My friends Jason and Maria have a daughter that goes to Chapelle Elementary. Maria and I have been exchanging emails the past few days on the prospect of Chapelle and other neighborhood schools in Ypsi closing due to budget issues and demographic changes. Here, with her approval, is the exchange, in hopes that some of you might find it of value.

MARK: So, let me know if I’ve got this right, OK? As I understand it, the Ypsi Public School District (YPSD), right now, is facing a $6.4 million budget shortfall, and they’re talking about making some pretty severe cuts in order to stay solvent. I’ve heard that there are two different options presently being floated, and each of them involves closing multiple schools. Here are the options being considered, as I understand them:

Presently, YPSD consists of 9 schools. They are:
• Perry – the city-wide kindergarten school
• Estabrook, Eriksson, Adams and Chapelle – elementary schools
• East and West – middle schools
• Ypsi High – high school
• The Regional Career Technical Center – the alternative high school

Proposal one: Total savings: $968,000
Keep Perry kindergarten
Eliminate 2 elementary schools (likely Chapelle and Adams)
Keep 2 elementary schools as grades 1-4 schools
Create a middle school for grades 5-6
Create a middle school for grades 7-8
Keep high school and alternative high school

Proposal two: Total savings: $1,309,000
Keep Perry Kindergarten
Eliminate 1 elementary schools (likely Chapelle)
Keep 2 elementary schools as grades 2-6 schools
Keep 1 elementary school as a K-6 MEGASCHOOL (likely Adams)
Eliminate one middle school
Keep a middle school for grades 7-8
Keep high school and alternative high school

Is this pretty much the current situation?

MARIA: That’s pretty much it. The only clarification I would add is that the “projected savings” numbers in the YPS plan are highly suspect. Leaving aside for the moment the obvious fact that neither option is anywhere near sufficient to close the budget gap ($6.4 million), I think that either plan is likely to end up actually costing YPS money, rather than saving it. The biggest hidden cost is the declining enrollments certain to result from either plan, both of which will lead to larger, overcrowded and underperforming schools, and very little real “choice” for parents. Also, both plans call for major transformations at whatever schools remain, and while there is no way to predict all of the fallout from these changes, there are certain to be a number of additional hidden costs as the schools struggle to adapt.

Another hidden cost of this plan involves the fact that Ypsi just spent millions of dollars in bonds to renovate all its elementary schools and bring them up to speed with the newest educational technologies designed specifically for elementary education. Closure of any of these schools essentially makes this a waste of taxpayer money, not to mention a missed opportunity. While closing schools that needed major upgrades might make a little more sense, that’s not the case now.

Finally, there’s the question of Ardis Elementary, a school that was closed in the last round of cuts. The district recently passed on a 3 million dollar offer to purchase Ardis, which would have cut our budget deficit in half. Instead they propose to use Ardis to house a new program (that will cost them money) for what is essentially an under-enrolled high school. The reason I mention the high school plan is that it highlights a fundamental inconsistency in the logic of YPS “cost-cutting” plans. Essentially, they are proposing that we expand an already under-enrolled and low performing high school while at the same time asking that we eliminate half of our neighborhood schools. It makes a mockery of their slogan “Ypsilanti Schools, Strong from start to finish!”

MARK: It seems we’re kind of in a no win situation. Sure, some of it may be due to bad decisions that were made in the past, but, given the situation as it currently exists (with enrollment falling and a $6.4 million budget shortfall), it would seem that a school or two would have to close. As a parent fighting to save Chapelle, do you feel as though it’s incumbent on you to present a comprehensive plan that would detail comparable cost savings to be had elsewhere? I ask because it kind of seems like an impossible task. In other words, it seems like it’s not enough in this instance to just say “Save Chapelle.” It’s like you have to also do the job of the School Board and come forward with a better plan.

MARIA: Let’s think rationally about the numbers here. Even in the most optimistic projections, closing schools will only address a small portion of the budget shortfall ($1.3 million out of $6.4 million) so where, exactly, will the other 5.9 million come from? Moreover, in our opinion, it won’t take long for these projected savings to evaporate as a result of the hidden costs related to school closing. We fundamentally challenge the premise that school closures are a viable cost saving component in a rational deficit reduction plan, and we unreservedly reject the premise that closing schools saves money.

YPS needs to stop allowing actuaries to guide its educational mission. Closing neighborhood schools, limiting parents’ options, creating oversized, overcrowded schools with a “one size fits all” educational mission, is the surest way to exacerbate declining enrollments, which is a big part of the problem that we currently face. Remember, at one time, Ypsi had eight elementary schools, then four, now they are proposing to shave it down to two? Clearly, the formula has not worked in the past and it will not work in the future. It’s like being in the middle of a lake in a sinking boat with a slow leak and bashing out the bottom in hopes that the boat will sink slower if it weighs less.

