As the Oakland Intermediate School District gets negative publicity by the Detroit media, board member and Clarkston resident Janet Thomas maintains the board has done nothing wrong.
The school board has been under scrutiny for travel and other expenses spent on the taxpayers’ dime. In a recent Detroit Free Press story, the paper stated officials traveled overseas, spent nights in an expensive Las Vegas hotel and numerous other transgressions.
Thomas said a lot of items are being lumped together and the public is not getting the full picture. According to Thomas the trip to Las Vegas was to go to a conference by the Association of Educational Service Agency.
“It is the only organization in this country which is for intermediate school districts. They do apply. They talk about programs that are going on around the country that have to do with intermediate school districts,” Thomas said.
The Las Vegas trip is getting a lot of attention because the board members stayed at the Venetian which is a 4,000 room hotel right on the Vegas strip.
“I don’t like conferences in Las Vegas because people misunderstand,” Thomas said. “We stayed at the Venetian and got conference rates. The reason we were at the Venetian is because that is where the conference was held. You didn’t have to have ground transportation and everything is right there so there were no additional costs for the trip. We always fly coach. If people don’t see the need for professional development they are never going to see the need for us to travel.”
Also being discussed is a special work session the five board members had at the St. Clair Inn. According to the Detroit Free Press, “The group stayed in 13 rooms at $110 apiece. Their dinner included escargot, stuffed portabello mushrooms, poached salmon, prime rib and veal. They drank vodka, whiskey, gin, Irish coffee and three bottles of wine. Former Superintendent James Redmond put the $545 meal on his district credit card… In all, the 48-hour St. Clair Inn retreat cost taxpayers $2,775.
“Another thing that has come up is the St. Clair Inn. We did have a conference there with administrators, board members and Dr. Redmond. It was a set agenda. You spend time together doing strategic planning. There is nobody being interrupted because phones are ringing. I think it really is a big plus. Does it justify anyone charging alcohol? No, it does not justify that,” Thomas said. “The policy for alcoholic beverages is that they are never to be paid for. It is not a new policy. It was there before I ever got on the board and it was never suppose to be paid for ever. That was one thing I was really surprised of to see that there was an invoice that came through for alcoholic beverages because it should not have been. Of course he (Redmond) could override himself and I guess he did.”
Thomas emphatically stated that any mistakes in the past will be fixed. In addition, there will no longer be an override capability for the superintendent.
“It is reasonable for us to go out to dinner when we are at a conference. I have never been aware that there has been anything out of line. If there were things that were out of line by individuals then that will be corrected. The policies and procedures have always been there, the problem is there won’t be an override capability. In the past anything could be overridden by the superintendent,” Thomas said.
As far as the reported trips out of the country, Thomas was quick to point out that no board member has ever taken a trip out of the country and charged anything to Oakland Schools.
She said the trips taken by the superintendent or other administrators could slip past the board because it could show up as an item such as professional development when they receive the budget.
“The finance people at Oakland Schools are very sensitive to the whole thing because they want it to be easily identified. Because when you think about the man hours that went in to try and straighten something out by just changing a few things around it will be straight. But sometimes people who want a lot of control don’t want it too straight because they want to override whatever they want to override,” Thomas said. “Jim Redmond in 2000 said he was going to Germany because of being a Fullbright Scholar. That is what the board was aware of. My understanding now is that he went later and took some other employees with him. We are not quite sure what he accomplished that time through. You learn of that kind of thing after because the board does not approve each of those things.”
Although Thomas believes things are being blown out of proportion, she said changes have been made to clean things up. They are going to start separating in county and out of county travel in the future.
She also said it is important to state that when spouses and families travel, it is the board member’s responsibility to pay for them. Since it is not Oakland Schools’ responsibility, in the future the family member will need to buy their own ticket instead of having the district pay and the board member reimbursing.
Thomas is disappointed in some of the actions of both the press and government officials. She is not sure what the reasons for their actions are.
“There are people who would like to see the demise of public education in Michigan so you always wonder if there is not some of that potential or some of those dollars being funneled through to help that kind of thing,” Thomas said. “Representative Ruth Johnson has really been sensationalistic because she has refused to talk with anyone from Oakland Schools. We said we will meet anytime at anyplace. We can at least hear from her directly what it is she is questioning. Ruth Johnson has received thousands of sheets of information. We have packets of information that went to Johnson, the Detroit Free Press and other newspapers. If you don’t bother to tie things together, I guess, it can look like it’s way out of line. We have had no contact with Jennifer Granholm. I guess if I was in her position I would want to know some facts before I made the comment.”
With some pressuring the board to resign, Oakland Schools has already received the resignation of Helen Prutow and Tony Rothschild. However, Thomas said she is not planning on going anywhere.
“It was a surprise when they resigned last Tuesday. Whether to resign or not is a very personal choice. I don’t have any intention of resigning. I think there is work that needs to be done. We have come a long way in the last year to straighten out anything that was inappropriately handled and, frankly, I want to see it through,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the board will get to the bottom of this.
“Can I say to you that there is nothing on Oakland Schools’ books that should not have been charged? I don’t think so, but if anything is we will get it collected. If anyone owes we will get that collected. How does that happen? I guess people get sloppy with procedures. I don’t know how things like that happen. Do I think it is large amounts of money? No. But it doesn’t matter if it is only $20. If it shouldn’t have been expended it shouldn’t have been expended.”