By Harold C. Ford
By any measure, January 2025 was a consequential month for Flint Community Schools (FCS) and its school board. Most newsworthy, perhaps, was a kick-start to the possible reopening of long-abandoned Flint Central High School, which EVM covered earlier this month.
Other important developments included the election of officers by the Flint Board of Education (FBOE), abandonment of the district’s balanced calendar, a $700,000 settlement with Johnson Controls, Inc., and consideration of a peer mediation agreement with the City of Flint Police Department.
FBOE officers chosen
The officers that will preside over the 2025 iteration of the FBOE were all chosen by unanimous 7-0 votes at the panel’s first meeting of the new calendar year on Jan. 8.
Joyce Ellis-McNeal will continue on as the board’s president. “I promise we’ll keep moving forward,” said Ellis-McNeal. Ellis-McNeal has been a FBOE member since January 2021.
Laura MacIntyre, whose FBOE tenure also began in January 2021, was picked for the board’s vice president position.
“It’s the first time in history,” she said, “that … this is a board that finally has the community and the students at heart and not other outside interests.”
MacIntyre’s was a sweeping statement in that FCS traces its history to the 1870s, with Flint’s first high school erected in 1875 at the corner of Saginaw and Third Streets and hundreds of school boards having presided since.
Claudia Perkins, who noted the board chose “a great team tonight,” was returned to her secretary position while Dylan Luna remained the board’s treasurer.
“I’m really excited about this board,” Luna said. “I think in 2025 if we continue on [this] trajectory and also improve, it’ll be the year of excitement, innovation, and getting more things done for our students, our teachers, staff [and] families.”
Linda Boose was picked for the assistant secretary/treasurer position. She was returned to the FBOE in the November 2024 election after serving a 10-month board appointment in 2022.
FCS to abandon balanced calendar
The six-year experiment by FCS with a balanced calendar will end with the 2024-2025 school year. The FBOE voted to return the district to a traditional school-year calendar in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 terms.
A balanced calendar features an earlier start to the school year, a later finish, and longer and more frequent breaks during the academic year. Balanced calendar proponents cite many advantages including the diminishment of learning loss, particularly for low-income youth.
Opinions about the value of a balanced calendar are divided.
A 2016 report by the Michigan Department of Education advocated a balanced calendar “to reduce the impact of high-risk factors, including poverty, and [provision of] equitable resources to meet the needs of all students …” but some research has found “little evidence of academic benefits,” such as that done by Paul von Hippel at the University of Texas and reported by U.S. News and World Report.
“Once thought to be positive,” wrote von Hippel, “these effects now appear to be neutral at best.”
A copy of the 2025-26 school year calendar obtained by EVM, indicates that students will report for their first day on Sept. 2, 2025, and the final report day for students will be June 10, 2026. The opening and closing dates for students the following school year are Aug. 31, 2026 and June 10, 2027.
The return to the traditional school-year calendar required the approval of the United Teachers of Flint, the bargaining unit that represents FCS teachers.
$700,000 settlement with Johnson Controls
At the Jan. 22 FBOE board voted 7-0 to approve a $700,000 settlement with Johnson Controls, Inc (JCI). JCI had been retained by the district in 2019 to upgrade the district’s outdated heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
A FBOE document obtained by EVM confirmed the settlement.
In March 2019, FCS and JCI entered into a contract “to perform certain work related to upgrade the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems at 10 different schools … including Brownell STEM Academy, Eisenhower Elementary, Freeman Elementary, Holmes STEM Academy, Pierce Elementary, and Potter Elementary.”
A dispute arose between the two parties regarding the amount owed “wherein JCI alleged that FCS was deficient in its payment owing JCI an outstanding $894,887.” The FBOE document also notes that both parties are released from any further claims that might arise from their dispute.
“It’s just an unfortunate situation that we inherited,” MacIntyre said, “but I want to just state publicly I am so disappointed and disgusted with Johnson Controls and I will be glad if we never have to see them ever, ever again.”
Ellis-McNeal ended MacIntyre’s comments by reminding her of a confidentiality provision that bars public commentary about the settlement by either party.
Jones said funding for the work done by JCI came from a “bond the community has given us … to do that work.” He added that “all the work is completed.”
The settlement is the second within a few months that went against FCS. In November 2024, the board revealed that a 2021 lawsuit was settled for $690,000 in favor of former Superintendent Anita Steward.
Peer Mediation Program
A peer mediation program in which officers of the Flint Police Department (FPD) would engage students in grades 9-12 at Flint Southwestern was on the FBOE’s Jan. 22 agenda as an “action” item. However, no public action was taken by the board at that meeting.
According to a program overview obtained by EVM, if the program is adopted and enacted, Flint’s Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) would implement “a six-week peer mediation training curriculum led by Flint Police Officers.”
Participating students, deemed to be “high-risk youth,” would be “identified by school staff based on behavior, academics, and discipline records.” The stated “strategy” of CVIPI is “to train 10 students in effective conflict resolution and mediation skills.” Expected outcomes include “a more positive school climate, reduced incidents of violence, [and] lower community violence rates.”
While the FBOE has yet to vote on the program as of publication, a Jan. 8 press release from Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley’s office states it launched on Jan. 13 at Southwestern Classical Academy. In contrast to the described program in FBOE documents, the press release notes that “a total of 40 students enrolled” rather than 10, and those students include “five from Flint Southwestern Classical Academy, five from Accelerated Learning Academy, and ten from each participating elementary and middle school.”
While it remains unclear exactly where the program stands at present, the overview documents described the first phase of the program as taking place from January to February 2025 with a focus on negotiation and mediation skills, conflict resolution and communication skills, and role-playing and mock mediation sessions. Phase two would include educational sessions and field trips from March to June 2025, and student incentives would include $100 weekly stipends for six weeks.
The funding source of CVIPI is a $1.5 million U.S. Department of Justice grant received by the City of Flint “to decrease community violence specific to gun violence.”
In 2020, FCS settled a five-year lawsuit with the FPD over the handcuffing of a seven-year-old student by an FPD officer during an after-school program at the district’s Brownell building. Several provisions of the settlement, among others, included “limit[ing] police involvement in school discipline issues to criminal offenses only” and “alternatives to arresting juveniles.”
* * * * *
The next FBOE meetings are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. on March 12 and 19. Meetings are held at the Accelerated Learning Academy at 1602 S. Averill Ave. Meetings can also be accessed in real time via YouTube.