We have to make cuts to address the budget shortfall, yes, but we also have to keep parents (and their money) in the system in order to insure a revenue stream. Why are parents leaving the Ypsi public schools for private and public schools in Ann Arbor? A primary reason is that these schools offer small, intimate settings and creative educational approaches that are responsive to individual students’ needs. If we could offer our parents schools, within walking distance of their homes, that did that, we could keep them in our system.

My response to the “sky is falling” rhetoric I’m hearing from YPS: “You’ve asked for creativity and sacrifice in the face of our current budget shortfalls, but so far, your plan only calls for sacrifice. What we need now is CREATIVITY, and what you are giving us are old failed formulas (school closings, cutting back on instructional staff as well as extras like art and music, etc). This approach will not address the core problem, which is lack of faith in our public school system, and lack of investment in the principle of a free, quality education for all.” What does creative thinking look like? I did a cursory web search and discovered that there are substantial funds out there for the creation of magnet schools with distinct educational missions. Magnet schools are meant to address inequities in the system caused by de facto segregation while promoting academic excellence and creativity. Chapelle and Adams, the elementary schools on the chopping block in the YPS plan, are over 80% minority and low income, they are ideal schools for the magnet funding program. We’ve kicked around some ideas that we think would be very appealing to parents, like capitalizing on Adams’ current specialization as a “math and science” academy but shifting the focus of its educational mission toward the current push in the State to develop green technology. Chapelle Community School has a well-established reputation as a space that actively encourages community involvement. It currently has great partnerships with Fly Art, 826michigan, and the University of Michigan. We are working on partnerships with Growing Hope, Community Records, and Dreamland Theater. We think Chapelle could easily be re-imagined as a “Public Engagement Academy” that would interface its curricular goals with community projects. What would it be like, for example, to help 5th graders improve their writing skills through community reporting and blogging? What would it mean for 1st graders to grow their own lunch in one of Growing Hope’s greenhouses (it’s a short walk away). There are parents currently in the system that have been working really hard to develop these community connections, and who have been thinking creatively about how to enhance our children’s education, because we believe in the dream of the public school as a democratizing space.

I guess that’s why the YPS plan is so disheartening, because it represents not only a failure of imagination, but also a complete disconnect with the wonderful things that are currently happening right under their noses (with no cost to the system’s bottom line). Do we have an alternate plan? Yes. First, develop partnerships with the School of Education at EMU and the University of Michigan to get some grant writing help, apply for major grants to help build on the educational missions of Adams and Chapelle. Close Ardis and sell the building. Move RCTC back into the high school, hold off on buying into costly new curricular plans like “New Tech High School” and the “international Baccalaureate” until you fix your foundation: the elementary schools. Get parents back into the schools on the ground floor (K-5) by offering them the full range of educational environments from Montessori schools to Magnet schools. Our point is that closing schools, especially small elementary schools that are located in the middle of thriving neighborhoods, will only add to declining enrollments, increase the lack of public engagement in the schools, and ultimately make our budget woes much worse. This is basically an economic problem of outlays and inputs. Addressing one (cutting expenses) without addressing the other (attracting new students) is a recipe for failure.

MARK: And did yesterday’s Board meeting help to clarify anything?

MARIA: The School Board Meeting clarified one thing. I think now we have a clearer sense of the administration’s true goals. We believe that, notwithstanding their proposed “options,” the administration has intended all along to close East Middle School and Chapelle Community School. I’ll admit this is just a hunch, but it is a pretty strong one. So they put us through the “community input” theater to give us the false sense that we actually had a say in this matter. This is such a shame given what an amazing job Chapelle is doing in terms of offering our most vulnerable children a fun, creative, and super successful learning environment. Remember it is the school with the highest enrollments in the district, and despite some serious demographic challenges (91% of our children qualify for subsidized lunches), our students’ standardized test sores are comprable to those of much more privileged schools. Moreover, Chapelle has received a grade of “B” in the state mandated accreditation system, the same grade as Estabrook and Erikson. Clearly someone is doing something right at Chapelle Community School, which is why we, and so many others, are so committed to keeping it open.

The important thing to remember is that this is not a done deal. The administration will make a recommendation to the Board of Education, and the Trustees will then vote on that recommendation. We believe that this process will take place very soon, so we have called a citywide community meeting for February 3 @ 7:00pm. The meeting will be held at Chapelle Community School (111 S. Wallace) in the multipurpose room. We encourage anyone who cares about the future of Ypsilanti to attend, whether or not they have children in the district.

