|
 Third
Oakland Schools Board Member Quits
District faces charges of misspending.
by Teresa Mask, Detroit Free Press, February 24, 2004
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A third Oakland
Schools board member has resigned amid a state investigation
into financial mismanagement and legislative hearings calling
for reform within Michigan's intermediate school districts.
Local school boards in the county are also calling for the
resignation of two others on the five-member Oakland
Intermediate School District board.
On Monday, DiAnne Cagle Leitermann stepped down after serving a
dozen years on the intermediate school board, the agency that
provides vocational and special education services to Oakland
County's 28 school districts. In a story in the Daily Tribune of
Royal Oak published Monday, her husband's health was cited as
the reason for the resignation.
Just two weeks ago Leitermann said she would seek re-election in
June, but Monday she left a message for a vacationing Interim
Superintendent Bill Keane, alerting him of her immediate
resignation. Neither could be reached for comment.
Two other board members, Tony Rothschild and Helen Prutow,
stepped down after Free Press stories last summer showed major
problems under their watch. They were replaced by Pan Godchaux
and George Ehlert.
But the other three had repeatedly ignored calls to resign.
"We've had it. We've totally had it," said Robert Borngesser
Jr., vice president of Lamphere Schools in Madison Heights.
"We've called for their resignation in a lot of different ways.
To do so publicly is messy. We try to do things with tact. You
never like a public flogging."
Tonight, a call for the resignation of the remaining two veteran
members -- President Carol Borich and Janet Thomas -- is likely.
Debbie Squires, president of the Oakland County School Boards
Association, confirmed she would make a formal announcement, but
wouldn't elaborate about what she would say.
An August 2003 Free Press report documented how some school
officials spent tens of thousands of dollars on dozens of trips,
some to Poland, Germany and France. They bought candy, Waterford
crystal and flowers. They golfed and took tours, rented
convertibles and hired limousines.
The Free Press reported last month that the district also
awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts for high-tech
schemes that fizzled and spent $9 million in special education
money on a fiber-optic network. The district also broke ground
on a new $30-million administration building after a tax
increase was approved by voters in September 2001.
Members of the Oakland County School Board Association's
executive board met last week with Borich and Thomas. Leitermann
did not attend the meeting; she remains on the Madison District
Public Schools board.
Squires, also vice president of the Huron Valley School District
board, said they asked the two women to resign, but didn't want
them to do it together.
"We are asking for an orderly transition," Squires said,
explaining that if the three resigned simultaneously, the board
would lack a quorum and the state would be required to take over
the replacement process. "We did not get any indication that
they intended to resign."
Borich and Thomas could not be reached for comment Monday.
Local school board members also are breaking their silence and
formally asking the pair to step down. After months of trying to
convince them quietly, board members in Lamphere Schools plan to
present the veteran board members with a petition.
But Borngesser said they haven't listened.
They ignored the call from Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Oakland
County Superintendents Association and the Michigan Association
of Intermediate School Administrators.
Now Borngesser said the time has come and a public call from
local board members is the closest thing to a recall that they
can accomplish. Oakland ISD's five board members are appointed
by the local school boards across the county.
It won't be the first time the board will be asked during one of
their public meetings to step down. Oakland County residents, in
organized groups and independently, also have told them it is
time for them to go.
Johannes Buiteweg, a Rochester Hills retired attorney, said he
believes Thomas and Borich should also resign.
"All those board members who were in power at that time violated
their fiduciary duty," Buiteweg said.
State Rep. Ruth Johnson never has formally called for the
resignations of the board members, but is seeking changes to the
way ISDs operate.
Next month, a state House subcommittee reviewing ISDs will hear
testimony from Oakland Schools' officials to get a better
understanding of what happened there.
"All of the school board members bear some responsibility," said
Johnson, a Holly Republican. "Let's face it, they fell asleep at
the wheel."
The Oakland Schools Board of Education is scheduled to meet
at 7 p.m. today (2-25-04) in Conference Room B of the Oakland
Schools administration building, 2111 Pontiac Lake Road,
Waterford.
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