David Jesse

Detroit Free Press

It started over dinner at The Chop House in Ann Arbor. It ended in a packed meeting room at Eastern Michigan University.

Five years ago, Eastern Michigan University regents met with representatives from Gov. Rick Snyder's office to discuss the formation of a new school district aimed at Detroit's troubled schools.

That was the birth of the Education Achievement Authority.

On Friday afternoon, the regents pulled out of the interlocal agreement that formed the district.

That's the beginning of the end.

“From the beginning, Eastern’s objective in this effort has been focused on helping the students of Detroit and trying to improve educational outcomes,” said Mike Morris, chair of the EMU Board of Regents, in a news release after the vote. “We are taking this action today because it is the right thing to do for our university. It is increasingly clear that the anticipated legislation in Lansing to formally address this matter, and end the EAA, is now moving forward.”

​The vote Friday will not mean the immediate end of the district.

"There is no impact within the next year and a half," EAA spokesman Robert Guttersohn told the Free Press. "The interlocal agreement has a clause stating a withdrawal cannot be made within six months of June 30. We are within that time frame. Therefore the withdrawal cannot go into effect until June 30, 2017."

The vote comes against the backdrop of ramped-up efforts to overhaul Detroit's entire education system and heavy turmoil in the debt-ridden DPS. Controversial legislation introduced last month would bring sweeping reforms to public schools across the city, including charters and schools now in the EAA.

Snyder said he continues to work to improve education in Detroit.

"The Education Achievement Authority has embraced innovation and pioneered a holistic approach to helping children and their families work toward a brighter future," Snyder's spokesman Dave Murray told the Free Press. "We appreciate the important and hard work of Chancellor Veronica Conforme, her faculty and staff and the investment they have made in Detroit’s children. We intend to see that work continue. While we understand that EMU has chosen to end its partnership in this endeavor, we are hopeful that the Legislature will consider new ways to improve academics in all Detroit schools so that all students have the opportunity to be successful."

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Eastern Michigan Regent Jim Stapleton was at the initial meeting about the EAA. He voted Friday for it to be disbanded.

"As I have maintained from the beginning of this process, I applauded then, and applaud to this day, Gov. Snyder's attempt to at least try to address the performance of our state's lowest-performing schools," Stapleton said in an e-mail to the Free Press. He took part in Friday's meeting by phone. "Having said that, in my judgment, this experiment isn't working and, has not for some time.

"In retrospect and, as one of the people involved with this district from its inception, I wish we would have worked to give John Covington a better team on the operations side of the district because I do believe he was a quality educator.

"Today, the district is not even being run by someone with an educational background. When coupled with the damage this arrangement has done to the reputation of our university and, particularly the retaliation that has taken place against our students just trying to start their careers for a decision our board made and, tripled with the fact not a single promise that was made to us was kept, this has been personally problematic for me for a while and, I have expressed that publicly and privately. It takes five votes for our governing body to act. Today, we had five votes and more, and for that I am happy."

Two months ago, the board declined to vote on the agreement, saying it supported the EAA.

That decision not to vote came a year after the university’s Board of Regents voted to extend for a year the agreement that formed the EAA, the state district for the worst-performing schools in Michigan, despite widespread opposition on campus. But it said the EAA needed to meet a series of conditions to get another extension.

Eastern Michigan is one of three partners in the district, along with DPS and the state.

The formation of the EAA was addressed in June 2011 and was met with concern from the faculty, especially those from Eastern's education school, which said they had not been consulted. Faculty continued to be upset over the years, saying their expertise was not being used to help improve the district.

Snyder's office created the EAA to reform the bottom 5% of Michigan schools, starting in Detroit. The district, funded with state, federal and private dollars, operates on a roughly $84-million annual budget and is overseen by a school board whose members are appointed by the governor.

The EAA has 12 direct-run schools and three charter schools, all formerly in the DPS district.

Critics say problems that plagued the state district early on — like declining enrollment, lackluster academic achievement and high staff turnover — are still examples of what's not working.

Retention of teachers and principals is also a concern: The district says 226 of the 362 teachers employed on Oct. 1, 2014, were still there one year later, a retention rate of 62%.

In addition to struggles inside and outside the classroom, the district is facing added scrutiny since the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have launched a sweeping corruption probe into vendor kickback schemes involving former and current employees. Some also previously worked for DPS.

Earlier Friday, even the head of the district called for the interlocal agreement to be canned.

"I encourage the board members to vote to end the interlocal agreement," Conforme said in an e-mail statement to the Free Press. "This saga has gone on for far too long and has made our teachers, students and parents feel like political pawns. I recognize the interlocal agreement has negatively impacted both our students and the university in many ways and has not allowed for our long-term success. The founding governance structure of the EAA lacks stability and is an unsustainable model.

“It’s time to start putting our students first by exploring every option and settle on a permanent solution that provides stability to our schools and provides our students with the high-quality education they deserve."

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj