Northville School Board Considering Financial Manager?

NORTHVILLE (WWJ) - An affluent suburban school district is apparently mulling a takeover from the state.

Northville Schools Board of Education President Joan Wadsworth has said that the district needs to explore having an emergency financial manager as an option to resolve an upcoming $5 million deficit next school year.

The president of the district's teachers' union, Nick Nugent, isn't taking the threat seriously.

I don't know if President Wadsworth really understands what that law means ... the fact that the board and the superintendent would virtually have no power and we'd have a new Robert Bobb in there and I don't think they want that," said Nugent.

Superintendent  of Northville Schools Mary Kay Gallagher says negotiations are going on over the summer with teachers and other unions...but...

"We have given it serious consideration, as a potential means for offsetting the deep cuts impacting students in the classroom," said Gallagher.

"The parties remain relatively far apart, but we also recognize that we are asking a lot of our employee groups," said Gallagher.

Nugent says the teachers have given enough.

"Teachers have done their fair share ... we've put out 60 percent of saving and we're only 64 percent of their budget, so we have felt that we have done our job," said Nugent.

The teachers have offered to take a 1.5 percent pay cut and four unpaid furlough days, but they want fewer teaching days and parent-teacher conferences.

"I think what the district is doing is ... the legislature has given them a tool, and they are using that tool to create pressure on the bargaining unit and they are using that to try to create a little bit of a panic ... and we are not panicking," said Nugent.

The district has already laid off 65 employees, but faces a $12 million deficit over the next two years.