To the Max

If you read through the Farmington Schools’ Facilities Study Team recommendations (and you should), you’ll notice a theme running through the three proposals for closing and reconfiguring buildings.

“Close the Maxfield Training Center.”

It should be done, and as quickly as possible. The MTC has never lived up to its potential, because it couldn’t. Farmington officials counted on Oakland Schools to make use of the space, and before the partnership could bear fruit, the intermediate school district was plunged into a large financial mess that ended with the dismissal and criminal prosecution of then-Superintendent James Redmond.

I’ve been to meetings at the Max, and it’s a nice facility. But a conference or training center has to be marketed, aggressively so. Not something school districts commonly do. As a result, the building is more of a drain than an asset, and as such, should be closed and – hopefully – sold to a private developer. The parcel has all kinds of potential, especially when the City of Farmington is able to install that switch-back walk way down to Shiawassee Park.

In fact, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of that building providing more space for the City of Farmington’s administrative offices and council chambers, which would leave more room for the public safety department on the present site.

Not that I’m trying to get any rumors started.

Closing the MTC feels a little awkward, given that it’s been named in honor of a beloved superintendent. I would never presume to speak for him, but I can tell you this: Bob Maxfield is all about the classroom, kids and teachers. And if closing the C. Robert Maxfield Training Center means keeping more dollars in the classroom, I suspect he’d be the first one to suggest doing it.

Shut it down, I say. The sooner, the better.

As for the rest of the report, it appears officials will decide between two philosophical directions: Move the very smallest possible number of students, which I would call an incremental step, or undertake a serious overhaul of grade level configurations and realize significant savings (after covering the transition costs, which are also pretty steep).

I would take the drastic route. It’s time to look in the mirror and acknowledge we have grown older. Farmington is no longer a young community, no longer a growth-driven community. This isn’t just about tightening our belts to deal with state funding, it’s about facing who we are, and who we will never be again. We cannot keep spending as though we expect more students every year.

Whether school officials bite the bullet and set the District on the path to financial stability, or minimize the impact and hope the State Legislature finds a way to stabilize school funding, they’re about to get a keel-hauling from Farmington parents. And that’s a shame, because the reality of this situation couldn’t be more clear.

For at least the past 10 years, as long as I’ve been watching, the District has trimmed millions from its budget and spent down its reserves. I’m not going to tell you there’s nothing left to cut, because officials could certainly nickel and dime themselves to death for many years to come.

And it wouldn’t change the fact that Farmington Schools’ enrollment no longer supports the number of schools the district holds open.

The recommendations made by the study committee were made without regard to the emotional impact of closing dearly loved institutions. Committee memebers had to look at dollars and cents – and sense. This objective report does two things: It involves members of the community in solving the District’s most challenging problems, and it gives elected officials a point from which to start their decision-making process.

Let the weeping and gnashing of teeth begin.

–JH-G

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