This is sad. More cuts and complete disruption to follow, in ALL school districts, if Gov. Snyder's 'education reform' takes place. The Senate Education Committee has been drafting the bills over the summer, when no one is paying attention, and they plan to sweep it right through as soon as school starts. One of the scariest things on the agenda is 'forcing' all districts to adopt Schools of Choice, which will be most frightening in that it will take away all of the means of implementation that current districts have-meaning, the state will decide the 'capacity' of classroom size, for us. That surely means more great teachers leaving and slowly dismantling our great school districts.You can also be sure that once Lansing takes away local control from the school board/ residents, Snyder is sure to lay off a LOT more teachers. People need to start contacting their local Senator and tell them to tell Lansing to leave the decision making in the backyard of people who live there.

Our local senator DOES NOT CARE! He voted in favor of this travesty, Parent of 2! Kurt Heise is one of 4 Republicans that voted against it. Naturally, he knew his vote would make no difference, so it is unsure how he would have voted if he was the deciding vote.
The best thing to do is to sign the soon-to-be-2 recall petitions. One to recall Rick Snyder, and one to recall Patrick Colbeck, our senator. The Colbeck recall has not yet started, but is in the works. Please help by signing. We need to maintain our great public school system if we want to maintain our property values!

"At the meeting, Mazurek told the crowd of about 20 that he was disappointed in the agreement.
“Unfortunately, we sit here today without the ability to bring back all 52 teachers,” he said. “Some of the 52 teachers are our best employees.”
He touched on tenure-based step increases, which were reduced as part of the concessions in the agreement, but were not eliminated completely.
“That step increase impacted a few of (the laid off teachers) not being able to get their jobs back,” Mazurek said."

Well Mr. Mazurek, why did the board feel it was OK to give Ms. Gallagher,who has no experience as a super., such a HIGH starting pay and pay her $20,000 for unused sick days? Maybe some of that could be used to bring a few more of the "best employees".

Agreed. Does she also get a car courtesy of the Northville Taxpayers? I'm sure that benefit is more important than having more teachers in the classroom.

It makes me sick that Northville claims they are broke, but have money for unused sick day pay outs for Ms. Gallagher. She has NO experience in Lansing or as superintendent and gets a RAISE? And what about all the payouts and consulting fees the old superintendent just got. Could have called back 2 or 3 teachers with that money I bet. Just two examples of Northville choosing not to spend its money to bring back their teachers. If they were that disappointed in the contract, they should have imposed one to bring all the teachers back, instead of blaming the teachers for not giving up enough. This makes me sick. Might be time to take my kids out of Northville Public Schools.

I agree Outraged! But direct your anger towards Lansing and our illustrious Governor and senator. They pushed for this. The Governor's youngest goes to Green Hills in AA, and $18,000 a year isn't enough money to educate his kid. They also need fundraising on top of that amount. The senator, Colbeck, brags about the Canton charter school his kid attends and on which he is a board member. His aide is running for school board in Plymouth/Canton, too - I assume so he can push more of Colbeck's Charter Agenda effectively from the *Inside*. WAKE UP Northville! Sign to recall these guys before our school system is completely ruined!

Outraged, I don't blame you for taking your kids out of NPS. I know someone else who can afford any school anywhere - but chooses NPS because it's been a great district in the past. She, also, is reconsidering.

Your outrage should all be targeted at a state government that did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for 8 years under Granholm and years before that. The state is a mess. Your plunging real estate values are compliments of Chris Dodd et al in Washington who pushed for people with absolutely no business owning a house defaulting on loans they couldn't afford in the first place. This isn't Snyder's fault: he is trying to set Michigan on a better path by getting rid of the completely-business-stultifying MBT. Yes, the money to make that up has to come from somewhere in the short term, but in the longer term, businesses will be attracted to Michigan, they will pay taxes, they will hire employees, etc. Remember that part? I know the teachers are in a bad place, but the MEA has to stop protecting their income, and realize that times have changed. This state, and this country - with only 50% of citizens paying income tax - can not afford any of this stuff any more. To all you naysayers to what is going on, I would ask only one question: what is YOUR solution?

Vivi, thanks for being a voice of reason! Now that Granholm is gone hopefully Michigan can get back on track. I realize that these cuts seem "brutal" but the MEA has gone wild for years. Although we have wonderful teachers here in Northville it is only right that they help subsidize their healthcare-everyone else is these days. The teachers have a real "entitlement' attitude here. They have wonderful working conditions, the best of everything, great work schedules, great pay and yet they have this "don't touch me attitude." Yes, I am part of a union too and guess what, concessions HAVE to be made. I find it very interesting that the school board certainly is taking care of the administration here. I would be venting my anger at the school board and all the perks they have given the admin for many, many years, they certainly are sending the message that the admin is more important than the classrooms. Leonard was way OVERPAID and now the same with Mary Kay, yes they are good but NOT that good! Northville's priorities are in the tank!

So the kids pay the price? That's what you are saying. Don't be surprised when people don't look at Northville first when they move to the area for all that "new business" that will be coming our way. Why should they? They can live closer to Greenhills in AA, or Country Day in B'ham.

My solution is this: that all the businesses in this country start paying their fair share of taxes. If they want to move because of it, ADIOS! So live in the Tundra or in a third world country - ENJOY - just remember to get yourself immunized every other day or so. Cut the loopholes that allow profits for American Companies to be realized off shore. If jobs are created in other countries, fine - but let's not give encouragement to do so like it's done now. If companies think we need to protect their interests while they do business in foreign countries, great! They can start to pay for our military that does such a great job of making sure they can do business elsewhere. GE, Exxon, etc pay zero taxes! I think that should be illegal. Also, executive compensation is completely out of control - either tax it heavily or end the gravy train, their choice. 90% of these cost-cutting fools haven't an original idea in their heads.

