XIII . Joyce Zarrieff’s and Darnell Earley’s Dishonesty & Lack of Administrative Support Harms Minority
Students and Voters
The retaliation makes it clear that Earley does not want oversight and transparency of the Governor’s
management of the minority districts. Another egregious example of dismantling voter’s right to representation
by the Board to perform the duties they were elected to perform is the issue of the lack of administrative
support.
Previously, the Board has always had seven staff members, which the EFM Robert Bob, reduced to two staff
members. Roy Roberts reduced Board Staff to one at each meeting. However, the Emergency Manager, Jack
Martin reduced it further to one, Joyce Zarrieff.
Under PA 436, the Board has the responsibility to respond to those proposals the Emergency Manager brings
before them in a timely fashion.
The Emergency Manager sold 77 properties for $5 million dollars to the City. Originally, the amount was $12
million, but the contract was reduced to $5 million to settle debt the district supposedly owes the City. There
were reports the debt was for electricity and water to abandoned school buildings which is idiocy, but getting a
straight answer requires patience and determination not to resent how overly stupid the Emergency Manager
feels you must be.
Oakman Orthopedic School was one of the transferred schools. This particular school’s closing has been the
subject of many documentaries, controversy and community outrage because former Emergency Manager Roy
Roberts closed the school which was an exemplary school for special needs and handicapped students. The
students were then sent to schools that had neither the staff nor many of the ADA requirements. Robert’s
rational was that Oakman needed $900,000 worth of repairs. Licensed contractors found that the school was in
good shape but could use some repairs that did not amount to a fraction of Robert’s assessment. No
documentation was provided by Robert’s of his assessment to the Board or to the community or to the parents
of the school.
Some time before Joyce Zarrieff, interpolated Oakman documents into a stack of several hundred sheets of
paper called the “Board Packet", without the Board’s notice or approval of inclusion of items to consider that
day so that it would be appropriately on the Board’s agenda. Board Members had not approved inclusion of the
document, and were not aware that this document had been included because the document was hidden.
This deliberate and illegal action regarding her official duties constituted malfeasance. The Oakman School
was beloved by the community and through this action, the Board was denied its right to act on a matter they
were concerned about and waiting for.
Board Packets were put together by the Board Secretary at the instruction of the President of the Board, because
the Board Secretary has the code for the only copy machine in the office which has the ability to produce large
volume copying and scanning. The Board Secretary refused to provide the code to copier to Board Members.
Now due to the loss of Oakman to the City, in the proposal to sell 77 schools, there is no chance for the
community to re-open what was an award winning school for many generations of mostly Detroit students of
differing handicaps. Oakman was such a celebrated educational institution, it also took Michigan students from
other school districts because it was a unique programming, facility, accommodations and trained staff not
available in many other districts in the State. Oakman also had a unique feature to admit siblings of
handicapped students. The closing of Oakman divided up families and made it created greater difficulties for
caretakers of handicapped children. What was most beneficial is that there were no incidents of bullying at
Oakman.
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