Thank you Tim for your dedicated and hard work. I just want to clarify - I said "local" control not "total". Although, I would like that!!

This is the school board election that will forever change West Bloomfield Schools. There are now four women on the board that will provide leadership for this school community. Of the four, Carol Finkelstein is the only independent, forward thinking, and fiscally wise leader. She is a strong advocate for accountability and transparency. Beaty, Sakwa, and Singh lack these qualities. The three of them will continue to be influenced by former school board members that arrogantly led our district into deficit and defiantly stuck to a Schools of Choice policy that destabilized our budget and shattered the district's positive image. Beaty, Sakwa, and Singh are not like Lisa Brown. When they make their decisions, someone else is usually makingbitvfor them. I hope Beaty will reject being used and mislead.

Regarding the sinking fund millages, which West Bloomfield voters rejected and Walled Lake voters overwhelmingly approved, note that WB asked for three times WL's half-mill. If the WB board and administration hadn't gotten greedy, and instead proposed a more reasonable amount, it would very likely have been approved, especially in a community that's clearly demonstrated a willingness to support millage increases (public safety, parks, and DIA in the past year alone).

Wow. instead of responsibly promoting and offering the community a reasonable sinking fund millage, the board spent all of its time getting another PTO mom elected. We now have 4, supermom majority. You think fund equity is an issue in WB, just wait to see the storm that is blowing our way !! Good Luck....

To drill a bit deeper (something the local media might consider doing as a service to their readers), here are the approved tax year 2012 sinking fund millages for West Bloomfield's near-peer districts in metro Detroit, listed by county in decreasing rate order. Based on student performance and reputation, a number of these districts are generally considered superior to WB, and none of them are markedly inferior overall, so I'm confident this is a solid, representative comparison.

Oakland County:
Bloomfield Hills 1.48 (to be reduced to 0.74 mills in 2014)
Huron Valley 0.95
Berkley 0.74
Walled Lake 0.5
Novi 0.49
Birmingham 0
Clarkston 0
Farmington 0
Lake Orion 0
Rochester 0
Royal Oak 0
South Lyon 0
Troy 0

Wayne County:
Livonia 1.12
Grosse Ile 1.0
Grosse Pointe 1.0
Northville 1.0
Plymouth-Canton 0

Washtenaw County:
Ann Arbor 1.0
Chelsea 0.5
Saline 0.35

Livingston County:
Brighton 0
Hartland 0

Source: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/lea_millage_39045_7.pdf

Analysis:

Only about half the above peer districts (12 of 23) even have a sinking fund, and EVERY single one is lower than WB's 1.5 mill proposal. The only one that's even close is Bloomfield Hills at 1.48, but will be cut by half starting in 2014. The overall average is 0.44 mill, with an average of 0.84 mill for the dozen districts with sinking funds.

On top of this, the WB schools debt retirement millage of 8.15 is higher than every one of these districts except South Lyon, which just built a brand new state-of-the-art high school. In many of them--including Walled Lake, Birmingham, Grosse Pointe, and Plymouth-Canton--debt retirement is less than half the WB rate.

So had the millage passed, WB taxpayers would have been saddled with the highest sinking fund rate (more than triple the benchmark average) and second highest debt retirement rate of any comparable district in the area. Does this look like a board and administration that really has its fiscal house in order?

Move now. The WB BOE is the least forward thinking school district in the area. Last to close buildings. Last to re- configure schools. First in deficit. Worst staff morale. Now, Julie Beaty's ONLY public comment in the last year is here on the Patch -- after her PTO/BOE clique rallied to elect her -- about how WB needs local control. Julie! WAKE UP! The Local control just REJECTED a sinking fund mileage.

Congratulations and good luck to Julie Beaty, who has frequently said she is independent, beholden to no one except her own family. This board will need to find real leadership, fiscal responsibility and proactive decisions. This should start with finishing the work the SEAF committee proposed, maintaining but re- structuring the block at WBHS to save thousands of dollars annually, creating an on line revenue generating classroom at WBHS, marketing and expanding the OEA etc. We must use the known demographics, known financial picture and work to maintain our schools' fine reputations. Whille I supported the sinking fund once on the ballot, like Matt Chase, the lone Board dissenter to allowing it in this ballot, I doubted it would pass in this economic climate. The message from our community that it will not support handing the previous board majority more of our tax dollars to squander was no surprise. Let's see this Board step up and earn the entire community's support back.

Has this community ever rejected a school millage before? Any millage? NEVER!!!! WAKE UP! End the arrogance. Cut the cord of the ex-BOE members running this board through Sakwa, Singh, Eonstandig, Hersh and now Beaty.

This article was recently corrected with more accurate information, including complete results from the WLCDS millage vote.