Buena Vista School District Closed For Third Day; Fired Teachers File For Unemployment
The deathwatch over a tiny school district in Michigan continues as its schools remain closed.
Despite teachers' offers to work for free for at least a week, schools in the Buena Vista School District will remain closed for the third consecutive day Thursday because the district has run out of money. On Monday, the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week, the district laid off everyone except for three staffers, and has stopped paying health benefit claims.
On Wednesday, chaos continued to envelop Buena Vista, a 432-student impoverished, mostly black school district. The school board said it plans to declare a financial emergency. The state and county remained in contact, but still had no plans to help the district.
Meanwhile, Rep. Dan Kildee, a Democratic U.S. House of Representatives member whose district includes Buena Vista, begged the state to step in.
After a school board meeting Tuesday night left parents with more questions than answers, the district posted a series of questions and answers on its website. The district explained that it chose to lay off the teachers
