School board now has a chance to move forward

With two new members on the Hamtramck School Board, we sense a new era coming.
This is based on just the first school board meeting of the year, but there is air of optimism and energy among board members.
We hope, in the new year ahead, the board will tackle one very immediate problem: setting an attendance policy for board members. For the past couple of years, the board has had a problem getting enough members to attend a meeting, or, even worse, just outright canceling monthly meetings in advance.
That needs to be changed, with a policy that has teeth in its enforcement – and with a leadership committed to serving the public.
There is no excuse for a public body that meets only once a month to be unable to hold a meeting.
The board also needs to address the continued decline in student enrollment. Over the last few years, the district has lost a few hundred students – no doubt to the dozen or so charter schools in the area.
That loss translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost state financial aid.
On top of that, voters here have twice rejected a needed tax millage renewal that generated about $1 million in revenue per year.
The question is, why?
One reason might be the district’s failure to get volunteers to organize a campaign. Another reason is not convincing homeowners that an educated youth is an ongoing investment in our community.
We have faith in the coming year, that it appears we now have a more unified school board that actually has a vision for the future.
Posted Jan. 17, 2025

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