Tag: Flint Community Schools
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Education Beat: Flint School Board fiscal scrutiny of Williams legal services and Lambert public relations firm intensifies
By Harold C. Ford “It’s going to get ugly … I’m ready for the fight … This man here [former Flint school board attorney Kendall Williams] making a million dollars. Unbelievable.” –Joyce Ellis-McNeal, Oct. 13, 2021, Flint school board meeting Fees charged to Flint Community Schools (FCS) by The Williams Firm, for legal services, and…
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Village Life: Memories burned into Washington School’s demise: “This one hurts the most”
By Gary Fisher She was nearly half a century old by the time I showed up. Creaky wooden windows, stifling forced heat, so thick you could taste it, zero air conditioning, lead paint everywhere, and asbestos-covered pipes. The ancient bathrooms with the old radiators (an especially egregious artifice when some miscreant relieved himself on it),…
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Education Beat: Flint School Board votes unanimously to talk with Mott Foundation CEO Ridgway White about abandoned Central-Whittier campus
By Harold C. Ford On Wednesday, Oct .20, near the end of another long meeting (four hours and 22 minutes), the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) voted 6-0 to invite C. S. Mott Foundation CEO Ridgway White to visit and talk about the future of the long-abandoned Flint Central High School-Whittier Middle School campus. Votes…
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Education Beat: Flint Cultural Center Academy survived COVID, construction and start-up challenges to make it to third year
By Harold C. Ford In its third year of operation, Flint’s newest school, the nonprofit charter Flint Cultural Center Academy (FCCA), has managed to survive and continue adding grades despite adjustments to COVID, construction at the nearby Sloan Museum and Flint Public Library, and challenges faced by some of its economically-disadvantaged students. “We’re not where…
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Education Beat: busy Flint Community Schools board settles teachers’ contract, fills board vacancies, addresses bats and black mold as teacher attrition continues, enrollment dips below 3,000
By Harold C. Ford It took more than four hours, but the remaining five members of the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) got work done at their Sept. 29 meeting, including settling a contract with the teachers’ union, filling the two board vacancies created by recent resignations, electing officers, reviewing efforts to sell vacant schools,…
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Education Beat: Uncertain leadership, uncertain infrastructure challenges roil Flint Community Schools board
By Harold C. Ford Flint schools superintendent Anita Steward files lawsuit against board of education Kevelin Jones appointed interim superintendent Two board of education members abruptly resign Doyle-Ryder building closed due to presence of black mold; $440,000 roof repair plan approved by board Board president signals resumption of talks with Mott Foundation “We are at…
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Education Beat: Flint Schools leadership besieged by aging infrastructure in buildings averaging 70 years old
By Harold C. Ford Students in Flint Community Schools (FCS) will miss six days of school in the just-started 2021-22 school year due to the heat. FCS ordered schools closed the entire week of Aug .23-26; an instruction day had not been scheduled for Friday, Aug. 27. FCS Superintendent Anita Steward issued a revised public…
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Education Beat: Hot Buildings Keep Flint Students at Home
By Harold C. Ford For the second time in the just-started 2021-22 school year, Flint Community Schools (FCS) closed its doors to students due to the heat. This time it was by order of the FCS Board of Education. By a vote of 5-0, the Flint board closed its schools Aug. 19 in anticipation of…
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Education Beat: Flint Summer Enrichment Programs conclude as students return to school buildings and balanced calendar
By Harold C. Ford Students enrolled in Flint Community Schools (FCS) returned to school Aug. 4 for a third consecutive year under a “balanced calendar” that was adopted by FCS at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. A balanced calendar features an earlier start to the school year, a later finish, and longer and…
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Education Beat: Mott Foundation CEO White pauses, then restores, grants to Flint Schools; 200 at packed Ed Board meeting signal community divides
By Harold C. Ford The dramatic twists and turns reflected by and from the leadership teams—elected and appointed—at Flint Community Schools (FCS) deepened when Ridgway White, CEO of the Flint-based C. S. Mott Foundation, announced a pause of FCS grant funding on July 16. A plan titled the Flint Education Continuum (FEC), spearheaded by the…
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