Category: Features
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“This budget offers a level of stability” Mayor Neeley – an increase of $13 million from previous year
By Tom Travis Update: This article has been updated on March 27, 2023 to reflect more information from the Mayor and the city’s 2024 budget. Please note that entire city budget is available at the end of the article. And also, here. “This budget offers a level of stability,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley declared in his…
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Education Beat Analysis: Flint’s public schools tipping into arguable freefall
By Harold C. Ford As the newly-constituted Flint Board of Education is beginning to look a lot like the old board, with chaos repeatedly breaking out, a multitude of sobering realities about the school district are undeniable. Arguably, Flint’s public schools are in freefall. Its student population has fallen from around 40,000 a few decades…
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Education Beat Analysis: March 15 Flint School Board meeting collapses into chaos
By Harold C. Ford “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” –The Who’s Peter Townshend, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” 1971 After a few months of fragile collegiality sprinkled with polite platitudes, the newest iteration of the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) has descended into a chaotic reminder of what board-watchers have regrettably witnessed again…
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Book Bans: What’s the real motive?
By Paul Rozycki “Controversial LGBTQ+ memoir the subject of heated Lapeer library meeting” (MLive, March 17, 2023) That was the headline of a story about a recent Lapeer District Library Board meeting where a crowded room of local residents attacked and denounced the local library for placing the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia…
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Mindful Civic Leadership Program brings community and police together – a model for the nation
By Canisha Bell The Mindful Civic Leadership Program, designed to bring Black community members and police officers together to build mindfulness skills, launched a second run March 27. The next session will begin April 10. The program is part of the Mindful Flint Initiative, led by the Crim Fitness Foundation. Theresa Roach, associate director of…
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Council approves new rules, adds support for repealing Emergency Manager law; Mays is ousted, again
By Tom Travis This article has been updated to include a link to view and/or download the Rules Governing City Council meetings. – Editor Flint City Councilperson Eric Mays (Ward 1) was removed again for “disorderly conduct” from Monday’s council meeting. Council President Allie Herkenroder (Ward 7) called out Mays for continuous incorrect use of…
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The East Village Magazine – March 2023
The latest edition of The East Village Magazine is available for download and viewing here:
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UM-Flint announces voluntary faculty buyout options with year’s pay, $10K bonus
By Jan Worth-Nelson In one of the first publicly visible moves to address its fiscal woes since the campus-wide “Strategic Transformation” process began last fall, the University of Michigan – Flint has rolled out a faculty buyout incentives plan paying up to a year’s salary with a $10,000 bonus. The “2023 Faculty Voluntary Retirement Incentive…
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Village Life: “Where am I from?” or “Who are my people?” are questions worth exploring
By Tom Travis I’m writing this on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. Soon after Putin’s unprovoked invasion last year I reached out to some local Ukrainians for their reactions. I soon found out they all wanted to talk. They all wanted to share their unique stories and emotions about the impending doom…
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Education Beat: Flint Ed Board badly divided on two “safety” issues — clear backpacks, legal reimbursement
By Harold C. Ford “Enhancing safety measures, such as a clear backpack policy, should not need debate, nor should it take months to implement.” – Bruce Jordan, Michigan Education Association UniServ Director, reacting to a Flint Board of Education vote rejecting a clear backpack policy “I think we’re basing this on emotions and not evidence-based…
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