Committee seeks input from community on Pontiac schools
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAY
Of The Oakland Press
The day after voters decide who they want for president of the United States, a new community advisory committee is asking residents in the Pontiac district to help redesign schools.
This is the first of four forums planned before the advisory committee makes its recommendations and the board makes its decisions for the next school year.
Merging Pontiac Central and Northern into one high school and closing middle and elementary schools are possibilities as school officials reel from another major decline in enrollment and loss of state funds. The district is operating schools for 20,000 students when enrollment this year is down to only about 7,100.
At the same time, school officials want to improve academic programs, with such possibilities as creating magnet middle schools and smaller themed academies within the high school.
The district could have a deficit as high as $6.5 million by June 30, and even more by next school year if major restructuring is not accomplished. The district may lose as much as $8 million in state aid due to an enrollment decline of around 1,000 students. In addition, budgeted revenue from property sales and contract negotiations has not been realized.
The audit for the 2007-08 school year was recently completed by Plante and Moran accountants and will be made public Nov. 10. It should give the district and taxpayers a more clear idea of where the district stands financially.
Acting Superintendent Linda Paramore said two weeks ago that she has initiated an executive order that will cut some costs immediately.
Paramore and the school board also called together the advisory committee for the “Redesign of Pontiac Schools for Instructional Effectiveness and Financial Efficiency” to help ensure the community has a say in the major, and likely controversial, changes that will be made. The committee includes City Council members, business people, representatives of various ethnic groups and various parts of the community, clergy, school administrators and three board members.
Chairman of the advisory committee is board President Damon Dorkins. Chairman of the instructional subcommittee is board Vice President Gill Garrett and the finance subcommittee chairwoman is board Treasurer Karen Cain.
Merging Pontiac Northern and Pontiac Central high schools and closing one of the buildings is a controversial possibility, as is closing one or more neighborhood schools. Therefore, the board wants the decision to be made based on input from the community forums.
School officials hope that closing schools will free up money for improving the educational programs to retain or bring back some students who have left for other districts or charter schools.
This school year the board voted against closing Lincoln Middle School as proposed, and to keep sixth graders in elementary school instead of moving them on to middle school. Data showed test scores indicate sixth graders do better on their MEAP tests in the elementary school environment.
The district also created a district-wide preschool academy to prepare children for kindergarten and a more successful school career with its special programs.
In addition, the board approved a new police authority corps under Security Chief Darryl Cosby, with the goal of creating a safe school environment for learning. The new corps have arrest powers for misdemeanor cases, unlike previous security officers. The specially trained school police authority officers work with two Pontiac police officers who handle felony arrests while school officers handle misdemeanors.
Dorkins and Garrett said the people they have talked to in the community say they understand something has to be done — that buildings have to be closed.
But the Oakland Press readers who commented on the proposal to merge high schools to save money and have improved academic programs are adamantly against the idea.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.
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