DPSCD FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING (OPEN)

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Documenters coverage: https://detroit.documenters.org/meetings/dpscd-finance-committee-meeting-open-106651/
District meeting page: https://www.detroitk12.org/Page/9425#calendar14864/20250514/event/121717

The finance committee consists of three school board members and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti:
- Iris Taylor, chair
- Ida Simmons Short
- Sherry Gay-Dagnogo
Members discuss and vote to recommend various financial-related action items for the board’s approval in a general board meeting.

Today’s agenda. https://go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Board.nsf/files/DGNKPA52CCC8/$file/Second%20Revised%20Finance%20Agenda%205.14.25.pdf

The board will vote to recommend the general board approve several action items including:

A request for East English Village, Renaissance, and Martin Luther King high school students to travel to Malawi, Africa in late June.
- Students would travel to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Soweto, and Mpumalanga, South Africa.
- The cost of the trip is $37,125

Renewing contracts with companies including:
- Severin Intermediate Holdings (5.09)
- Pearson (5.15)
- Crisis Prevention Institute (5.19)
- EBS Healthcare (5.21)
- Family Medical Center of Michigan (5.32)
- Premier Relocations (5.33)
And more…

Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Vidito will also give a report.

To find the documents for this meeting, including deeper explanations into what contracts the board is renewing,
- Go to BoardDocs (https://go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Board.nsf/Public)
- Click on today’s finance committee meeting in the upper right area of the screen.
- Scroll down and click “view the agenda.”

See you at 3!

2:59 pm in the Zoom waiting for the meeting start.

3:03 the meeting hasn’t started yet but audio just briefly turned on and off again.

While we wait, it’s worth noting that the CFO will likely discuss how federal funding cuts might impact the district in his report.

Meeting called to order at 3:05.

The audio is kind of poor and sounds almost muffled.

At 3:06 the committee closed sign up for public comment.

Going into the finance report now. Here’s a link to the presentation: https://go.boarddocs.com/mi/detroit/Board.nsf/files/DGNPYL651552/$file/May%20Finance%20Committee%20Report_Full%20Version.pdf

The district’s revenue is slightly ahead of projection due to one-time reimbursements from the Wayne Regional Education Service Agency (RESA).

Chair Iris Taylor requests that the board holds special meetings in June for the finance committee to go through the budget and get questions about the budget sorted out.

CFO said the district has about $300,000 in “anticipated legal fees” based on a current lawsuit with the state over how operating millages are handled.

He said depending on what happens with the lawsuit, the board might have to hold a special election to ensure operating millage goes back to DPSCD

This has been an ongoing discussion, which @chalkbeat.org has covered:
https://www.chalkbeat.org/detroit/2025/01/15/dpscd-school-board-approves-operating-millage-may-ballot/

https://www.chalkbeat.org/detroit/2025/02/28/dpscd-cancels-plans-for-may-operating-millage-election/

The district’s current budget is balanced, but there’s a projected surplus due to the one-time grants distributed from Wayne RESA I mentioned earlier.

State revenue is lower. Overall expenditures are below projections.

One board member asked a clarifying question about the RESA funding but I couldn’t hear what she asked. The CFO said Wayne RESA has extra money which is why DPSCD received these one-time grants from them.

Revenue has increased from higher student participation rates than included in the adopted budget.
Food costs are lower in the final projected budget. The budget projected higher increases in food costs from inflation and tarifs that haven’t materialized as expected.

Vitti doesn’t anticipate all of at-risk money to be cut. He mentions a variety of different revenue streams they receive that aren’t through the federal government. (Continued)

For example, literacy lawsuit funds, which would provide about $38 million in funding toward literacy intervention programs for K-4 students. More on literacy lawsuit funds from me via @chalkbeat.org : https://www.chalkbeat.org/detroit/2024/06/12/detroit-public-school-board-approves-plan-spend-literacy-lawsuit-settlement/

He also anticipates a modest increase in special education funding through the governor’s budget continuation of the state grants DPSCD is currently using for mental health support, nurses, and other care services.

Re: Federal funding
Congress approves the Title I budget two years in advance, so the second year of that budget is this upcoming year. He said the district is looking for the federal revenue numbers to be relatively stable compared to last year.

Vitti said the only opportunity that the federal government has to change K-12 funding it’s likely to be with Title II or III schools. He thinks funding for these schools could be eliminated or the money could be moved somewhere else.

DPSCD is a Title I school.

More on the differences between Title I, II, and III
https://ellipsiseducation.com/blog/what-are-title-funds

DPSCD is going to budget under the assumption that the money (roughly $9 or $10 million) will be there and not cut.

It came down to it, he said they would prioritize existing revenue to protect employment and student programming. They would reduce funding for professional development or events and incentives, or they would have to go back to the board and dip into fund balances to sustain those things next year.

One board member, unsure of which, asked what the district is doing to promote their schools in the way city charter schools are.

