can’t say it’s a bad day. I can’t say it’s a good day, because we don’t know who’s coming next.”Roberts also
told those gathered more shocking news: His initial instructions when he arrived in Detroit were to “blow up
the district and dismantle it,” Johnson said.“He’s got nothing to lose by saying it now,” Johnson added.
Roberts said he spent the first several months of his tenure convincing state officials the district was worth
saving, according to board members.“Blow it up – those were his exact words,” Detroit School Board member
Tawana Simpson confirmed. Board member Reverend David Murray echoed disbelief at Roberts’
statements.“He told us they wanted this district completely demolished,” Murray said. Roberts refused to do
that, the board members said.
The actions, whether intentional or unintentional, resulted in disparate treatment to residents. Complainants
state that the Governor would not order a closed public building in a neighborhood in a white school district
stripped and left vacant with water flooding inside. The actions carried out by Emergency Managers in total
disproportionately affected African Americans in Detroit, Highland Park and other communities. The actions
carried out by Emergency Managers hurt disabled students. The effects of the irreparable harm caused by Ken
Burnley, Robert Bobb have not been corrected by Governor Snyder’s Emergency Managers. Governor
Snyder’s agents perpetuated the effects of the prior actions which had harmed the district and the community.
DISPARATE IMPACT
There were alternatives to, for example, allowing a building to be stripped of doors and windows without any
accounting of the value of the contents. There were alternatives to:
-forcing Davis Aerospace students out of the building for food at lunch time;
-allowing one million dollars of equipment purchased by tax payers to sit unused for years;
-allowing treated water to run inside the building until it caused flooding.
- leaving personal information of students on the floor of Oakman
- the costs associated with making multiple schools handicap accessible by closing Oakman
- having cars and buses drop off and pick up students in the same area at many schools
- leaving school buildings in neighborhoods wide open traumatizing residents
- putting out no bid contracts and awarding contracts to friends and family;
- retaliating against teachers by suspending them for saying the word “dictators” at union meetings;
- removing Tuskegee airmen from a Davis Aerospace Technical Advisory meeting for saying “PTA”;
- calling police on parents at a scheduled PACSA meeting;
- reporting that instructional specialists are available at DSA when they are not available for students;
- allowing Board members to use large copy machines and scanner;
- allowing Board members to meet weekly and receive their $27 stipend;
- choosing the best qualified applicants for principal positions;
- setting up method of redress for citizen with their elected local board;
- using TIFF grants for teacher achievement;
- following an IEP for each student;
- giving teachers a preparatory period;
- allowing Board to discuss topics of their choice based on community concerns;
- correcting anomalies that are found in audits from year to year;
- using an open bidding system for contracts;
- providing information to Board Members without filing an expensive FOIA request
- bringing every contract over $50,000 to the Board;
- hearing proven strategies to improve test scores within the district from the community;
- not retaliating against the Board by nullifying their initial Title VI complaint;
- not renaming buildings over community efforts without asking the community;
- not throwing an African American book collection into the dumpster
- putting out information about missing Detroit students to media
- considering the cultural importance of schools to neighborhood viability and ways to preserve it
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