I attended this meeting and felt unresolved at the end. Here are the facts from my point of view:
1. There's 1 full-time police officer who needed to be hired to monitor less than 600 students BUT no more than 170 students are in attendance on a daily basis. Does anyone else find this as a convenient excuse to appease some concerned residents and also as a reason to bring back a laid off police officer? I mean no disrespect to the police dept. because they are great.
2. If there are 33 available faculty for under 600 students (don't forget no more than 170 in attendance per day), this tells me that for every 18 DLC students there is assigned 1 teacher and at the highschool/middleschool it's over 24 students per staff member. Please tell me how this is the proper allocation of resources?
3. While the DLC spokesperson was happy to inform the residents about the number of communities these students are from, she could not tell us how many Ferndale residents benefit from DLC?
4. The DLC spokesperson could not (would not) provide statistics as to how many of the DLC students are required to attend this school by the courts/probation.
5. I don't recall hearing from any parents whose child attends DLC.
I'm not completely informed on all the facts so I apologize in advance for any errors on my part. The point is, the residents did not come to the meeting to feel better about the school, they really came because they do not want it in our community.

i thought the meeting was a good place to start. However, the school administration and police were attempting to whitewash the very serious concerns of residents.

There was a knife fight inside the school just this past week!

Also, i really feel that an advocate is needed to represent and forward the sincere and very important concerns of residents.

I was there- It was a good start for a dialogue, but there seemed to be a lot of info missing- such as how much revenue the district makes from this school ( including the 200 people who learn remotely). Additionally, the crime statistics from the two years actually showed a 100 % increase in crime around Taft(DLC) since last year, which the Police chief either didn't pay attention to prior to his presentation or didn't want to discuss- which was a little disconcerting.

Lots of people seem to be dancing around the subject of why we have the Digital Learning Center or other alternative education programs. We need an answer to the this question: If we closed the Digital Learning Center and did not host any similar alternative education program in Ferndale, what would be the impact on our budget and other educational programs?

I expect the new "BOLD" group of school board members to address this issue directly.

I'm not saying we should close the program, and I'm not saying money is the only factor or even the most important factor, but I think residents need to know what impact such a decision would have. If closing the program means we either find more revenue or start cutting other educational programs, this needs to be part of the discussion.

I was there last night as well. I appreciate having the forum but it became obvious that more discussions need to be had in the future as there were lots of unresolved issues. I want to thank those involved with putting the meeting together and for setting up the next meeting on December 5. I also do appreciate the efforts of the school staff, I have no doubt they work very hard to help these kids. The goals of the school are commendable, and I don't think anyone doesn't want these kids to have an education. I also do appreciate the work of our police force, I know they are very dedicated as well. That being said, I found little comfort in the information presented last night. I think every citizen who attended was more concerned about safety in the neighborhood then the change of name and functioning of the school.
1) I'm not sure if the police chief even looked at his stats before presenting them, because all I saw was a doubling of crimes from 2011 to 2012 in our area, whereas around the other high schools crime decreased or was stable. It basically worked out to a serious crime every 3-4 days our 1500sq ft area. This IS signifcant. Also, as far as I'm concerned this essentially the same population of students so I don't see why we have to act like this is a whole new situation. I want to look at records comparing 2010 to 2011 and what we have so far of 2012. 2) how many kids are from Ferndale? 3) how they are referred 4) can they do background criminal check?

5) how much more time do they police spend patrolling the Dale neighborhood? are we okay with diverting more police attention to this area? 6) i wonder how often the police are called to the other high schools. The chief tried to make a point that fights and thefts happen at the other high schools, but a stolen iPod is VERY different from armed robbery that happened at Taft last year 7) there have been gang fights. Does this happen at the other schools? Once again, I feel like they were glossing over the seriousness of the crimes happening at DLC/old Taft. 8) I feel like the city is probably making money off of this school, especially since a good portion of the students just do work online. My concern is that the city is making money off the school and telling us not to worry about our safety, that everythings okay.

