“Bring your boots,” said Georgette Johnson, communications director for the Pontiac School District in Southeast Michigan.
Good advice, I thought this morning as I looked out into the darkness from my motel window and saw the night’s new snow, illuminated by bright streetlights. Forecast for tonight: 4 degrees above zero.
I’m here in Pontiac to report on how the district plans to deal with a $10 million budget deficit. It’s part of ASBJ’s April cover package on the recession’s impact on school districts across the country. Pontiac has been losing enrollment for years, as residents move out of state to escape one of the more troubled economies in the nation. With a capacity of 20,000 students and an enrollment this year of just 7,2000, Pontiac must close one of its two high schools, at least one middle school, and several elementary schools.
Pontiac’s school board is braced for the challenges facing it these next several months. But if you think the mood here is bleak, you’re wrong. At the school board meeting Monday night, the trustees heard songs from elementary school students from two schools as part of “board appreciation” day. One of those schools has fewer than 170 students and could easily be closed this time next year, but you wouldn’t’ know it by the way the children sang and the reaction from the board members.
“I just want to say to those young people,” said Trustee Christopher Northcross, the longest serving board member, honored for more than 3,000 days of service. “Those presentations were better for me than silver or gold.”
Then the board members and superintendent thanked the parents for giving them the opportunity to teach their children. They honored a high-achieving school student — and his mother. Then board members and the audience broke for cake to celebrate.
The meeting went on for another three hours or so, as the board finished the ceremonies and light-hearted gift-giving and dealt with more critical issues facing the district.
Come to Pontiac in mid-winter, amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, with the Big Three carmakers teetering and pleading for federal aid, and you would think the district, its employees, and its volunteers would be distraught and downtrodden.
I did – but I was wrong.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
