By MARISA LORANGER, Staff Reporter.
The room was tense at the Saginaw Public School District’s board meeting on Feb. 18. Students, parents, faculty and leaders of the community gathered in the board room of the Saginaw Public School Administration Building, 550 Millard St., Saginaw, to hear the possible decision on the closing of a local high school. The motion to close a school was not supported by the board members and the motion died, resulting in no school closure.
The communities surrounding Arthur Hill and Saginaw High had the opportunity to have their opinions heard before the board members made a decision. There were several complaints about the board moving the meeting into the Saginaw Public School District’s main office on Millard St.
The board had a meeting earlier in the week to discuss the consolidation of the schools and that meeting had been held at a larger venue. The turnout for the meeting had people packed in the board room and out into the hallways. Melba Baldwin, a teacher and Saginaw community member, brought her concerns up when she had the opportunity to speak to the board.
“They put us in this packed hot room. They’re educated, they know better. Let’s just back them in the board room, that was the plan. This is a ploy, this is a strategy and it’s disrespectful,” said Baldwin.
Calvin King, a senior at Saginaw High School plead his case to the board members. Even though the merge would not affect him directly, he wanted to be the voice for current Saginaw Public School students.
“Don’t make it seem like we have to consolidate to have AP classes or lacrosse. These kids are not going to get along. These kids are going to be fighting, test scores are going to drop,” said King.
Several speakers communicated the fact that Arthur Hill is in worse shape than Saginaw High. The people who supported the schools to be consolidated believe that resources are being spread too thin and the school buildings are in bad shape.
Arthur Hill and Saginaw High are at less than 40 percent capacity. Arthur Hill has 937 students and Saginaw High has 643 students. The city of Saginaw is down to less than 51,000 people; some guests were having a hard time seeing why both buildings should remain open.
Tricia Baker, a Saginaw High School teacher, has taught for 16 years. Baker took a nine percent rollback on her pay to help keep the school open and she supports closing a school.
“It is for the love of my students that I am supporting the closing of one high school. For four years we have not had full day art class or full day music. I want my students to have the same educational opportunities as other students,” said Baker.
Two and a half hours into the four hour meeting the board members voted. The decision was followed by cheers and clapping from the audience.
Saginaw Public School board member Rudy Patterson put the problems with the school district on the board and the community.
Patterson said, “We have to do our business in open public. We have some work to do. Don’t go home and stay. We have more meetings… We were wrong Saginaw. We pitted Saginaw against each other. We put babies against babies because the administration has failed to step up to the plate. The new four to three votes are no different than the old. If ya’ll don’t check they don’t balance.”
Board member Alexis Thomas was very emotional and tearful during her last comments.
Thomas explained, “Since 1889 a river has been dividing this community and tearing it apart and while it may be symbolic it is real literal for the people who live in this community so I understand everybody’s perspective about how they feel about this school closure and consolidation. But what I cannot support is the tearing down of a community…Schools are the foundation of any community; therefore if there is no school within a community it dies.”