No matter how deeply annoyed and frustrated I might be at this point, I do think its important to remember that all of the stakeholders (administration, trustees, parents, community members, teachers) do want what’s best for our children. We just disagree on the strategy. We believe that closing schools is a failing strategy, and that it hasn’t worked for other districts that have adopted it (for example, Willow Run, where our current CFO worked until last year, or, for that matter, Ypsilanti). The reality is that closing Chapelle and East will not solve our budget crisis. In fact, it won’t even come close to closing the current funding gap. Moreover, it will make the crisis much worse down the line, and then which schools will we close? We can go one of two ways. The Trustees can approve the administration’s dubious plan, and send the “knowledge workers” they so desperately want to attract fleeing from the district, while piling all of the children whose parents don’t have options into one school, and, as a result, creating a HUGE public relations mess, further damaging the district; OR, they can do something really audacious: listen to what parents are telling them, and issue a final, resolute NO to the idea that we can and should lay the burden of our failing system of school financing on the backs of our most vulnerable children.

We ought to make the cuts we can, and, if necessary, go to the State with an unbalanced budget and tell them that we will no longer pursue a strategy that creates dysfunctional districts (why are so many Willow Run parents coming to Ypsi? And where will they go when Ypsi becomes Willow Run?). Trustees, administrators, teachers, parents and community members can and should unite, to say NO MORE! I am convinced that this is the only sane route to take for our children and for our community and I will commit myself, and my family, to back the district up one hundred percent when, and if, they decide to stand up to the State.

If folks want to find out more about our struggle they can go to saveypsischools.com or join our facebook group: Save Chapelle Community School!

MARK: Do you think that it’ll be difficult to rally the community behind the Save Chapelle movement, when doing so might mean closing another school… like the one that their kids go to? And maybe that’s a false construct, but I think that it’s one that most people share. People, from what I can tell, seem to be agreed that some schools need to close. The question is, which ones.

MARIA: Let me clarify, we believe Chapelle Community School should stay open. We think its doing a phenomenal job of educating a wide variety of kids, largely because of its leadership (Principal Guillen is creative, open to new ideas, firm, yet gentle with the kids, just an amazing administrator), its fantastic and committed teachers, its small size, and its ethos of community engagement. That said, this is not a “Save Chapelle” movement (notwithstanding our facebook group name which was created in a fit of rage after the first community workshop). This is a movement to take charge of education in our community, to take back our educational mission from actuaries and CFOs, to question the whole premise that closing schools is the right answer for our kids and our future as a community.

We do not want any schools to be closed. Why? Because closing schools is bad for our children and furthers the defeatist vibe that has plagued Ypsi for far too long, a vibe that you try to undo every day right here in this blog. Let me put it in a way that anyone can understand. If you lay off instructional staff, or cut out languages, or art, its horrible (and we don’t want that) BUT, you can always re-hire teachers once you’ve got more revenue, or apply for federal grant money to bring art, music, and equipment into the classrooms. Once you’ve closed a school, you’ve closed it for good, there’s no bringing it back, and there’s no recovering your reputation as a failing district in the eyes of the community and the region. Parents give up, community organizations working with the closed school move on, and whatever momentum and synergy you had going in the unique combination of parent, teacher, student, and community investment just shrivels up. You’ve done more than simply close a school, you’ve dealt a mortal blow to our confidence as a community. Moreover, you have to put those displaced students somewhere. Where do they go? To larger and more overcrowded schools that eventually become so overcapacitized that they cannot give students the individualized attention that a smaller more intimate educational setting can deliver.

Ann Arbor schools are considered to be some of the best in the region. Guess what the average capacity of those schools is–roughly 350 students. Chapelle Community School has a maximum capacity of 375, it is the smallest school in our district, which is why the Administration thinks it should be closed. Ann Arbor is facing its own budget shortfall, of $20,000,000, over three times the deficit that we are running. And guess what? The Ann Arbor superintendent says closing schools is not an option because the minor savings closing one or more schools would achieve, would not be worth the risk. Ann Arbor has 21 elementary schools. Ypsi has 4. Closing schools is not the answer to our budget woes. Moreover, it WILL make them worse.

When Ardis and George closed a few years back there was a huge dip in enrollments, and we have been running a deficit ever since, I’m not going to argue causality here, but I think anyone with a kid in public schools can tell you that if their school closed and they had an option between sending their child to an overcrowded school farther away, or sending them to a smaller charter school or a private school, they would leave the district. Unfortunately most of the kids at Adams and Chapelle do not have options, so they will bear the brunt of the district’s failure of imagination and will. Our position is not an “emotional” or “irrational” one, on the contrary, we believe the knee-jerk assumption that school closings are the answer is the “irrational” position. We have looked at this from all angles, and we feel very strongly that closing schools is a simplistic solution that is simply not sufficient to address a very complex situation. Seriously, everyone needs to take a long hard look at the numbers, and shake themselves out of this trance.

Oh, and by the way, go Dragons!

[more to come]

There will be a mass meeting on February 3, in the Chapelle Elementary multipurpose room at 7:00 PM. Please tell your friends.