I agree with Brian as well. We need to know more about the financials involved. How much money are we making from the school? How much are we spending on it? Why did we choose to start this school? Didn't Jefferson have to close last year due to low attendance?

More Police presence is very important in the neighborhoods of Ferndale. There is talk of another "night club" going into the space where the Dollar Store was in Downtown. Ferndale and it's Downtown area are experiencing economic growth, have great potential moving forward and at a crossroad with respect to how to use its resources. City Council and DDA have to consider denying a liquor license to a business that will divert more Police attention to Downtown and away from protecting the schools and the residential areas of our city until they have the revenue to keep our Police Dept. (The Mid-West Finest by the way) from being an exhausted force.

I was at last night's meeting. As citizens of the world we can't have a not in my neighborhood attitude. If not us, then who? In the long run, graduating more students reduces crime because it provides more opportunity to make an honest living. We need to continue the dialog to come up with ways to let the students know bad behavior won't be tolerated and set a good example.

For the last time...follow the $$$...at Taft and at UHS....NO Ferndale students....

Wouldn't it be amazing, though, to turn this on its head and actually make it work for the students AND the district AND the community? I won't pretend that the intention in developing this program was altruistic, but Deb's comment resonates with me, and I bet many others. I sure would be proud if Ferndale could, in this small way, be part of the solution of a problem in our little corner of the world. And yes, with my tax dollars.

Write who a check, Brian? My understanding is that these students come with state dollars. In which case, I've already written my check.

This may answer a few questions, but probably raise more...

The vast majority of my practice is defending individuals accused of felonies in Wayne County. In 2012 alone, I have had no less than a dozen clients who were Taft or Jefferson students. I can't speak for the hundreds of other attorneys who do what I do, but I suspect that I am not the only one with clients who are Ferndale students. Suffice it to say that the Wayne County Circuit Court judges and probation department are very familiar with Ferndale Schools. The Courts do not send our clients to Ferndale but as a condition of probation they have to stay in school or get an education. Furthermore, I can't speculate on the numbers of misdemeanants at DCL because I only handle felonies.

I would be interested in knowing how much revenue these programs are bringing to the district and how much extra municipal services (police/courts) they are costing the district.

I will bet none of the city council or school board members actually live next to all these social projects they support and foist upon the residents.

Move to Royal Oak

in 2 years here in ferndale i will no doubt be pushing for a move in 2013. i have felt less than safe with a nearby drug house where the owners were not jailed and were deemed "not a flight risk" yet fled the state and possibly the country- had feds looking for them and have a friend from Detroit squatting- only to have the police tell us they went concerned about it- and leading my story into Taft- same thing- i feel the chief is just trying to pull the wool over our eyes so we think we are safe- i witness the cops driving crazy speeds to get there during these crimes/fights/etc. Im not oblivious to what going on. Im too close to that school to be naive. ive seen kids hanging out there at all hours of the night outside-not sayingthey were up to no good but it does make me feel safe that the chief is pretty much saying we don't need to be concerned!

Brian, I couldn't agree with you more. I was just throwing out an idea. Obviously, it would need to be properly monitored. This isn't meant to be a lynch mob.

Although, I wouldn't mind having a rental property hall of shame where we can post pictures of poorly kept rental properties that are an eye sore.

Thomas, I'm not sure if anonymity will work. Bottom line is, people do not want call the police emergency or non emergency lines and feel like nuisances. People are more likely to report problems hiding behind their computers. Unfortunately, this also means that ignorant people can make false statements. Facebook is probably best idea because people will feel some level of accountability.

Since the chief refuses to get back to me does anyone have another avenue I can seek out info regarding the drug house situation or free advice on the law regarding it?

If you think there is drug activity going on and the ferndale police wont do anything about it you could try calling the D.E.A? They are always looking to bust up drug rings, and if you think they are selling high quantities they would probably be very curious about it. You could also tell the Ferndale PD you are going to call the DEA and that might light a fire under them since no local PD wants federal guys hassling them.