The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Residents asking for investigation
Extra phones may be waste of tax dollars
By Dan DuChene, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: August 17, 2006
Ypsilanti Township citizens are requesting an investigation into Willow Run Community Schools based on the findings of the 2005 Plante & Moran Technology Assessment Report.
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The complaint and request was made earlier this week in the form of a letter addressed to Michael Flanagan, superintendent of the Michigan Department of Education; William Miller, superintendent of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District; Governor Jennifer Granholm and the Willow Run School Board.
The letter says the chief complaint is an item found on page 34 of the report. It reads, "The District has a significant number of spare phones per the voice vendor (approximately 200) stored in the computer room."
The letter said Claudette Braxton, president of the school board, and Ron Ciranna, superintendent of Willow Run Schools, should conduct the investigation together with Miller.
Tim King, an Ypsilanti Township resident and former Willow Run parent, organized the letter with the help of Mark Wilde, a former trustee on the Willow Run School Board.
"I hated to do this, but it's the only way the school board will listen," King said. "People can go up there during the citizen's time and talk, but they're not going to listen."
Last year King had two children in attending Willow Run, a two-year-old daughter in pre-school and a nine-year-old son in the fourth grade.
"We took them out of Willow Run," King said. "Willow Run has failed them."
His children will be attending Keystone Academy on Bemis Road in Van Buren Township this year.
King has been collecting signatures in conjunction with his complaint since July 26, when he authored the letter. On Monday he said he had collected 150 signatures, and expects to have more than 200 collected by the time he presents the letter to the school board tonight.
"[Citizens] are all pretty concerned," King said. "It was easy collecting signatures. I've only had two people refuse to sign it."
The technology report, dated Aug. 10, 2005, was the result of a review of Willow Run's Technology Services.
Plante & Moran, a Southfield based accounting and business advisory firm, conducted the review. The W.I.S.D. retained the company at the request of Willow Run Community Schools.
In the 50-page report, it said there are approximately 200 phones left-over from the when the district installed a new district-wide phone system in the spring of 2004.
Barton Malow, a construction management firm based in Southfield conducted the bid process to install a new phone system in the district. On March 25, 2004, Barton Malow suggested a $324,347 bid from NETech, a Grand Rapids based networking firm.
The school board approved the bid on April 1, 2004. A bond issued in 2001, when the district built new middle school, was used to fund the project.
NETech installed a Cisco Voice over IP voice system district-wide. There were three different types of Cisco phones used throughout the district.
Mike Metcalf was in charge of the project on behalf of NETech. Mark Wierengra, of NETech, said Metcalf is no longer with the company.
"We did a job based on a bid-spec," Wierengra said.
According to documents provided by Willow Run and King, approximately 400-600 phones were purchased for the project.
King said there are close to 150 phones located in the computer room in the middle school and 50 phones located in a storage closet in the administration building. The Courier counted phones in the administration building's storage closet. All phones were still in boxes.
According to Cisco Systems, the list-price for the phones found in the administration building is $175.
"These are wasted phones," King said. "We need to know how much money was wasted and who wasted it. The administrators and the school board need to answer to the tax payers."
Katie Smith is the director of technology at Willow Run Schools. Many citizens have criticized her for the extra phones.
Smith said she made no official decision about purchasing the phones, or using NETech as the company to install the phones.
"I can't approve anything," Smith said. "The board is the policy maker."
Smith said Barton Malow suggested NETech as the lowest qualified bidder, and the board approved Barton Malow's decision.
"We used Barton Malow as the consultants," Smith said. "I don't have the expertise to put bid specs together. That's why they were paid to do it, because they are the experts."
Smith said extra phones might have been purchased using the bond for purpose of replacement. So, if a phone were to break, money would not have to be taken out of the general fund to replace it.
"These phones will be used in the district. We have extra phones to replace broken phones," Smith said.
"Replacing a phone out of the general fund would be quite costly," Smith said. "It's important we have replacements available."
When asked if purchasing 200 back-up phones is normal for such a project, Mike Ligenza, of NETech, said, "I have not seen that in the past."
The Willow Run School Board will be meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the administration building located at 2171 E. Michigan Ave.
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