These idiotic tax breaks for the corporations - when will people understand that when no one buys anything, there is no demand for products! So this is simply more free money for CEOs! This does not help Mom and Pop businesses, they need customers!

@Denisenash: great solution. I agree with you. Talk to your president; these are not state issues. The MBT is/was more about SMALL business, which in essence, was being taxed twice and MUCH MORE than other states. Small business accounts for something like 75% of all businesses, and thus they are the entities paying the majority of taxes which support things like the schools. Do you think that individual taxpayers can support paying the same taxes that the combination of individuals AND business pays? It can't be done - that is why we are in the shape we are in in this state. This is why we cannot sustain "business as usual" and why Michigan MUST encourage business. THAT is why the governor is trying to create a welcoming business climate - not to reward CEOs, but to entice existing business to expand and to entice new business to come here by making the tax climate more hospitable and more in line with other states. More business = more taxes = more municipal/school/state money. Is it unfortunate that the schools have to pay the price? Yes, but in fact, the biggest part of the fiscal crunch for schools is the legacy costs of the unions - call and ask what percentage of their budget goes to this. So when the unions won't back off of their bennies, yes, cuts come from the operating budget. Back to your argument: Mom & Pop businesses are EXACTLY who this helps and hopefully they can start expanding and rehiring. Going back to the same old, same old won't cut it.

BTW, I am very encouraged that the teachers agreed to this contract. I do not begrudge them one cent of salary, but they do need to start taking on their health care and retirement costs. It's just part of the new reality.

Of course they are state issues - the problem with the state's economy, and therefore the reason Snyder feels the great need to help his business friends is because the national economy is very weak. If Snyder thinks that lowering the tax rate is going to bring business here, I think he is deluding himself and everyone else. To make it worth a business's while to move or expand, the economy needs to be vibrant, why else encounter the expense unless someone is buying your product? But people are moving from Michigan - so even the services required are less. The only hope is that our national economy starts to expand and raises the water mark for all the states. I talk to business owners often. Ask them yourself. What they want is more customers, not less taxes, if they were given a choice! By cutting wages, strangling unions, laying people off...all that equates to fewer in the middle class, and more people nervous for their own jobs - and everyone is afraid to spend what little money they have on goods and services. I think we can agree that this is a vicious circle. Snyder's method of giving money to corporations does not work. It hasn't worked at the Federal level and it won't work at the state level. And no way should help for large corporations hurt our seniors and kids.

@Vivi, I agree that teachers needed to pay part of their health care and contribute to their pensions - everyone has to in today's world. I just disagree 100% with Snyder's methods!

If Governor Snyder wants to be the Education Governor he needs to spend education dollars more effectively. He should start by : 1. making all public educators civil servants. 2. Eliminate the tremendous overlap in administration services in this state 3. Set up a compensation board that would ensure that no administrator receive more than twice the salary of the highest paid teacher. 4. Limit all pensions to the amount of the highest teacher pension.

Hmm....interesting, Nancy. Depending on your definition of civil servant, I agree with number 1....2 - agreed, as long as districts maintain some sort of local control. 3. That would be fantastic, and would love to see it in corporations, too. 4. Agreed 100%.

All in favor? AYE!

But the problem is that Snyder, IMO, isn't interested in being the Education Governor, he is interested in being the Pro-Business governor. In my mind, he is making most of his changes to open the door to for-profit public education charters.

Proposal A and the current elected state government are slowly strangling our great public schools. Under Prop. A the Northville community is constitutionally forbidden to raise any local revenue to support its own great public schools. We have to swallow whatever cuts the state legislature and governor decide to impose. I do agree with Denise Nash on some of her points regarding our current elected officials. They are no friends of public eduction. Instead, they have led the charge in demonizing teachers. all of this is intended to blunt criticism as they piece by piece dismantle Michigan public schools. We are now funding our public schools at about the same level as Arkansas and Louisiana. What kind of future will we provide our children if we continue in this direction?

Scott, I totally agree. Proposal A is a big problem. As long as it is in place we will never have local control of our own school system, which is why we moved to Northville (b/c of the supposedly great school system) in the first place.

It is completely unacceptable to punish our children, and destroy their education while the State gets its act together. My child has only one chance at 4th grade. And now she has to go through this year with more than 30 other children in her class. I don't care how good the teacher is, over 30 nine year olds in a class is little more than crowd control. I've asked around. Novi was HIRING new teachers this fall. Other school districts have nowhere near the numbers in a class that Northville is facing, and my friends just gasp and stare when I tell them how large our classes are.

This is Northville. Why do people move here and stay here? Yes, it's a cute town, but the primary reason is the schools. Several of my friends have pulled their children out to private schools this year. Come School of Choice, I'm certain many would choose Novi. We were about to have an addition built on our house, and now we have put that on hold until we see how the year goes. I've been in the school system through cuts before, and this is the first summer when people are discussing whether to leave the school district. We have to fix this.

Concerned Parent - 100% agreed. Snyder's attacks on public schools requires those of us that support public education to take action. He isn't 'about' education - if he were, he would come to Northville and observe our success here. No. He is about promoting charters and rewarding his business friends.

The latest, for those of you that are unaware, is that a bill is being introduced to outsource teachers, just as they outsourced transportation. Outsource. Teachers. I expect it will probably pass with this current group we have in Lansing. I feel they needs to be stopped before any further damage is done. Recall Rick Snyder, and Recall Patrick Colbeck. It won't reverse what they have done, but we can stop further damage and take stock of where we go from here.