Key word: Database

You may have heard that Bloomfield 20/20 has stopped actively seeking signatures to recall all seven of our current school board members. We stopped seeking signatures when we realized we would miss the deadline for a February recall election, and that it would not be financially or strategically reasonable to hold a recall election later in 2012. 

Three BHSD trustees come up for election in November. Is it worth the effort (and money) to put 6 new Trustees on the board in May, and have to come back in Nov. with a re-election campaign? From my experience, it costs about $10,000 to $25,000 to run a successful campaign for a school board candidate that is not endorsed by the MEA. MEA-endorsed candidates can run, and win, for a few hundred dollars; sometimes, even less, as in the case of appointed trustees Robert Herner and Joan Berndt.

2012 will be an active, competitive year at all levels of U.S. politics, as battles will be fought in caucuses and primaries starting Tuesday in Iowa.

Recall supporters need to note this key word: Database.

If you signed the recall petitions, your name and contact information has been recorded. If you would like us to continue to send messages regarding school board actions and upcoming elections, please be sure to let us know.

The recall phone is 248-943-8580. You can also visit the B20/20 website. We do our best to keep information updated.

Most likely, the BHSD board will vote to hold an election in May, 2012, to request a new tax to pay for construction at Andover. 

If you have not seen the "schematic design," and would like to know more about it, please let me know. It includes an elaborate Performing Arts Center, and "upgrades" to athletic facilities.

If you care about academic achievement, prepare to be disappointed: FNI's "21st-Century education" amounts to abandonment of traditional classrooms, and a switch to team teaching and collaborative learning.

The recall process allowed us to compile a powerful list of registered voters who do not support the board's plan to consolidate our high schools and build a new, very expensive one to replace Andover at the Andover site.

Although we really don't know what they plan to build or how much it will cost, we do know that the BHSD board is following the plan left in place by former Superintendent Steve Gaynor. A Mega School, "schematically designed" by a VERY expensive consultant (originally hired by Gaynor in 2009 to design the outrageous new building at the Bowers Farm), to be built by a general contractor who did not submit a competitive bid (but who was considered in 2009 by Gaynor for a different project and apparently "won" it). And the new high school is likely not to include a Library or Media Center, because your Bloomfield Township Library Board is proceeding to establish a "partnership" with the BHSD, despite the fact that at least 30 percent of BHSD students do not live in or pay taxes to the Bloomfield Township Public Library.  The "BTPL/BHSD partnership" plan was hatched in 2009, during the superintendency of Gaynor. 

You might notice that the last failed mega school plan did not include a library or media center.

So much for "education."