BY AMANDA HARRISON
Summer might be starting early for Buena Vista students. They've been out of school since May 7th, when the school ran out of cash.
The state is withholding payments to make up for a grant the district should not have received.
Parents were hoping for answers during a school board meeting last night, but got few. The board failed to announce a reopen date for the school.
Instead, the board voted to submit a revised deficit elimination and consolidation plan to the state. That's the first step toward the appointment of an emergency manager.
Board President Randy Jackson said the state would have to act for the students to be able to return to school.
"It's going to take some money to do that and right now we don't have the funds, we don't have the revenue to do that and any state aid that comes in will be intercepted by the treasury department unless they can make an exception, they have the power to do that." Jackson said.
Jan Ellis with the Michigan Department of Education said it's not the state's responsibility to ensure the children are in school.
"We at least in the department of Education to not have the ability to go in and change immediate things that are happening in a school district." Ellis said.
There has been legislative action to allocate emergency funds. Representative Stacy Erwin Oakes' district includes the Buena Vista school district. She's begun work on a bill to fund the school for the remainder of the year.
"We have a rainy day fund and I submit to you it is storming in Buena Vista Township. We need to tap into the rainy day fund or wherever but we need to make sure these students finish out the school year, they deserve that." Oakes said.
The governor said a bailout for the district is unlikely.
As the district and the state duke it out over who is responsible for getting kids back in school, students are left without a classroom and with no word on their grade standing.
Carrie Seal Spencer has an 11th grader at the school and attended Thursday's meeting.
"I came tonight because I thought I was going to get some answers, you know more answers so we could better know what to do, which way we'll have it but at least they did say they'll have summer school over at Bridgeport for the kids who need credits but we still don't have transcripts." Spencer said.
The board did confirm that the district's 25 seniors will have a graduation and a prom.
