Highland Park Schools Trying to Block Emergency Manager Takeover

LANSING, Mich. (WJBK) -- Public school leaders from Highland Park go to Lansing. They're trying to block an emergency manager from taking over the school system.

Governor Snyder has decided there is a financial emergency in the Highland Park Schools and an emergency manager should be sent in to resolve it.

However, school officials told the state on Friday don't do it. We can solve this problem on our own, but we've got no cooperation from the state in doing that.

School officials wanted to work on a consent decree to avoid the emergency manager, but "that was never requested nor discussed," said Highland Park Schools Treasurer Randy Layne.

However, a state Department of Education official says the review team concluded that local board members were incapable of implementing a consent agreement.

"The review team did not think that they would be able to actually carry off a consent agreement," said state Board of Education CFO Carol Wolenberg. "We did observe that there was some dysfunction in the district."

The treasurer accuses the state of not being fair and truthful, and for the first time he asserts the state also prejudged the emergency manager decision.

"At the end of all of these process, the discussions and presentation, the decision had already been made before we started," Layne said.

The state counters not guilty.

"There is definitely a financial emergency," Wolenberg explained. "We were not trying to do that from the outset."

A deputy state treasurer will decide if the district will get an emergency manager. Layne confides he expects that to happen.