


After a controversial decision to privatize transportation, custodial and food service employment in the Southfield (MI) Public Schools, four members of the Board of Education who voted in favor of the proposal are now facing a recall campaign from local union leaders.
“We were extremely disappointed in the (April 22) decision,” said Patricia Haynie, executive director of the Southfield Coordinating Council of the Michigan Education Association, comprised of three bargaining units, one being the Michigan Educational Support Personnel Association, which includes the 300 individuals who worked for Southfield Schools and who were given pink slips this spring.
School Board President Karen Miller and trustees Margaret Hall, Fern Katz and Darryle Buchanan were listed in the recall petition filed last week with the Election’s Division of the Oakland County Clerk’s Office. The term of Board Vice President Connie Williams, who also voted in favor of privatization, is up this fall.
Haynie argued that the decision was not just about money, with the school board aiming to eradicate its $7 million deficit. “This is more than just a financial issue,” she said. “It’s an issue of social justice. The need for this community to stand up and support working men and women and the right for working men and women to earn a decent wage and have decent working conditions. It’s a human rights issue, it’s not just an economic issue.”
The district voted in favor of outsourcing those jobs, despite last-minute negotiation efforts from the union in an attempt to thwart the plans.
“I had people who only needed six months to get a retirement package and they basically cut off their heads,” Haynie said, adding that more than 100 of those laid off live in either Southfield or Lathrup Village. She said many are now in danger of losing their homes. “Under the state law, if you work in a school district, your children can go to that school district. Now there are 67 students who can no longer attend Southfield Schools,” and for whom the district cannot acquire the per-pupil tax dollars, she added.
Haynie and her team have 90 days to acquire enough signatures to put the matter on the Nov. 4 ballot. The number of signatures is dependant on the number of voters who participated in the last gubernatorial election, although Haynie said they’re aiming for 15,000, well above that figure.
If the recall effort is successful, new appointees would fill the vacant seats.
“We weren’t surprised,” Miller said after hearing about the campaign. “The union is very upset about our decision to privatize, and this is one of the ways they are dealing with it.”
While Miller said that “there was no place else to go,” other than to outsource those jobs as a way of saving money, she said it was a difficult decision to make, but one that she wholeheartedly stands by.
“It was heartbreaking to make that decision,” Miller said. “A lot of people lost their jobs, and it’s a really bad thing. But you have to make a decision based on what you think is best, based on the information you have at the time, and (you must) focus on the future.
“I’ve been on the board a long time and I’m really a union supporter, but the kids have to come first. We had to pick the kids. And now it looks like for the next year we’ll have a little bit of a fund balance rather than being in the hole.”
This isn’t the only tough decision the school board will have to make in the near future, Miller said, just days after the school board approved a decrease in millage rates for residents given a decline in enrollment, an increase in commercial property values in Southfield and revisions made to the Michigan business tax.
“We still have more work to do because it doesn’t look like the economy is going to improve anytime soon,” Miller said. “We’re struggling with all kinds of things. We are continuously looking at how money is being spent. We approved a strategic plan, and (we are) looking at every process and department in the district. We are trying to reprioritize and make sure our resources are being spent on the things that are important to us moving forward. It’s really about the future of the district. It was a tough decision, but we still have a lot more to make. If we all stay focused on the kids.”
Miller said she hopes the recall campaign is not successful.
“I hope that we have been doing enough things in the district with our programs for kids,” she said. “I hope that that record will (weigh) over that.”
(candgnews.com)