Election Results

I think the last two days have been my biggest blog visit days ever! Thanks everyone for the linking and sharing, and most especially, for taking the election seriously.

Get election results for Ann Arbor school board here. (Thanks Jill for the h/t.)
Update: Congratulations Andy Thomas and Simone Lightfoot! Thanks everyone else for running.

LINCOLN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER
MANCHESTER COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBERMILAN AREA SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER - FULL TERM
MILAN AREA SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER - PARTIAL TERM
NORTHVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER (Partial Results)
PLYMOUTH-CANTON COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER (Partial Results)
SALINE AREA SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER
Update: Congratulations David Holden and David Zimmer (I think)--Patti Tanner is less than 30 votes behind so this might not be final. 

VAN BUREN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER (Partial Results)
WILLOW RUN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER - FULL TERM
WILLOW RUN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER - PARTIAL TERM

YPSILANTI PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD MEMBER
Update: Congratulations Andy Fanta and Linda Snedecar-Horne! Thanks Eric Temple for running.

and

NAPOLEON COMMUNITY SCHOOLS BONDING PROPOSAL (Partial Results)
NORTHVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPERATING MILLAGE RENEWAL (Partial Results)
VAN BUREN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPERATING MILLAGE RENEWAL (Partial Results)

All other county results can be found here.

If you want to follow the Paul Scott recall in Genesee County (he is a Republican state representative who was targeted for recall because of his support of Rick Snyder's education reforms), you can find that information here. (Scroll down to State Rep Recall, 51st District.)
Update, Wednesday morning: Paul Scott is recalled!


And! Traverse City votes to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation!

Willow Run Update & Can Consolidation Happen?

According to Dan DuChene of the Ypsilanti Citizen, tonight's emergency meeting of the Willow Run School Board was cancelled--primarily because the notice requirements for an "emergency meeting" are stricter than for a "special meeting." The other news is that the precipitating problem is that the Willow Run Superintendent, Doris Hope-Jackson, has been absent a lot. A new meeting will be posted.

The question that I have heard raised several times is, "Can the Willow Run school district consolidate with another district, or be split up among several districts?"

The answer, I think, is that there are several roadblocks to that, at least the way state law currently works.

First, the districts considering consolidation (or annexation) need to have their school boards decide it is worth pursuing.

Second, the voters in each district need to agree. Jack Lessenberry had a good essay about why the Montague and Whitehall districts (near Muskegon) voted no many years ago. And the moral is that both small and large things can deter people from voting yes. On the other hand, this seems pretty reasonable to me if a district is either merging or dissolving. The people should have a say. (Want to see what the county school district map looks like? You can find it here.)

Third, the way state law is currently written, the merged district gets the average of the per pupil allocations. And the districts don't have the same per pupil allocations.

So--last year, Ypsilanti's per-pupil allocation was about $150 more than the allocation for Willow Run, but they have more than double the population--so a merger would cause Ypsilanti to lose quite a lot of money. In this climate, that is likely a major deterrent. For Ann Arbor, it would be a much much larger loss.

On the other hand, Lincoln's per-pupil allocation was about $500 less than the allocation for Willow Run. In a merger, Lincoln would gain. So would Plymouth-Canton and Van Buren schools, although not by nearly as much.

So--that's the quick lesson of the day. The explanation (if it seemed at all clear) is due to the clear explanation of Todd Roberts, Ann Arbor superintendent, in response to a question at one of the informational meetings about the millage. I hope you'll vote yes on Tuesday.

And--errors of fact will of course be corrected. Tell me.