Governor questions Ann Arbor's decision to build Skyline; district says Snyder's claims are inaccurate

Related story: Michigan says 55 school districts have deficits

Gov. Rick Snyder ruffled some feathers at Ann Arbor schools when he questioned the financial common sense of his hometown public school district at a news conference Thursday in Lansing about the record number of schools in Michigan facing structural deficits.

According to reports, Snyder was asked whether the budget crisis and massive cuts on the table in Ann Arbor indicate the state's funding model for public education needs reform.

Snyder said funding issues should be discussed in the next few years, according to an Associated Press report, but blamed declining enrollment and bad financial planners in some districts, citing the Ann Arbor Public Schools' decision in 2004 to build Skyline High School — despite knowing negative demographic trends.

But AAPS Communications Director Liz Margolis said Snyder's depiction of declining enrollment and poor planning for the future in Ann Arbor is "absolutely not true." She said across all grades, Ann Arbor schools enrollment has remained stable throughout the past 10 years, with even a little bit of an increase in total enrollment across all grades.

Snyder and his family live in Superior Township, within the Ann Arbor Public Schools district. However, Snyder sends his school-aged daughter to Greenhills School, one of the most expensive private schools in the state. Tuition for the 2013-14 school year has been set at $20,500 for a high school student.

"First of all, Skyline was a voter-approved decision in the district he (Snyder) lives in," Margolis said. "The voters passed a proposal to build the school. And for the 10 years prior, even longer than that, Pioneer was the largest high school in the state with 3,200 students in a building designed for 1,800."

Margolis said during that decade prior to the passing of the $205.4 million capital improvement bond in 2004, Huron High School had about 2,000 students in a school meant to hold 1,600. Now Ann Arbor's three comprehensive high schools — including Skyline, which opened in 2008 — are all sitting fairly evenly at about 1,600, Margolis said.

Additionally, parents and students still have concerns about overcrowding at Pioneer.

Earlier this year, a proposal to move the Roberto Student Development Center into Pioneer High School to save $200,000 to $348,677 in next year's budget caused a great deal of blowback from the community.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools is trying to close an $8.67 million deficit for the 2013-14 budget and is weighing a number of drastic cuts that include more than 80 employee positions, about 50 of them teachers, and eliminating high school busing. The district already has issued layoff notices to 233 teachers.

According to the Center for Educational Performance and Information, the district had 4,764 high school students enroll in fall 2012: 1,612 students at Huron, 1,651 at Pioneer and 1,501 at Skyline.

Also according to CEPI, the total number of high schoolers in AAPS is down from the 2004-05 academic year (5,006) but up from the 2008-09 school year (4,508).

The total enrollment in Ann Arbor district wide in the fall of 2004 was 16,868, in fall 2008 it was 16,403 and in fall 2012 it was 16,635.

Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.