Troubled Detroit District May Reopen "Skills Camp" This Month

The Detroit Free Press (5/14, Higgins) reports that Deborah Hunter-Harvill, superintendent of the troubled Buena Vista School District near Saginaw, Michigan, announced yesterday that the district "could reopen as early as Monday - after more than a week of canceled classes - but only to hold a voluntary camp for students in which they would receive instruction in reading, writing and math." Hunter-Harvill announced Monday "that said classes are canceled until further notice," and the Free Press reports that the "the financially distressed school district" has been shuttered since May 3 "because the district ran out of money" after the state withheld state aid.

MLive (5/14, Knake) reports that Hunter-Harvill met with state Superintendent Mike Flanagan and Saginaw Intermediate School District Superintendent Richard Syrek on Monday "to come up with a plan to get students back into a learning environment," coming up with the plan for the "skills enhancement camp." This article explains that the state is withholding aid because "the district took $401,962.51 to educate students from the Wolverine Secure Treatment Center after Wolverine severed its contract to have the district provide teaching to them." The piece notes that the camp would be funded in part with Title I money.