On July 30th, 2013, the Saginaw Intermediate School district board voted to eliminate the Buena Vista School

District. The doors were shut, and the 250 remaining students dispersed and headed to neighboring schoolsthe most frequent choice, Saginaw High, is now facing the same issue of potentially shutting down. In February, the final recorded count day before the decision, Buena Vista schools had 433of about 1,000 students in the entire districtwhen the school closed its doors briefly in May, that number dropped from 433 to 250. This has been directly attributed to both state and local fund mismanagement. In the months of April, May, and June of 2013, the Michigan Department of Education withheld state aid in response to the districts overpaying of Buena Vista School District by $401,962.51, money that was supposed to go to the Wolverine Secure Treatment Centera center that had ended its contract with the district in 2012. While this was the final financial blow to the already struggling district, Buena Vista is in no way an anomaly. As a citizenbut no longer a studentof Buena Vista, I was one of the few privileged to leave the sinking district. What is being attributed to financial mismanagement has rather been years in the motion. The dissolution of the BVSD began in 2001, and years of de facto segregation has left the district in a rut that now in 2014 became too much to overcome. The most recent census has Buena Vista at a population of 14,000 White compared to 29,000 African American citizens. The school district was 374 African American students compared to 4 white. What this shows is that socioeconomic factors do play a role in this scenario. It is ridiculous to assume that 14,000 White citizens do not have school aged children. Where are these students accounted for in the district? Going back not too far in time, February 1998 to be exact, BVSD counted 1,745 students in its buildings. BVSD was not only peaking with students, it had just formed a national robotics team, and the band had been reformed after a 10 year absence. That number is not only 8 times the amount of students in the district during the

final tally, but almost twice the amount of studentsschool of choice and otherin the area as a whole. This number would decrease rapidly over the following years and between 1998 and 2008, the district lost about 400 students. While this may seem irrelevant, it points to federal trends that seem to be much neglected in the narrative following the district. By 1998, BVSD was not only peaking with students, it had just formed a national robotics team, the band had been reformed after a 10 year absence, and in 1993 an ROTC program had be established for the school. When one follows this timeline (provided by MLIVE) aside from a minor and contained embezzlement case, things were going well for the district. Then, the passing of No Child Left Behind occurred, and sure enough, December 2002 A review shows the district has a 23 percent decrease in enrollment over five years, resulting in a $2.9 million loss in funding, a 78 percent loss in revenue. At the same time, the district decreased staff by 1 percent. The report stated that continued spending would put the district in bankruptcy in 2003 and that it needed $1.5 million in spending reductions to achieve financial stability. The report also recommends closing Henry Doerr and Brunkow elementary schools by 2003 and selling the buildings.

Needless to say, the district somehow made it until 2014 and the two buildings they recommended closing listed at the end are sitting dormant with back taxes owed by the Saginaw school district that still owns them. What No Child Left Behind stipulates is that federal funding will be distributed to schools on a larger scale, and Funds are distributed to school districts according to a set of formulas based on the size and characteristics of a school districts student population. Said funds though are directly linked to standardized tests performances. This in itself wouldnt be an issue, but what No Child Left Behind also does is provide an out for students in failing districtssort of. After three years of not meeting standardsor being on course to meet standardspublic school of choice is initiated in said district. Movoto, a web

source for finding school test scores as well as enrollment rate, shows that BVSD has decreased from a 21% pass rate of the MME in 2009, to a 6 percent pass rate in 2012. This bodes even worse for the rest of the core subjects, except Social Studies which at 2009 was at 34% pass rate (but now resides at 3%). Rather than remodeling or reapplying techniques or education style, for years funding has been cut, students have trickled out, and finally the district was just shut down. I cant say if I would have found as many opportunities for success had I attended Buena Vista High School. That is not meant to bring down the district, but rather draw attention to what happens when a district is not given the ability to educate its students. Programs like No Child Left Behind destroy districts like Buena Vista by allowing thoselike mewith means and a way to escape, leaving those who remain with less funding, and less of a chance. BVSD is not the anomaly some may refer to it as. It is rather a portrait of a growing national habit in education, and an example of trends and attitudes regarding non-profitable districts and its inhabitants.