How To Stop Bleeding

Roberts: Detroit Public Schools' budget seeks to stop 'the bleeding'

Detroit — The budget for Detroit Public Schools' next school year will include cost savings aimed at "stopping the bleeding" and will trim services not deemed paramount to educating a student, DPS Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts said this morning.

Roberts said the budget will be one of the best the struggling district has submitted to the state in more than a decade. The district is to have a draft plan submitted to the state for review today, and a final budget is due June 30.

After a press conference held this morning to announce new high schools set to open in the fall, Roberts said cuts to address the district's $327 million deficit will have to be more than short-term fixes.

"They are really going to be pushing for us to balance our budget because the state doesn't have any money," Roberts aid. "There will be no Superman coming to the rescue."

Roberts said the budget will likely surprise some, but officials had to take a hard look at what the district was offering.

Without mentioning anything specific, Roberts said the district is going to drop some offerings it can't afford anymore.

"We will not cut the budget to save $320 million," Roberts said. "We have to stop the bleeding."

But Roberts said he and other district officials are willing to listen to the community and make changes accordingly.

He said any changes are difficult because they are being made as the district continues to operate.

"We are actually changing the tires as we drive down the road," he said. "We are going to move aggressively."

Kristen Kennard liked what she heard this morning. The 41-year-old Detroiter sends her three children to private school in Southfield, but she is willing to send her oldest to high school at the Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine, which is to open in the fall.

"I wasn't confident in the system," she said of why she drives 40 minutes to take her kids to school. "But the curriculum (at the new high school) really was a selling point."

Roberts said opening the schools while closing others makes sense because it will be a draw and offer a quality education.

"This is right along with our plans," he said. "We must open successful new schools. That is critically important.

Can't Stop The Bleeding » Bulls Treat Chicago Media Like Mushrooms

06.15.11 Bulls Treat Chicago Media Like Mushrooms

Posted in Basketball , Sports Journalism at 2:14 pm by GC

Which is to say the fourth estate is being kept in the dark and fed nothing but shit. Of the Bulls unwillingness to discuss the upcoming NBA Draft, the Sun-Times’ Lacy J. Banks writes, “the new self-imposed gag rule smacks of censorship.”

For the first time in the 43 years I’ve covered the team for Ebony magazine and the Sun-Times, the Bulls are refusing to tell the media about which players they’re bringing in for summer tryouts, refusing to make them available for interviews and refusing to grant interviews themselves.