EAA (Update)

School reform district won’t expand this year

By Chastity Pratt Dawsey Detroit Free Press Education Writer

   After an inaugural year marked by financial shortfalls, academic interruptions and increased crime, it is unlikely the statewide school reform district will gain control over more schools by the fall, according to state and local officials.

   Detroit Public Schools does not plan to turn over any more schools to the Education Achievement Authority of Michigan for next year. And with only a month left before next year’s school district budgets are due, the Michigan Department of Education has not indicated that it will turn over any struggling schools to the EAA to oversee next year.

   “Today the EAA is planning its (2013-14) budget for only the 15 schools currently in the EAA,” said John Covington, chancellor for the EAA.

   The EAA, the state’s fledgling reform district for the lowest-performing schools, has been the topic of debate in recent months because of a stalled bill that would allow it to absorb 35 more schools and mounting questions about its effectiveness and cash flow problems.

   By law, the state reform officer at MDE and state-appointed emergency managers in school districts have the power to transfer schools to the EAA. For the 2012-13 school year, Roy Roberts, the emergency manager for DPS and an EAA board member, transferred the first schools to the EAA — 15 Detroit schools.

   DPS now has about 40 schools that are among the lowest performing 5%. But DPS plans to allow its lowest-performing schools to work on implementing improvement plans for the 2013-14 school year instead of transferring them to the EAA, Michelle Zdrodowski, spokeswoman for DPS, said in a written statement.

   “The majority of schools that would have been eligible (to transfer to EAA control) are either being closed or will have their academic programs redesigned in a manner that will directly impact their academic performance,” she said.

   In 2011, at the behest of Gov. Rick Snyder, DPS and Eastern Michigan University formed the EAA through an interlocal agreement. It was to become a statewide district tasked with taking control of and improving the state's lowest performing 5% of schools — 146 schools as of 2012.

   The EAA offers an11-month school year and longer school day. Students learn at their own pace using plans customized to their needs and administered using an online program.

   It is unclear whether the EAA has the financial and legal stability to take on more schools for the 2013-14 academic year.

   Within weeks of taking control of the 15 schools in Detroit last year, cash flow problems dogged the EAA. DPS had to step in as a conduit to help the new district borrow $6 million in September. School districts often borrow money with assistance from the Michigan Finance Authority, but the EAA needed DPS to act as the borrower in the transactions because the EAA is not established in state law as a school district.

   In January, the EAA requested a $2-million advance from its monthly state funding allocation because it didn’t have enough computers for students to access its online curriculum, and some of its schools were suffering Internet glitches that interrupted online lessons. In February, DPS borrowed another $6 million and passed it along to the EAA. The EAA is repaying the money.

   The EAA also had an increase in crime reports in its schools: During the second quarter, 5,216 student incidents were reported, including 1,237 incidents of disorderly conduct, 1,181 incidents of truancy, 993 fights and 992 incidents of insubordination. The number of reports was up by 4,254 compared with the first quarter. Officials have said the hike might have been partly because of incidents being reported differently in the two quarters.

   In March, the state House passed a bill that would codify the EAA as a school district with the same borrowing power and other legal responsibilities as other districts. The bill would cap the number of schools that can be part of the EAA at 50, allowing it to absorb 35 more schools from across the state by 2015.

   But the bill is stalled in the Senate Education Committee indefinitely.

   “We’re in the middle of the budget season so I don’t expect any action on it in the near future. ... It might be something we get to in June,” said Sen. Phil Pavlov, a Republican from St. Clair Township and chairman of the committee.

   The Senate Democratic Caucus asserts that the EAA’s first year has not proven it is worth expanding. “There’s a lot of questions — is this giving kids the education they need to move forward? Where is the money coming from?” said Robert McCann, spokesman for the caucus. “Let’s take a time-out before we talk about expansion and see if it’s even functioning as it now exists.”

   Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for Snyder, confirmed that deliberations on the EAA’s future are on hold for now.

   “There hasn't been a specific time frame or plan for adding more schools as many variables come into the equation. (It is) premature at this point to speculate further,” she said.

   Contact Chastity Pratt Dawsey at

   313-223-4537 or cpratt@ freepress 

   .com  

John Covington, Education Achievement Authority chancellor, said it is planning its 2013-14 budget for only the 15 schools currently in the EAA. SEPTEMBER 2011 PHOTO BY ANDRE J. JACKSON/DETROIT FREE PRESS