $2.8 million on buildings that are now closed?? Were I a Lapeer Schools employee, I would not be happy that we could have done more earlier to reduce our costs and make the tough choices that a smaller number of students demands. It is worth remembering that this current Board of Education voted to spend $2.6 million from its fund balance 1 year ago without ever being given the actual information that would have showed our districts student counts dropping rapidly. Might they have decided to close Seaton a year earlier and save $300,000? Had they been given this information in 2007, might they have NOT put bond money into buildings that we no longer educate students in? If the Board had been given this information, could we have made better choices to lessen the drastic cuts that now need to be made.The one certain thing we can say is that they were NEVER given that option, because they were never given this information. That was then, but what are our policies now?

After I received the information that our school board was only given a one page summary in 2006, I sent an email to all of our current school board members and our Superintendent, Matt Wandrie. I urged all parties to make changes to our districts board policies so that no matter who our board members are or who our Superintendent is, ALL future board members will be given the same vital information that the administration has, with regards to student counts and projections.

There is one other thing troubling me. Why is it that I, a simple parent and volunteer, can acquire these documents, speak up for multiple months at public comment about their existence, but none of our current board members has ever requested these documents or claimed to know they ever existed? It seems to me that our current board members might need to do much better homework if they want to continue to represent us on the LCS board. What I as a private person had to do through an phone call and email, our board can do with a simple request to the administration. Given the fact that only 2 of the 7 board members have responded to my request to change LCS policy with regards to enrollment projections, I am not quite sure what to think.

I can only hope that now that all parties are aware of the mistakes and over sites of the past, that we will rectify our procedures and make sure that those we elect to represent us actually do have the best information possible to make the important decisions on behalf of our kids. Time will tell, but with the upcoming election in November, 2 LCS board seats are up for election. We must make sure that whoever we elect to our school board will do the homework necessary and insure that they have all the facts. Even if this means asking very tough and pointed questions from whatever administration is running our district. Our kids deserve the best from us. Have we really given them our best efforts? That is a question that we need to continually ask ourselves. 

The more you know, the worse it gets...

As I sat at the school board work session, my worst fears were realized in a number of different ways. First, we found out the grim numbers that we are going to have to reduce our budgets by a total of 3.2 million dollars more to balance our budget. That is in addition to the reductions that the district has already made. which include closing Seaton and Maple Grove Elementary schools.

One has to wonder about the wisdom of the decision by the Lapeer Community School board and Administration to take 2.6 Million dollars out of the rainy day fund last June rather than deal with the budget shortfalls we had last year. We knew last year that by not dealing with our budget shortfall, and just pushing the bill to this year, we would be causing a great deal of pain, but our Lapeer School Board and Administration felt is was the smart way to go. It seems that they were of a mindset that things would somehow be better this year by not addressing our bills last year. It didn't work.

Now we find ourselves having to come up with a budget that is balanced. Our Board and Administration have vowed to be fiscally responsible. This is certainly welcome, but a bit late. But "better late than never" as they say. But are we really going to address the errors of our past, or just try to sweep them under the rug.

I say this because of the millions of dollars that have been invested in closing, or already closed elementary buildings. Had we not known what was coming, this would have been sad. What should anger every parent and taxpayer within our district is that we had very clear information as far back as 2006 that our student numbers were declining, and because of a failure to communicate by both our Administration, and Board members, the information about our current numbers was NEVER discussed in its entirety..

Over the last several weeks I have had conversations with some of our Lapeer School Board members and our Superintendent. It is my belief that our previous school boards were never given the complete 5 year student projections that our district has and continues to use to help guide us as to what our building needs will be. After several conversations and emails with various board members, I now have learned that our past Superintendent did not share the entire 20 odd pages of information contained in each of these sets of projections. I have learned through board members that our school board was given only a 1 page summary of what was in these projections. Keep in mind that each set of projections contains 9 sets of possible numbers for student counts. So without knowing exactly what they received, it is hard to say what our board members were told about our future student numbers. Keep in mind, that the most accurate set of projections put us at 6025 kids for this year. We currently have 5997. Pretty accurate numbers wouldn't you say?

As troubling as the fact that our Previous Superintendent did not share all the information needed with our board was the fact that our board members did not ask for any further data. To be clear, I am simply a parent volunteer who cares about the district that my children attend. I have had no trouble getting the full surveys from our district. Our Board members surely would have been given the full set of numbers had they asked, but sadly, they didn't. So what does this mean for our children and the taxpayers of Lapeer Schools?

