Judge halts Bobb's plans for DPS

[tonysam]

Detroit News:

Parents and students upset over school closings found some hope Friday that their neighborhood buildings won't close in June after a Wayne Circuit Court judge put the brakes on a plan to close a quarter of them.

The ruling by Wayne Circuit Judge Wendy Baxter also blocks the Detroit Public Schools' Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb from implementing his academic plan without consulting the school board and bans him from testing students every quarter, ending social promotion and changing grade levels in schools.

Baxter's preliminary injunction is in response to a lawsuit the Detroit Board of Education filed against Bobb, alleging he overstepped his authority by making academic decisions and by failing to consult with the 11-member board.


The ruling is the latest chapter in a public power struggle between the board and Bobb. Gov. Jennifer Granholm appointed Bobb last year and ordered him to turn around the district's finances, but opponents say he has been making academic decisions without obvious authority outlined in state law.

Susan Ohanian's comments:

This isn't posted in 'good news,' because the school board cannot be considered competent, never mind heroic. And how can a school district with drastically declining population not close schools? Just because Robert Bobb is a Broad Foundation ally, not to mention arrogant and autocratic, doesn't mean the school board is right.

This seems to be the case of two wrongs making--chaos.

Here's the opening of a Detroit Free Press editorial on the subject:


So the maniacal power struggle atop Detroit's public schools will persist, thanks to a judge's ruling Friday that keeps an incompetent school board's hands at least partially on the wheel.

If Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, is going to implement his visionary plans to resize, remake and rejuvenate the system, he'll need to do it by convincing the school board that he's right. Good luck to him on that.


Note: They call Bobb "visionary," so . . . .

Reader Comment: ok ok ok...let's just make this entire thing real simple ~ and really, this should do it:

His (Bobb) title is EFM, which stands for Emergency FINANCIAL Manager..."financial" is the KEY word, it's the operative word in the title. It does not say...Emergency Academic Manager, nor does it read, Emergency Financial-Academic Manager or Emergency Academic-Financial Manager ~ Bobb's title clearly is Emergency FINANCIAL Manager - EFM. You all know the root word, "finance" ...as pertaining to money matters ~ there now, it should be settled

Ruling: He likely exceeded authority in academic, school closing proposals.

Reader Comment: Your comments regarding Reverend David Murray are interesting, in light of the fact that the State of Michigan removed this man's children. Why is he still on the school board?

The School Board, under the astute leadership of functionally illiterate Otis Mathis, is the biggest plan failure that the people in the City of Detroit has even seen. This School Board knows absolutely nothing regarding academies, they are still involved in their favor vendors, friends and family endeavors.

This judge has been in trouble before regarding her rulings, (google her name) and I believe she made the wrong decision this time.

[madfloridian]

1. More about Bobb....

He surely did assume a lot of power.

How Eli Broad alumni are greatly involved in the corporate takeover of education.

"The Detroit Board of Education and community groups say private foundations are paying the head of the city's ailing public school system $145,000 a year in exchange for his support of charter schools - a glaring conflict of interest. The board says that Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, is violating Michigan laws and its constitution by accepting the privately funded portion of his $425,000 annual salary.

Bobb is the only defendant in the complaint in Wayne County Court, Detroit. The board, two community groups and 26 people say the Los Angeles-based Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which "aggressively promotes the spread of charter schools nationwide," pays Bobb $56,000, with the remaining $89,000 coming from "undisclosed private sources. Last year Bobb made $84,000 in such "supplemental compensation."

[tonysam]

2. Detroit, of course, is Eli Broad's hometown. n/t

[Tansy_Gold]

3. And that alone, of course, qualifies Eli Broad as an expert on how to turn

failing schools in a city with 30% or more unemployment and rampant poverty into successful schools turning out well-educated, well-behaved, productive model citizens at no cost to the taxpayers.


:sarcasm:




Oh, hell, we're preachin' to the choir here, folks, though you gotta keep preachin' 'cause you never know who might be listenin' in at the side door.



Tansy Gold