Former DPS Executive Hill Indicted

The dominoes are falling so fast it is becoming difficult to keep track of them.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/25541216/detail.html

Given the state of the DPS and that it serves so many disadvantaged children these allegations are particularly disturbing. Those found guilty would seem to deserve a lower ring in hell, to borrow from Dante.

Detroit gallerist Sherry Washington is alleged to have participated in this thievery. She has done much to promote local artists and enjoyed an outstanding reputation in the art community. If these charges stand, I will have to shake my head in disappointment as to how she could have gone astray, particularly in such a despicable crime.

On the other hand, there is cause for celebration at all that is being exposed. We have a wonderful but wounded city but before it can get well the poison has to be removed from the wounds before it can truly heal.

This is happening.

And they borrowed/are borrowing 10 grand from each teacher to stay afloat. This just makes my blood boil!

DT, you're telling me! I didn't even have the chance for them to loot my paycheck. I lost my job. Every time I read one of these stories, I get angry all over again. Thanks a lot, DPS.

Here's hoping that we keep rooting out the corruption in this city.

Believe Sherry Washington a former girlfriend of Bernard Kilpatrick. She certainly made out like a bandit when then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave her the contract to put art into Cobo to the tune of $1 million or so. Then she got the contract for $1.6 million for art in the Detroit public schools. You think she's clean?

oh hell no

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Originally Posted by SWMAP

Believe Sherry Washington a former girlfriend of Bernard Kilpatrick. She certainly made out like a bandit when then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick gave her the contract to put art into Cobo to the tune of $1 million or so. Then she got the contract for $1.6 million for art in the Detroit public schools. You think she's clean?

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The no-bids she got for Cobo and Cass were the first whiffs of stink. There were many eyebrows raised as to if the art acquired cost that much even considering an excessive but arguable commission of 50%. However, since art pricing is such a subjective issue, there is a wide range of play. One would have to round up all the checks paid to the artists to know. If there was wrong-doing she will probably slide by due to those vagaries.

There was some question of the art for Cass even being delivered, but I have not heard the final word on that. If she is crooked at least she should have stuck to what she knew. The Hill-related indictment was about something outside her expertise.

i hope more corruption is exposed.. sooner than later..

From what I hear, the art at Cass is no longer there. Don't know where it went, but it's not at Cass.

English: DPS is now hiring HQ teachers.

They're borrowing money from the teachers? What does that mean, withholding pay?

I tried googling this, but all I found was a Metro Times article talking about a secret $400M loan to DPS from Lansing that Bobb is being highly secretive about...

HQ [[what's that?) or the green-gilled naive or equally condescending [[hailing from out of state to save the downtrodden ones) Teach for America 'new' teachers? I hear that 'experiment' is quite interesting.

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Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher

English: DPS is now hiring HQ teachers.

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Teachers are having 250.00 per pay taken out and the district is "borrowing" it. We get paid back, sans interest, when we either: A) retire or B) die, whichever comes first.

HQ is highly qualified [[certain criteria must be met in order to teach content area subjects...English, Math, Social Studies, etc). Don't get me started on Teach for America...although they CAN teach summer school for me, since I am not interested in doing so.

Per the last DFT [[AFL-CIO) contract last year it was agreed that all DPS teachers and counselors would have $250 with held from each pay check given back to the district totalling $10,000 to be returned once the teacher leaves or retires if said teacher has worked in the district over 10 years. Otherwise it is a pro-rated amount. It is called the Termination Incentive Plan - TIP). Thus, many retired last June.

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Originally Posted by fryar

They're borrowing money from the teachers? What does that mean, withholding pay?

I tried googling this, but all I found was a Metro Times article talking about a secret $400M loan to DPS from Lansing that Bobb is being highly secretive about...

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Zacha: Many folks retired in June not because of the TIP but because of the 3% penalty they would have paid for health care [[that we who remained are paying now but it's not part of the premium, it's something that really hasn't been explained but they suck it out under a healthcare tax or some other BS name). If teachers had age+years of service=80, they could retire and not have to pay the 3% [[plus an additional something or another). Most teachers had already had 5 grand taken out of their pay by the time they retired. The TIP wasn't the reason, it was that evil percentage of pay and the penalty they would have faced had they NOT retired. It was pretty much forcing people out by zapping them in the wallet if they remained.

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Originally Posted by DetroitTeacher

Teachers are having 250.00 per pay taken out and the district is "borrowing" it. We get paid back, sans interest, when we either: A) retire or B) die, whichever comes first.

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What happens with C. The district declares bankruptcy? :[[

What a dreadful statement about the state of our educational system. Why is that all politicians seem to revel in proclaiming how important education is and then attack teachers and their compensation?

Ah. Thanks for enlightening me. I did not know that. And now, excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

What happens with C. The district declares bankruptcy? :[[

What a dreadful statement about the state of our educational system. Why is that all politicians seem to revel in proclaiming how important education is and then attack teachers and their compensation?

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Given the amounts of per pupil money the state has received in previous years, only mismanagement and/or theft can explain this.

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Originally Posted by Hermod

Given the amounts of per pupil money the state has received in previous years, only mismanagement and/or theft can explain this.

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+1 on that.