First, as taxpayers and financial sponsors for the children of Lapeer Schools, we will be paying until 2037 on improvements to 4 elementary schools, (Hadley, Elba, Seaton, and Maple Grove) that will not be educating our children. The total cost to the taxpayer for this totally preventable error will cost  between 2.4 and 2.8 million dollars. That is a very steep price to pay for not providing ALL the information to those who we have elected to make the decisions on our children's behalf.

Second, is the credibility of our district. We passed the bond in 2007 because the citizens of Lapeer Schools decided that our children were worthy of doing what we could, and we trusted that the district would do its best to make the soundest investments for our children. That is not what happened and I have no doubt that our children will pay the price for those adults who have mismanaged our education dollars.

But by far, the worst and most troubling thing for me is the lack of accountability by the Board and our Administration. Were it left up to them, I have no doubt that we would have never even known about the waste of the 2 1/2 million dollars. Also, in my first inquiries about Maple Grove, there was discussion about possibly renting or selling the building. M.G. currently had 1 million dollars of Bond money in it! Had we done either of these options with the building, the almost one million dollars in bond money and the additional million plus in sinking fund money spent on Maple Grove since would have been lost. That is a total of $2,000,000 dollars. Thankfully, our Administration now has plans ot use this building and keep it working for the students of L.C.S. Lets hope that they will choose to continue to use this investment for our kids.

If we are to move forward, than we must have a fair and impartial accounting of just how this poor use of bond money happened. If we cannot trust our school officials to tell us the whole and plain truth about where we have failed in the past, then how can we trust them to do what is right for our children now or in the future? Our kids certainly deserve better...


UPDATE:
I received from Lapeer Schools the answer to my FOIA request about what information our board members were given. It turns out that in October of 2006, they were given one sheet of paper with one chart. We have projections from 05,06,10, and 11, which are in total,  over 80 pages, and our board was only given 1 page. Do you think we need to rethink this policy of not fully informing our elected board members?? We need to change the policy to insure that our board members ALWAYS have the best information possible to make the best decisions possible.

I will be adding all of the numbers that our district has obtained in the next few days as well as what they gave our board members.

Lapeer Community Schools will spend at least $2.4 Million on closed buildings

As we all know, things could be better for our schools, and that especially applies to Lapeer Community Schools. Here we are in 2012 with some major decisions to address in dealing with our long term future, but to do that we must know how we have arrived where we are today. We are facing an over 8 million dollar deficit that MUST be addressed this year. This comes on the heals of our district taking 2.7 million dollars last year out of our rainy day fund rather than make the hard choices that we now have no choice but to deal with.

We are also told by the district that our enrollment numbers are down for many reasons, but primarily that many folks have left the district and state for greener pastures and people are not having babies like they used to. While this is all true, would it trouble you as it does me to know that we had very solid indicators that we would would be at our current student numbers where as far back as 2006?

Whether by deliberate choice or just being overlooked, it is my belief that the LCS Administration and Board either ignored the warning signs or didn't take the time to properly look at the information we had available. To predict where a districts student numbers will be and to make the best decisions possible, every school district uses a firm to make future projections of enrollment. These are based on county birthrates and other predictors that can very accurately determine what future student numbers will be. Our enrollment projections in the past have been very reliable. These projections are possible because, by counting the number of preschoolers from newborn to 5 years old, it is possible to make an a estimate of how many kids will be in upcoming kindergarten classes.

Lapeer Community Schools uses Stanfred Consultants to access the future enrollment projections for our district. In December of 2006, the winter BEFORE we passed the bond for our middle schools and upgrades to the elementary buildings as well as technology, the most likely estimates ranged from 5992 on the low end, to 6187 on the high end. Although these are only projections, they have historically been very accurate, especially the "1.50 Standard". This estimate in particular was 6025 students for the 2011-12 year. Again, this was from Dec. 2006. In plain English, that means that in 2006, our student projections were very close to where we actually are and this is long before we knew of the 2008 downturn. You can find the Dec. 2006 projections here. L.C.S. had another set of projections prepared in September of 2010. If these numbers hold out, we will be someplace around 5200 students in L.C.S. in the 2014-15 school year.

It is only possible to project out 5 years and the last new estimate was done in 2010. Anything past the 2014-15 school year is purely a guess on the part of our district. Another projection will have to be done in order to get a better estimate of just how many students we will have in our district in the future beyond 2015. Here are the Sept. 2010 projections.

