Ypsilanti’s Public Schools continue to battle red ink before consolidating with Willow Run Community Schools this summer.
Dedrick Martin is Superintendent of Ypsilanti schools and says his job may even go away as part of the consolidation process this summer.
In the meantime, he says staff and administrators are juggling some difficult tasks.
“Kids are still here, staff is still here” he says, “but you’re also doing things to close out a district, which is abnormal, and then you’re also trying to plan for the start of a new district…while you wonder about your own personal future.”
In the latest round of cuts, Ypsilanti will pink slip four and a half more teachers.
Martin says the positions were identified during the fall semester. But he waited to minimize the impact to students.
“We decided to go through the semester instead of disrupting several hundred kids and their schedule”, he says. “We would make the adjustment at the mid-point in the year so that when kids come back for the second semester, it would be a little bit more of a seamless transition.”
Some unplanned income was identified recently. That was from advertising revenue for the district website and the sale of a student-built house.
But Martin says more cuts will still be needed.
- Chris Zollars, Michigan Radio Newsroom
