City of Bloomfield Hills: Rainy Night at East Hills Middle School.BHSD Town Hall Meeting Schedule and Survey.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Rainy Night at East Hills Middle School.BHSD Town Hall Meeting Schedule and Survey.

At a recent Town Hall meeting at East Hills Middle School, Bloomfield Hills School District superindant Robert Glass made a promise to the audience.

If the proposed bond issue, failed, Glass would be a firm believer that the people’s answer to a new high school, hybrid or otherwise was firm “No.”

There would be no more bond issues for years to come. The School Board would work with what it had and make the best of it

Perhaps in five years if and when things became desperate the issue could be revisited.

According to Robert Glass eight years of controversy was enough and the time had come to resolve the matter one way or another, and to move on.

Glass then detailed the eight year history of the bond issue.

In 2003 the Board asked for $123 million for new high school and the voters rejected it . In 2007 the amount of $146 million was voted down. In 2010 $97.5 was sought and failed to pass.

The superintendent said the bond issue were indicative of failure for five reasons.

The plans were too elaborate and expensive. The people wanted a reasonable plan. The public was left to ask, “Where’s beef?” The public felt like it was providing a blank check. The public wanted to keep both schools.

Glass said that when he first came to Bloomfield Hills, he wondered why the district would abandon two schools with excellent reputations. The high cost of maintaining two facilities that averaged more than fifty years of age convinced him of the nee of a new high school.

The purpose of the many town meetings the school board has scheduled is to get the public’s opinion, and provide information.

Is the message getting through and going both ways?

According to Chris Fellin a spokesperson for Bloomfield 20/20 the answer at East Hills was the connection was less than 40%.

Media room/Library at East Hills is a wide series of interconnected rooms. A computer lab is far right.

He counted 39 people in attendance. 16 of which he believed were either school board members, members of Bloomfield Hills Education Associates, or teachers.

Eight others he knew to be members of One Bloomfield United an organization which usually supports the school board or 20/20 which often opposes the board.

That left 15 members of the community as true participants.