What is so troubling, that that fact that the district and board had this information BEFORE we spent significant sums of money on these 2 buildings (Maple Grove and Seaton), that were just voted to be closed at the end of this year. While we were all aware that Seaton was not looking good with the numbers, most people are not aware of just how much our district has spent on our newly closed buildings.

Maple Grove has had the largest amount of money spent of the buildings. In that building alone, we have spent $1,018,991 just in sinking fund money. in 2006, we spent $887,000 for enlarging the cafeteria to accommodate the additional students from the closing of Attica, and replacing the boiler in 2008 we spent $131,000. These funds were from the sinking fund. Additionally, we have spent $908,475 dollars in Bond money. That is a total of $1,927,466 in total dollars just at Maple Grove.

At Seaton we have spent $341,000 in Bond money. Elba has had $110,000 in Bond money. Hadley had the least at $69,837. The bottom line is that we have spent a combined total of $1,430,320 in bond money in buildings that soon to be or already closed buildings. Our district is required by law to pay interest on the our bond of between 4% and 5.25%. This means that this poorly spent money will cost our kids between $2,458,285 and $2,843,380 over the coarse of the 30 years ending in 2037. You can view the spent bond summary here concerning these closed or soon to close buildings to see for yourself what the district says they have put into Maple Grove, Seaton, Hadley, and Elba. The fact that we are in a depressed real estate market makes it plainly evident that just selling these buildings may not be the best coarse of action. Maple Grove has an investment almost 2 Million dollars since 2006 Since all of these buildings are the property and assets of our children, we should proceed very carefully and cautiously to make sure we are doing what is best to minimize any loss and where possible,and to try to maximize any profit from the sale and marketing of these properties where we can.

We must also make sure that we learn from our past mistakes. When White Junior High school was closed in the mid 90's, a decision was made to re-purpose that building for administration offices, and for a community center. Its main purpose was no longer education. Under Michigan law, as long as a school building's primary purpose is education, no matter how old the building is, it does not have to upgrade all of the subsequent changes in construction codes that happen with time. As long as it is safe, it is grandfathered in. Any building that has previously been a school, and has had its primary use changed away from education, must be totally re-coded and fully upgraded to current building code. In other words, White lost its grandfathered status. If LCS would have wanted to try to reopen White as a school, it would have had to be fully upgraded to today's building standards. This made White useless as a school building.

I mention this because we will potentially run into the same issues with our recently closed buildings. Specifically my concern is Maple Grove, as we have much more money invested in this building than we do the other buildings. I recently spoke to Mr. Todd Cordell. He is one of the top guys in the Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes. This is the agency that must certify our schools for use by the public. I was told that if we change the main purpose of Maple Grove or ANY of our closed buildings away from education, say like renting a building out, or using them for any type of community centers, those buildings, like White, would lose their grandfathered status. The core of Maple Grove was built in 1964. I am sure that the others buildings are approximately the same age of older. We must make sure that if we re-purpose a closed building that we have done a assessment to see what the long term costs would be if we intend on ever possibly re-opening any of these closed buildings BEFORE we re-purpose the building. This was not done in the past with White and we must insist that the LCS Administration and Board do everything possible to insure that we make the best decisions for the long term use of these facilities. Any focus groups deciding long term future for our closed buildings will need to know this information in order to make good decisions on how to move forward with dealing with these closed buildings.

While we all know that we continue to lose students, the reality is that we do not know what the future holds. We had an unexpected gain of students this past year. Were it not for those additional kids, our numbers would be even lower. If the economy picks up in Michigan, we could see things start to turn around. What ever the future holds, we need to know that those we have elected to our school board to watch over and protect our children are going to do their homework and ask the tough, and sometimes unpopular, questions. Our administrators need to make sure that our kids are the top priority. We cannot continue to throw away our kid's money. The time to be vigilant is now.

A Blast from the past.

With the planned closing of Seaton as well as Maple Grove, I have been talking with my kids about the years they attended another closed building, here in Attica. This was one of the first buildings to close along with Irwin in 2006. This was tribute that one of the staff, Tammy Berry put together for the last class.

As we close these buildings, we need to remember that every school is like an extended family. Every one having its own character and personality. This will give you a taste of what we had here in little old Attica.

Attica Elementary Farewell Tribute 2006 from William Gavette on Vimeo.

L.C.S. A time to run...

