Commentary: A Genesee County property sale could have a dire impact on Flint residents
Oct20

Commentary: A Genesee County property sale could have a dire impact on Flint residents

By Patrick Hayes Editor’s note: East Village Magazine and Flintside.com are happy to cross-publish this commentary written by local writer and Flint resident Patrick Hayes.   Flint and its surrounding areas claim a long and colorful history of government corruption that has often resulted in the collective subversion of the needs of the city’s people, especially its most vulnerable or voiceless people, in service to the...

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Tribute: Remembering Flint Central’s Ray Bearden, teacher of “Truth, Beauty, Love, Justice, and Faith”
Oct20

Tribute: Remembering Flint Central’s Ray Bearden, teacher of “Truth, Beauty, Love, Justice, and Faith”

By Tim Retzloff Ray Bearden’s long career as a teacher at Flint Central High School left an indelible imprint on thousands of students whose lives he transformed. Mr. James “Ray” Bearden died in August at age 84. His obituary circulated on Facebook but, sadly, his passing did not receive mention in the Flint Journal or on MLive. I was privileged to have Mr. Bearden more than four decades ago for 12th grade humanities. This capstone...

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Pierce School  to close in 2024-25, Neithercut in 2025-26 as Flint school board moves toward “right-sizing”
Oct20

Pierce School to close in 2024-25, Neithercut in 2025-26 as Flint school board moves toward “right-sizing”

By Harold C. Ford At a special meeting  Oct. 5, the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) voted to close two elementary schools in the next two years. The FBOE voted 6-1 to close Pierce Elementary to students on Flint’s near east side at 1101 W. Vernon Dr. in the 2024-25 school year. Votes for closing Pierce came from: Michael Clack, president; Joyce Ellis-McNeal, vice president; Claudia Perkins, secretary; Laura MacIntyre, assistant...

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Education Beat:  Mixed results on post-pandemic assessment data for area schools
Sep30

Education Beat:  Mixed results on post-pandemic assessment data for area schools

By Harold C. Ford Area student performance in the first post-pandemic year, 2022-2023, offers a mixture of good and bad news, according to data provided by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), with Flint students showing a small gain in one area and losses in two others. In all three cases, Flint area student performances were far below state percentages, consistent with the numbers before the pandemic. Data collected during...

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Commentary: What lies ahead for Flint’s colleges? — Centennials, conflict, change, and challenges
Sep29

Commentary: What lies ahead for Flint’s colleges? — Centennials, conflict, change, and challenges

By Paul Rozycki The University of Michigan-Flint has a new chancellor; Mott Community College’s president is applying for a position in Kentucky; Kettering University has a new vice president, is looking to a “transformational decade”; and, since 2005, the Flint Community Schools have had eight superintendents and are facing dramatically declining enrollment while dealing with empty and crumbling school buildings. It may be time for...

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