State Rep. Vernon Smith, center, at DUAB meeting in Gary
Wrapping up state takeover of the Gary public schools
Contributed By: The 411 News
MGT tells what it did and Rep. Smith says what it didn't do
“Praise God that it’s over,” said State Rep. Vernon Smith about the ending of the 7-year state takeover of Gary’s public school district.
Monday’s meeting at the Gary Career Center brought the Distressed Unit Appeal Board to town, to hear a petition from MGT, the consulting group it hired to manage the Gary Community School Corporation’s day-to-day operations.
In 2017, when the school district couldn’t pay its bills, the Indiana legislature declared the school corporation a distressed political subdivision that needed state oversight and financial help. Indiana’s DUAB took over management of the district, selecting MGT as its local operator. The goal was to return the district to financial stability.
The district’s superintendent Cheryl Pruitt was removed. The district’s board of school trustees was stripped of its authority the next year, in 2018.
In MGT’s petition, stated by vice president Eric Parish, the school district is now financially stable and is ready to be released from distressed unit status.
“Nearly seven years ago, the Gary Community School Corporation was not in a position to serve its students, families, or staff members. It is a different story today,” said Parish.
He cited criteria of the district’s current and future solvency.
“The district doesn’t have unpaid or past due critical contractual financial obligations or vendor payments. The district balanced its budget for the previous 2 years and operated with a surplus during those years,” Parish said. When the DUAB and MGT management team took over on August 1, 2017, the district owed $22 million more than the income it received that year.
The district has a fiscal plan that maintains financial solvency for the next 5 years following termination of its distressed unit status, Parish said. “Financial projections show that GCSC will maintain financial solvency through school years 2028-29 even if enrollment is flat and no referendum renewal.”
The district’s current student enrollment is 4,104. Parish noted enrollment was also stabilized after being on a consistent annual decline.
Smith’s comments came after the approval of MGT’s petition. As a non-voting DUAB member, Smith went down a list of what the state and MGT didn’t do.
“This community went down seven years ago and they asked for assistance. They didn't ask for takeover,” Smith said.
Smith cited state policies that helped weaken GCSC’s financial condition. “The disproportionate numbers of charter schools in Gary was a contributing factor to our fiscal problems. Added to that, the vouchers that allowed money to be taken away from the schools that were impoverished. And then the tax caps were another factor. So the state did not want to accept any of the responsibility.”
“MGT felt that nothing good comes out of Gary, Indiana … that we were all dummies, and we didn't know what we were doing up here, and that's the way we were treated,” Smith said. “And, they didn't want to engage parents – that had been the success of Gary schools.”
“MGT came in with packages of programs and put them in place. There was no matching of these programs to our needs. There was no assessment of where you’ve been and where you are now,” Smith said. “And then, they didn't really do any planning. Planning is where you want to go and how you are going to get there.”
“I hope the state has learned that the state cannot do anything better as far as educating our kids than local communities can do,” Smith said.
Another thing they didn’t do, came from Paul Pratt aka Kwabena Rasuli. “This district is almost 100% Black. MGT gave us 4 emergency managers; not one was Black.”
Today, the state no longer pursues school corporation takeovers. In 2019, the DUAB began assessing the financial condition of all Indiana school corporations using its School Corporation Fiscal Indicators Dashboard, to ensure school corporations don’t become distressed political subdivisions.
When a school district demonstrates signs of being in financial distress, the DUAB requires it to prepare a Corrective Action Plan.
That is the status of the School City of Hammond. That district’s Corrective Action Plan has resulted in school closures, deep staff cuts, and the public’s criticism of Hammond’s school superintendent and board of trustees.
Story Posted:06/18/2024
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