MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. — Trouble started in Muskegon Heights Public Schools more than 20 years ago, and in that time the issues continue.
At a meeting last night, the Elected School Board firedthe former appointed academy board chair.
Below is the chair's statement to community, issued to FOX 17.
“This evening, the Muskegon Heights Public School District board voted to terminate me from the charter board, where I was recently named board chair by my colleagues.
It seems they’re trying to send a message, that our kids are not among their priorities. Since the start of the school year, we have had growing concerns about New Paradigm for Education, the company contracted to operate the district. The company’s CEO has stopped attending any charter board meetings and has refused to answer questions that any PSA operator would not need to have been asked in the first place, but he makes time for the district board meetings and sharing documentation with them.
The charter board has taken strong steps to demand accountability, plain and simple. The large crowds of concerned parents who have come to the charter board meetings for the past several months have rightly demanded answers about how a Detroit company was brought into Muskegon Heights and how they can be doing such a terrible job without any apparent oversight or consequence. They were quick to vote me out on a lack of confidence vote, but slow to deal with NPFE. It is almost as though the charter board is a front, as the district board has taken over so many of the charter board’s responsibilities and given us no information we need to manage the district. Yet they hold us responsible for the outcome.
We asked for financial records, and we have not gotten them. We’ve asked for the staff and resources they promised to bring. We’ve asked for simple transparency from a company supposedly working at this board’s direction, and instead of any response at all from NPFE, tonight the district board voted to remove me from the board.
People at our board meetings hear the horror stories from the staff working our buildings. The lack of staff, or materials, or services for our many special education kids. The behavior issues. Kids not learning. Kids spending hours of the school day unsupervised, or with substitute teachers unprepared for the challenges they face.
Muskegon Heights has a long, rich history of serving our community, but today we have become the repository for students who have been expelled from surrounding schools.
As a board member, I want to continue my support of the charter board they continue working to be accountable to the parents of Muskegon Heights -- in the absence of any necessary data from NPFE. I also encourage the students and staff to rally with us and demand answers and accountability from NPFE and the district board. There seems to be a pattern of folks doing whatever they please, ignoring the law, the contract, and the failing kids in our schools.
People in Muskegon Heights are informed and aware of what’s happening. The situation at our schools is worse than anyone imagined, and the district board remains bent on continuing to allow New Paradigm for Education to take our money and fail our children. Instead of holding them to account, our district board is removing people who asked questions.
It's time for the community to demand our schools back before it’s too late.”
The Academy Board, as early as October of this year, began working with the National Institute of Charter Schools, a nonprofit with ties to Central Michigan University according to state filings.
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