Education Beat: Admin shakeups, contracts highlight end of year for Flint Community Schools
By Harold C. Ford “Our buildings are not worthy of the children that enter them…There are lots of people who have been paid to do lots of things that have not done the things they were paid to do.” …Derrick Lopez, Superintendent, Flint Community Schools Administrative shakeups and the approval of ten service contracts highlighted the end of the 2018-2019 school year for Flint Community Schools. After robust debate, the district’s...
“Please tell me some heads are going to roll”– Flint residents direct anger, hope, doubt at prosecution team
By Jan Worth-Nelson Things started out reasonably well Friday night as the state’s new water crisis prosecution team, led by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud faced down 200 Flint residents at the UAW Local 659 Hall. The prosecutors were there to explain why 15 days ago the state dropped all criminal charges against eight central figures in the Flint Water Crisis, now in its fifth year. That...
Water class action attorneys detail progress of civil cases; not everyone satisfied
By Jan Worth-Nelson Leading a call and response of “We won! They lost!” with a crowd of 100 vocal Flint residents at UAW Local 659 last night, Flint Water Class Action attorney Michael Pitt asserted that the numerous water crisis civil cases chugging through the courts are heading in the right direction. “All avenues of escape have been cut off,” Pitt said of the arguments and unsuccessful attempts at...
City of Flint facing allegations of failure to follow Open Meetings Act, FOIA and City Charter
By Melodee Mabbitt An attempt to follow the story of Flint’s pipeline replacement led a Flint resident to file a complaint to Genesee County Circuit Court, now under consideration by Judge Kay Behm, alleging that the City of Flint failed to follow the Open Meetings Act, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the Flint City Charter. “The overall tendency that I am seeing is one of avoiding the requirements of these statutes in order...
In both good weather and bad, Flint Art Fair pleased and delivered
By Paul Rozycki The 52ndFlint Art Fair, held Saturday and Sunday, was a tale of two cities, weather-wise — or at least a tale of two art fairs. Saturday dawned warm and sunny with nary a cloud in the sky as the fair opened, and attendance soared to near record levels. Attendance on Sunday, with cloudy, cooler weather, and increasing threats of rain? Not so much. On Saturday, with its summery weather, attendance exceeded...
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