Vitti said they continue to run tv and radio commercials, pay school-based personnel to canvas in the area, target schools with either a small enrollment drop or high number of students in the area that don’t go to that school.

Vitti said the district might be at risk of losing some federal funding or grants, but this funding does not fund staffing and employment, meaning that if the district loses funding it shouldn’t leave a major impact on staffing.

More on staffing:

A board member, I think the same one who mentioned concerns with the district promoting itself, she said there can’t be an increase in enrollment when there are parents and grandparents going around saying negative things about the district.

She also mentions charter school narratives about the district having a “climate and culture” issue, which has also been a major discussion point throughout past board meetings.

Vitti mentioned an AI system the district is building to address questions and complaints. He said he hopes this will address high volumes and maybe allow for more human interaction.

A board member, I think Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, mentions a state board of education resolution to reduce class size. More on this from Detroit News: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/14/michigan-state-board-of-education-calls-for-smaller-class-sizes-after-detroit-news-investigation/83622818007/

She asked how the district is trying to reduce class sizes.

Vitti said their strength is K-3, but they have a model to keep classes smaller in all grades. They monitor class sizes from the beginning of the year until count day. This model generates a number of teachers, but sometimes kids come in during the middle of the year creating bigger class sizes.

They add a teacher once classes are higher than five or six students over their preferred class size. They look into factors of whether they can hire more teachers, have classrooms available to create more classes and therefore reduce class sizes.

Circling back to the literacy lawsuit funds, this is how the district is planning to allocate these funds in next year’s budget: $39.5k implementing literacy intervention and English language learning support for K-3 students.

And an overview of the 2026 general fund budget:

Vitti thinks the district will be fine over the next five years. “There are some challenges that may be on the horizon,” he said especially in the following year (2026-2027) when congress passes the K-12 budget.

He emphasizes the district is continuing to use literacy lawsuit money, and the current budget assumes that the revenue and expenditures will not remain the same once literacy lawsuit funding runs out in the following year (2026-2027).

He doesn’t know if congress is going to cut medicaid right now, so the district might not see medicaid reimbursements. He said it’s unlikely the federal govt will change community eligibility for food programs.

Grants for both health resource advocates and AmeriCorps has been cut. He’s unsure about the funding needs of City Year, an AmeriCorps program that sends success coaches into Detroit schools, given funding for these programs were cut.

Some literacy lawsuit funding ($800,000 in FY 2026) is allocated to increase City Year in K-3 education.

The CFO said the district always builds conservative budgets and doesn’t include the unknown, so revenue in their anticipated food service budget is a big lower and includes one-time revenue they received this year.

And budgets relating to fundraising money. Each school has its own account and schools will hold an approved fundraisers, the money will go into the account, and the schools can use those funds for trips and other activities.

Those amounts are reflective of all the money each school has generated in their accounts from fundraisers during the fiscal budget period.

And budgets relating to fundraising money. Each school has its own account and schools will hold an approved fundraisers, the money will go into the account, and the schools can use those funds for trips and other activities.

Referencing the trips to Africa students are about to take, they had to make that money through fundraising. Some grants and support were being provided for international travel.

The board is discussing 5.01-02 (pictured). 5.01 recommends DPSCD adopt the budget as discussed in this meeting. Gay-Dagnogo said they should approve 5.03 no discussion due to the at-length discussion they’ve already had.

Somebody else (not sure but don’t think it was a board member) said they do need to allow for discussion.

5.02-5.03 approved.

5.04
A board member asked why the district will be paying $564,000 toward this. Someone else said it’s a reimbursement, so the district might not pay the whole amount. They’re reimbursing for building out infrastructure of the foundation to be a philanthropic arm for the district.

The contract is for a three year period, this is the second half of the three years. They already approved the first half. The third year period ends next June 30 2026. After that, the hope is the philanthropic org can run self sufficiently.

A board member asked if 5.08 resolution provides emergency flight insurance in case someone suddenly need to fly home. She mentions a student went to the Middle East and couldn’t get back out for three or four days. She wants to require students have emergency fight insurance.

5.05 and 5.08 approved.

Re: 5.09, Gay-Dagnogo

Gay-Dagnogo asked about the demographics of teachers within orgs in this contract. She notes that she really only sees white sign language interpreters at meetings. She wants to know if there’s any diversity in staff.

Gay-Dangogo wants to approve 5.30-5.46

One board member wants to take out 5.37, relating to cleaning. She said the schools are not getting clean–either administrators complain about the lack of cleanliness in their schools or she does. 3.37 is pictured for reference.

Somebody (not sure who, nobody is pictured still) said if they don’t renew the contract, there will be a gap and they won’t have custodial services starting on July 1. She said there are strict measures in the contract.

Vitti said it’s up to the principals to report the cleanliness so the district knows what the problem is.

The board approved 5.30-5.46.

There were no public comments.

Meeting adjourned at 5:05 pm.

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