Good night, Beloved Detroit; I have a school board story to tell - TopicsExpress

Good night, Beloved Detroit; I have a school board story to tell you. This will not matter much except to Detroiters who follow local politics intimately. In 2010. I was invited to run for a seat on the school board that had become available. It happened to be District 2, where i live. According to the by laws of the Board, vacancies are filled this way: Interested parties ask to be appointed by the sitting board members. I went to the board meeting in August, 2010 and requested the seat. I had to be voted in over three other people who were asking to be appointed. The Board members did not want to appoint me. I asked them to appoint me on the promise that i would do all that is possible for the Board to restore governance, as the DPS had already been under emergency manager for a year. By then, it was clear that the corruption was well underway and that we would have to wage a mighty battle to get out from under EM. I was appointed over the others- including Jonathon Kinloch, who had been voted off in a previous term. There were Board members willing to appoint him to fill a seat the voters clearly put him out of, but i prevailed and was appointed. Later, the emergency manager APPOINTED KINLOCH to a board seat, effectively putting himself on the Board. We have fought this in court and lost, because we cant get justice in court. We do not accept the appointment of the EM on our board. He is an agent of the enemy of the people. Period. The following week, the philanthropic/non profit community attempted to get the Detroit city council to abolish the board and put the schools under mayoral control. A tremendous struggle ensued and the People prevailed. The foundations tried it again the next day, but the People were ready for them and beat them to city council and backed them off. The council members were not prepared to take on the schools and knew that the charter did not include schools. But the foundations had shown their hand... The Board members who fought off the privatization attempt by New Detroit, Southwest Solutions, YouthVoice, City Year remain faithful, despite the fact that we do not get paid, receive nothing but disdain from the mainstream press and in fact pay out of pocket to serve. Recently,LaMar Lemmons paid out of pocket for attorney fees to get the declaratory decision in Kangaroo Court. When i get discouraged about the courts always ruling against us and conditions of our schools and the closing and giveaways of our finest schools, LaMar Lemmons reminds me: We must go on the record. I did not care for Ida Short because she confronted me at a meeting. LaMar Lemmons told me she was true to the People and i need to get over that. Not one to take orders easily, i remained separate from the board members. Then one day at a meeting, it became clear to me that Ida Short was grieving over the situation in the schools. That the looting and the theft and the lies of the emergency managers and the taking of our best programs was plaguing her; she was chair of academics and we had no authority. The curriculum was dismantled in favor of books that made a big profit for the emergency manager and the superintendent. They made millions and the books were outdated and the long fought for African Centered curriculum was gone.Bilingual education was gone. Special needs students were being denied services. A teacher from Bates Academy, Victor B Gibson came to every board meeting to tell us of the situation in the classrooms. Ida Short and Victor Gibson stand with our students without fail. Rev. David Murray is faithful to the mission of the Board. He never wavers and stands up for the neediest students. He knows policies no one else knows and can recite the suspension and expulsion rules. Most importantly, he stands for self determination. This is the reason the foundations are coming after our seats. We have met faithfully, done all we can do with no legal authority, but all moral authority. We can be replaced by money people and then the governor will see fit to remove the emergency manager - when his cronies fill the seats. The FREEDOM SLATE will be there, no matter what. We are in this for the long haul.