Those that know me, know that I have always tried to make a difference in what ever I am doing. My children were blessed with having the opportunity to go to what I think was the best elementary school we could have had. That school was Lapeer Community Schools Attica Elementary. When my wife and I moved into Lapeer County in 1991, we looked at many houses all within 2 miles of where we eventually called home. We wanted our future children to attend this neat little school. It was the kind of place where whether you were a kid, a parent, or one of the great staff, it was like going to a buddy's house, open and inviting. It was the kind of school that as parents, we would have liked to have attended when you were a kid.
You might ask yourself what was so great about this school? Very simply, it was the entire community of people. We had parents that were INVOLVED, everyday. Whether it was a bake sale, classroom project, putting together new playground equipment, or whatever was needed, parents were ALWAYS there and ready to help. When a parent walked down the hall, thirty kids would say "Hi Mr Gavette" and run up to hug you, not just your own child. This would not have been possible if we had not had a principal and staff that were ready and willing to allow us to get that involved. This staff understood that our children's education was a partnership. The staff worked hard to build a relationship with parents to help reinforce and promote that education at home. We as parents respected and had trust in the staff, from the principal, to the custodian and kitchen help. Everyone played an important role. For my kids, as well as myself, they are treasured years and memories that you can't put a price on. To this day, grown children still come up to and shake my and and say Hi, with the respect they learned way back then.

Sadly in 2006 it became necessary to close Attica. The kids and community tried their best to convince the powers that be that it our school was worth saving, but budgets had to be balanced that year L.C.S. closed Attica and Irwin Schools. The Irwin kids were all absorbed into Schickler as an entire group. Our Attica kids had to be split up. 1/3 went to Lynch, and the other 2/3 went to Maple Grove. Friends had to say goodbye, and many would not see each other for a long time. As a parent, this was very tough to watch and a hard lesson for little ones to understand.
This was just the 1st of many closings to come. In the following years, I have watched as we have lost most of our "neighborhood" schools. Closed now are Attica, Irwin, Elba, and Hadly. Crampton is now the Community High School. Just in the last month, our Administration and School board voted to close Seaton and Maple Grove. Maple Grove is especially hard to see to as this is where my daughter and many of her friends went after the closing of Attica. As with all of the closings of our elementary buildings, ALL of the kids, Parents and Staff are families now dealing with the same kind of loss. Yes, they will move on, and our kids will deal with this because we will show them how. In the end, they will succeed, but it will hurt for a little while. This is the sad fact of our bad economy, but is that the whole story?
I like so many other parents we're too busy with life to be concerned about what was is happening at the district level. For me, it was all about our local school. Not until we were told that our building was closing did I get involved and start to learn why this was happening and why what happens at the district level matters. I just assumed that the higher ups would always know what was best. As I have found over the years, that is not always the case.
I watched last year at the board meeting in May, when the district was concidering cutting funding for 2 sports teams a total of $60,000. At that meeting, there were well over a hundred people pleading their case to NOT cut the funding. One month later, in June of 2011, I was the only non administration person attending as our current Board of Education voted to take almost half of the little money we had left in the bank and use it to fill in the whole in the budget. This tactic seems to be much easier than making the tough choices for our kids that sometimes MUST be done as we have been picking around the problem for several years. I appealed to the board to look further and dig a little deeper to try to not use the money as there is no way of replacing it in the near future, but it fell on deaf ears. Not dealing with our budget issues last year meant that Lapeer Schools started out with a 2.6 million dollar shortfall before we even began this year. We now have the grim task of trying to fill in a projected $8 million dollar plus deficit.
This was the running point for me. I have considered running for the board in the past, but now, I believe that it is imperative that we get parents and citizens involved with the decision making process and look at ALL options, not just the ones that are the easiest.

Though I disagree with much that this board has done recently, I have great respect for them and the countless hours they dedicate with no pay or benefit, I just simply disagree with the direction they are going.
This is why I have decided to run for one of the 2 available seats on the Lapeer Community Schools board of education. As the years have gone by, I have learned how our schools work, how they are financed, and some things that this current board is not doing as well as it should. In the coming months, I will be attending as many local community meetings of Parents, Taxpayers, and Citizens to help bring about better public awareness of the issues facing our school district and some tactics for the future. Whether I win or lose, it is my hope, that by having conversation with people, more people will do as I have done and make it a point to get involved with our schools. With this blog, I will try to share information and unbiased perspective that you won't hear from most of the regular sources. I welcome any comments and or suggestions.

Schools are designed for one purpose, and that is to educate our children. In all things, the kids and their parents must come first. That is my belief and towards that end is what I will always strive for. I look forward to meeting many new faces and will work hard to earn your trust and vote this November.
Bill Gavette - L.C.S. volunteer, and candidate for LCS School Board