Just go to http://www.detroiturbex.com/content/...s/schools.html and take a look at how the schools were closed up by DPS. Buildings poorly secured, filled with books, desks and equipment left to rot or be stolen by looters and scrappers. I thought this was the generation that believed in recycling and reusing. Guess not. Just let the taxpayers buy it all over again - it's only money.

Most Detroit pols have no real interest in "green" issues beyond the opportunities they present to appropriate tax dollars from working people and transfer them to friends and family. That's it.
It just a word for them, a password into your earnings.

I saw the photos of the things left at Cass and nearly wept. Skip the green issue, they could have found a middleman somewhere to buy these goods in lots and possibly make a little money. They lack both hindsight and foresight.

I was talking to a parking attendant at Wayne State's garage on Putnam a few years ago. He was working when the school administration left the old Maccabees building for the old GM headquarters. He said they just threw out boxes and boxes of paper, pens, Post-It notes, everything. Perfectly good equipment was dumped because they didn't want to move it a mile north? Christ almighty.

Yes, I'd heard that report before as well... several times. What a waste indeed!

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Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I was talking to a parking attendant at Wayne State's garage on Putnam a few years ago. He was working when the school administration left the old Maccabees building for the old GM headquarters. He said they just threw out boxes and boxes of paper, pens, Post-It notes, everything. Perfectly good equipment was dumped because they didn't want to move it a mile north? Christ almighty.

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I think I'll talk about this until I'm blue in the face, but here goes again.

Whenever a building is closed, employees are threatened to just walk away. You are told that to remove anything without authorization is STEALING. We are not to take, remove, sell, loan, or otherwise transport any property that belongs to the district. In the case of Cass Tech, during our meetings in the spring of 2005, the moving company came and told us the ONLY things we could take with us into the new building. We were assured that the REST of the building would be packed up, and the leftover items sent to schools that needed them, or to a warehouse.

There was a lot of anxiety about "Teachers who have been at Cass for 20 or 30 years cluttering up the new school with all their junk." It was talked about quite a bit during my last 2 years there. There was much, much talk about leaving files, old textbooks, computer equipment, etc. -- look, good teachers have the tendency to be pack rats. You NEVER know when you'll need anything from crayons to chalk to a worksheet you made up 7 years ago. But we were told this was BAD -- the new building would have new *everything*, and all 200 of us would have to go from having an entire unshared classroom to one desk and one half-sized cabinet in a shared classroom.

What would you have had us do? Should we have taken everything and given it away? Backed up a truck to the old Cass and cleared it out, even when the district assured us THEY would do it? This was pre-text message scandal, pre-Bobb, pre-everything. The district was starting to pink slip the crap out of everyone. People were scared and nervous.

One of my former students, now an undergrad at WSU, took photographs this week WITH the insider knowledge of a kid who'd been at Cass Tech during its last year as a school building in use. He took several pics of my classroom. Mine is one of the relatively decent ones [[which isn't saying much -- the windows are busted out, desks are overturned, and bird poop is all over the furniture), but there aren't the papers, books, equipment, etc. That is because I left the district and disobeyed orders -- I took ALL of my stuff with me to use at my new school. Yes, MY stuff. I'm glad I did, too... I just wish I hadn't put all of my students' textbooks from AY 04-05 back into the depository. According to my student's pics, they are STILL THERE.

Not every DPS employee is corrupt. Not even most of us were. I can assure you that fear and intimidation are very effective tools... or at least they were back in 2005. My granddad and parents worked at the Roosevelt warehouse and their stories are even worse.

That is why I get so very angry when I hear about the shopping sprees on district credit cards -- my years as a Detroit Public Schools teacher were all about "making do." I keep seeing my students on Wayne State's campus and when they tell me how much my classes meant to them, it is worth it. But DPS was and is an incredibly abusive organization towards its rank and file employees. I didn't realize how nervous and stressed out I was until I left.

I took everything that was mine from Cooley. I aso took whatever I thought my kids could use, where ever I ended up. Did I disobey orders? Yep. We, too, were told to leave everything. I saw what happened other places. Granted, what I took wouldn't amount to a hill of beans on the open market, but I took it. Powerpoint projectors from WAY back [[hey, I still use them), a portable screen, my podium, all of my files and teacher stuff. I did not take any novels or books [[I only have so much room at my house). I wished I had, I have nothing at the new school and no one is telling where the stuff is located.

I am sad to say that everything that was left was taken by thieves on the last day of summer school. This stuff was the newer stuff [[laptops, LCD projectors, overhead projectors). They broke right in and took their time in taking what they wanted. These people weren't teachers...although we have a sneaking notion of who it was [[former employee, not a teacher). This stuff was locked up [[by the moving company). I don't know how one would get rid of an overhead projector on the open market [[or even the underground market...there is a limited use for them anymore).

My former students who graduated need their transcripts. No one knows what happened to them. The moving company came and took them away.

Like English, my former students tell me that I helped them. A few told me that I am who talked them into staying in school. I keep in touch with MANY of my former kids and still proofread their college papers. When they tell me how much they enjoyed my class or that they are learning, in college, what I taught them in high school...it's all worth it. I don't do this for anyone but my kids. It sure isn't the fact that I have to pay the district 25 bucks a day to work there!