Injunction sought to block Bobb’s move to have consultants run Detroit schools

DETROIT — The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday evening to seek a court injunction that would determine whether Robert Bobb, the public schools’ emergency financial manager, broke the terms of his contract and possibly state law when he hired private academic consulting firms to manage 17 of Detroit’s 22 public high schools without prior consultation with the board.

Bobb, appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in January to take over the troubled finances of the Detroit Public Schools, announced last week Friday that he was hiring four private management firms to oversee a majority of Detroit’s high schools to improve academic achievement. But school board members found out about Bobb’s plan along with the general public through media reports.

Now the board is questioning whether Bobb, the former president of the District of Columbia Board of Education and D.C. city administrator, overstepped his responsibilities as emergency financial manager when he made an executive decision that affects academic programs, which does not fall under his direct jurisdiction.

When Bobb was appointed, it was understood that he would give the board financial limitations and the board would craft its academic planning within budgets laid out by the emergency financial manager, according to David Olmstead, the board’s lawyer who is working pro bono.

Olmstead said that according the Local Government Fiscal Responsibly Act that allows the state to take over the finances of local government in crisis, Bobb does have the power to negotiate contracts, but not without board approval.

“Those contracts must be subject to the board’s educational programs, policies and agreements,” Olmstead told the board during the special meeting. “What educational programs will be in each of those 17 schools? That’s the board’s responsibility.”

Board member Tyrone Winfrey filed the motion seeking the court injunction that will define Bobb’s role and met no resistance from the board or the community audience of approximately 100 people at the Detroit Public Schools Welcome Center in the city’s New Center area.

Lamar Lemmons Jr., son of the Democratic state House lawmaker from Detroit, spoke on his father’s behalf, telling the board that it has not sought needed help from the legislature. “The board has had little communication with legislature,” Lemmons Jr. said, adding that the state House could help the board get a “more clear definition of power of the emergency financial manager.”

The meeting, which showed the board more unified than in the past, moved smoothly with no major disagreement or need for security personnel to clear disruptive audience members. All board members agreed that Bobb should have consulted them before contracting the private consultants.

Defending his actions, Bobb has said that his decision to hire private consulting teams is part of his financial stabilization plan, stating that finances can’t be fixed before academics.

Board member Marie Thornton said Bobb was invited to attend the special meeting but declined. “He has not come before us,” she said. “We should get copies of his contract [and] ask him one more time to attend a meeting.”