School Board vacancy filled
Daz’Shavon Hall
By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck has a new School Boardmember.
And she one of Hamtramck’s own.
On Tuesday evening, the board interviewed six candidates via teleconference.
After the interviews concluded, it didn’t take long for the board to reach a consensus and appoint Daz’Shavon Hall, who has been a substitute teacher in the district and an employee with the district’s recreation department.
She has a degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University.
Hall, 28, is the third African-American to sit on the board, following Yvonne Myrick and Titus Walters.
In her interview, Hall told the board that her role as a boardmember is “to be here, and be able to give feedback.”
Hall fills the seat vacated by Maggie Srodek, who resigned a few weeks ago. Srodek said she has too many other obligations to take care of, and can’t spare the time to be on the board.
Srodek’s term still has over four years remaining. Hall will fill the seat through December.
Srodek’s seat will be included in the upcoming November election.
Posted July 17, 2020
12 Responses to School Board vacancy filled
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Resident
July 17, 2020 at 7:21 pm
Congratulations Daz’Shavon Hall!
Hoping you add a voice not a Rubber Stamp!
-Resident
Neighbor
July 18, 2020 at 12:00 pm
There are four positions up for re-election in the school board. Deadline to file is July 21.
Poor Hamtramckian
July 18, 2020 at 11:16 pm
Congrats! Hopefully she makes a difference and not just go with the flow like how this newspaper is blindly supporting the bond like its more of an opinion paper than a newspaper.
Just Wondering
July 20, 2020 at 10:26 am
How big is the fitness center going to be? It only looks like the size of a Hamtramck lot. What types of equipmemt will it have and how much of each kind? Will it be free to use or will there still be a monthly charge and a use charge?
Nasr Hussain
July 20, 2020 at 3:06 pm
The school district already gets around 1,000,000 each year from our property taxes which they can use to build the best fitness center instead of using it for fireworks shows and movie nights in the park.
Poor Hamtramckian
July 21, 2020 at 9:35 am
@Just Wondering it will still be more expensive than an LA Fitness membership, that I can say for sure.
Evan Major
July 22, 2020 at 2:45 pm
You can see the detailed plans of the community center upgrades here:
https://www.hamtramckfuture.com/building-improvements/
If the bond passes, I think a new rate structure is a good idea, and would like to hear from you about it. Regardless, wouldn’t it be nice to walk to a modern fitness center instead of driving out to an LA Fitness in the suburbs?
And to the other comment, eliminating movie nights and fireworks is nowhere near the savings of building a fitness center. This is not a serious suggestion. The Recreation Department’s entire budget for all programming and staff is only around $800,000. According to the National Recreation and Park Association, the Hamtramck Recreation Department provides far MORE programming with far LESS staffing for the annual budget range we have when compared to other departments of similar size. Anyone that actually attends board meetings and pays attention would know how impressive their work is, such as our extremely low cost summer playground program which provides meaningful childcare, activities, food, and field trips to hundreds of kids every year. This is just ONE example of the ways in which our Recreation Department stretches that budget to meet the needs of people in our community.
I’m all for constructive discussion and good ideas. Please let me know if anyone needs any clarification.
Nasr Hussain
July 22, 2020 at 6:37 pm
@Evans Major:
Can you enlighten us and tell us how much of the $800,000 of the recreation millage goes to salaries?
Is it more than 90%, if my memory serves me right?
Director alone makes close to 180,000
Nasr Hussain
July 22, 2020 at 11:28 pm
If this amount of our recreation dollars was given to a private company to build and maintain a fitness center in Hamtramck, which can be supervised by the school board, we will have one of the nicest fitness centers in the whole state state instead of the mismanagement and waste we see now.
resident
July 23, 2020 at 6:58 pm
@Evan Major- If the bond millage passes, does the sinking fund millage get cancelled automatically? If not, is the school board going to cancel the sinking fund millage? If so, when? If not, why not?
Seeing you here post a message, thought I’ll pose these to you.
Thanks,
-Resident
Nasr Hussain
July 25, 2020 at 5:01 am
Sinking fund will not be cancelled. It’s for 10 years of which around 5 or 6 years has passed.
The schools already get 18 mills per year from all commercial properties and rentals in Hamtramck, the sinking fund millage, and the recreation millage. All these generate between 3 and 4 millions dollars annually to the school board from local Hamtramck property taxes.
Hamtramck already pays one of the highest millages in the state and if the proposed millage passes, it will be a catastrophe for the real estate market in Hamtramck.
A house whose assessed value is 50,000 (100,000 market value) will end up paying close to $4000 per year in summer taxes only ( & much more if it’s a rental or a commercial property).
This will lead people to turn away from buying Hamtramck properties and our property values will go way way down to compensate for the unreasonable tax increases which will be a lose-lose situation for Hamtramck residents, city government and the school district which will lose students because they have will make it cost-prohibitive for families with young children to move to Hamtramck.
The district is awash with money and instead of spending it on students they are spending hundreds on thousands on repaving parking lots. Last month, in the midst of this epidemic, they requested bids for the repaving of the school board parking lot, which is still in a very good condition and are going to spend hundreds of thousands on this project (considering the spent over 300,000 on the parking lot of Holbrook Elementary last year, which is already breaking down) while claiming that the money raised by the bond is urgently needed for the health and safety of the students!!!
resident
July 26, 2020 at 5:49 pm
@Nasr – is there anything in the school improvement plan you like?
I like new elementary school in the south west side. This is long over due. I like high school expansion and connection to community center.
I don’t like the total cost of the bond.
-resident