With a suspension of Public Act 4 in place and Emergency Managers like Detroit Public Schools’ Roy Roberts now sidelined, Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit yesterday to remove seven members of the DPS board. Schuette claims they were improperly elected.
Detroit News: Schuette said in a release issued by his office that the seven members were holding office illegally because Detroit Public Schools lost its status as a Class 1 district in September 2008.
Schuette said that meant all 11 school board members should have been elected at-large in the most recent election in November 2011, instead of four at-large and seven from districts.
Public Act 4 was suspended this week pending a November ballot measure asking voters to repeal the law. That mean elected officials of financially troubled cities and school districts with EMS have had their authority restored.
With the new school year just weeks away, Roberts and school board have been jostling over who has authority over the district in this Public Act 4-less environment.
Detroit Free Press: As word of the lawsuit came via a news release, board members met to make decisions that would affect the operations of DPS for the first time in three years -- including approving a contract with an interim superintendent and transferring 15 schools back to DPS from the newly formed Education Achievement Authority of Michigan. They then voted to rename those schools.
Opponents of the EM process have argued that absent the 2011 law, Emergency Managers have no power. Others, like Governor Rick Snyder, say the suspension of Public Act 4 means the previous, weaker emergency manager law, Public Act 72, is restored.
