Detroit Public Schools Community District issued the following announcement.
Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) announced today its exit from the State of Michigan Financial Review Commission (FRC). This signals a historical milestone for the State’s largest public-school district, which has been under state control in some form since at least 2009 and some argue state power goes back to 1992. This is the first time in decades the School Board will have full ownership of the District’s operations and finances.
The District’s Superintendent, Dr. Nikolai Vitti, appointed by a seven-member, locally elected school board has accomplished the following in the last four years:
- consistently maintained a balanced budget for the first time in a decade,
- established and maintained a strong fund balance to serve as a financial reserve for the district,
- increased salaries for all staff and enhanced student programming,
- reduced financial audit findings with penalties to zero,
- increased starting teacher salaries to be the highest in Michigan,
- allocated $56M to address critical building and facility needs.
Four years ago, with the input of community, staff and board members, DPSCD developed a strategic plan with five priorities including Responsible Stewardship. Under the leadership of the school board and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti,t DPSCD completed debt refinancing, resulting in savings to the taxpayers of Detroit of nearly $100M. In addition, DPSCD has improved financial operations and implemented systems resulting in reduced audit findings from 27 and $2.9M in questioned costs to two and $0 in costs over the past decade.
State law allows DPS and DPSCD to exit active direct FRC oversight provided they meet financial and reporting requirements. Both DPS and DPSCD have met those strenuous requirements and are eligible for an annual waiver of active oversight. The District is required to maintain the progress in order to obtain the annual waiver.
DPSCD continues to show signs of consistent improvement. With the recent Connected Futures Initiative, all students have 1:1 technology and access to wireless connections. Other enhancements include consistent compensation improvements for teachers and staff, with new teachers now receiving one of the highest starting salaries in the state compared to other districts. DPSCD is attracting talent and yielding fewer vacancies. Partnership schools are on pace with their improvement plans, recent third-party studies indicate the District is progressing at a faster clip than outstate schools and no schools will need to close due to low performance.
“This is one more incredible milestone for DPSCD, but it is really just the beginning of the next chapter of our work,” said Iris Taylor, DPSCD Board President, on behalf of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. “Beginning in January our board, alongside many community leaders, need to go to Lansing together to immediately begin work on a new model for Michigan’s school funding. The model has to change immediately to be equitable, to meet the unique population needs of the most urban and rural impoverished school districts of our state,” said Taylor. Dr. Taylor also wanted to recognize the leadership of Sonya Mays, DPSCD Board of Education Treasurer, for her relentless commitment to keeping the District on task to meet every requirement of the FRC throughout this lengthy process.
“As the last remaining vestige of state oversight, we knew the District and Board had to earn the trust of the FRC, so it was critical to have good reporting and process in place in all areas of the District,” said Sonya Mays. “Over the past four years, a lot of work has gone into fixing broken financial infrastructure. Everything we have done to date to accomplish today’s announcement will serve the District well in the future as we look to a better model for funding to dramatically adjust the opportunity to invest in our students, teachers and infrastructure improvement.”
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up