Above Photo: Desks sit emply at Burton International Academy in Detroit as a power outage made it impossible to hold classes Tuesday Feb. 4, 2014. Detroit Public Schools is grappling with an escalating problem with power outages that threatens to impact their efforts to improve academic achievement. Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press
At least 35 schools in the Detroit Public Schools system could be closed Monday because of a planned teacher sick-out.
A group of teachers called Detroit Strikes To Win spent more than 90 minutes meeting Sunday night at Gracious Saviour Evangelical Lutheran Church in Detroit to discuss the sick-outs and a possible district-wide strike. The group, led by ousted teacher union president Steve Conn, is upset with what they call the ruination of the school system by the state.
When asked by the Detroit Free Press if 35 schools or more, about 1/3 of the district’s schools, could be closed Monday, Conn said: “At this moment, that’s what we believe.”
Monday’s expected closures will be the latest in a series of closures within the past few months. Two Detroit Public Schools, East English Village Preparatory Academy and Mann Learning Community, were closed Friday because of a high volume of teacher absences amid dissatisfaction by educators in the city.
Sickouts have been ongoing; Cass Tech High School, for example, was closed earlier this week. More sick-outs took place last month.
Many teachers in Detroit are dissatisfied with their pay and the district’s poor finances. Gov. Rick Snyder wants to pay off the debt and spin off a new district to educate students, but he lacks support so far in the Legislature.
Detroit Public Schools said in a statement Sunday that the ongoing sick-outs are being organized by “a minority” of DPS teachers. The district said it does not yet know which schools are being targeted for closure, but officials said it will be a “high number” and said they wanted to alert families ahead of the planned sick-out.
According to the statement, the district will begin school closure alerts no later than 6 a.m. Monday morning as information becomes available. “It’s clear that teachers are feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration over the challenges that they and all DPS employees face as they do their jobs each day,” DPS Emergency Manager Darnell Earley said in a news release. “We understand and share their frustration. However, given the reality of the District’s financial distress, it is becoming clearer every day that the only way that we are going to be able to address these serious issues in any way is through an investment in DPS by the Michigan Legislature. Unfortunately, obtaining that support becomes more challenging with each closure of a school due to a teacher sick-out.”
The alert told parents that Earley has been meeting with Snyder’s administration to discuss “district-wide concerns.”
“We will continue to elevate that discussion because it too is critical to a long-term successful outcome for Detroit Public Schools and its students,” Earley said.
Those words didn’t mollify the teachers and parents gathered Sunday night.
“The teachers don’t have the resources they need,” said parent LaTisha Marshall, 36, of Detroit, who attended Sunday afternoon’s meeting. She said she has two elementary-age students in the district. “How can you teach if you don’t have textbooks, or if there are 40 kids in your class.”
Larry Key, a teacher in the district, said he hasn’t had textbooks all year long to teach his first-grade class.
“I’ve been telling my (bosses) this since September,” he said. “We’re what — four months later? I’m teaching off things on the Internet. I can’t print them off, because I don’t have ink for my printer.
“It’s the same old, same old. You wouldn’t see this in Oakland County, in Birmingham. Detroit doesn’t have a democracy.
“We have to put pressure on our legislators until we get democracy back to Detroit and the state.”