Special meeting, budget presentation held for troubled Wayne-Westland schools

A special board meeting and budget presentation took place on Monday in the Wayne-Westland Community School District.

Last week, the school board voted to place Superintendent John Dignan on administrative leave because of the district's financial trouble. According to the district, an audit revealed it has a $17.6 million budget deficit .

Wayne-Westland Community School District

The meeting took place John Glenn High School. Even with a budget presentation, teachers union representative Tonya Karpinksi said teachers don’t know what dollar figure to believe.

Karpinksi said the union does not believe they are receiving accurate information and she said that hurts contract negotiations.

Jennifer Owens, the proud mother of a soon-to-be junior and senior at Wayne Memorial High School, has been calling for someone in the district to be held accountable.

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“They started terminating social workers. They started making cuts to staff salaries," Owens said with disappointment.

“Someone that was on our financial team that is no longer in the district who, of course, they’re pointing the blame to, did a copy and paste of our previous year’s budget, submitted it, and yet no one, including our superintendent and our third-party accounting firm that was hired by our superintendent did not catch this error.”

During a closed-door session last week, the school board said it had voted to place Dignan on administrative leave as further discussions take place.

Owens said "hopefully his termination" is an action the board decides to take.

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Edward Pruett III told 7 News Detroit, “The district needs trust back, and that’s what we’ve been missing."

Pruett, who has a 4-year-old he’s getting ready to send off the school, said the meeting on the budget is positive step. However, he said honesty and transparency are needed among those in leadership.

“That’s why superintendent Dignan needed to go. He wasn't providing information to the board and the board was asking questions. Some of the board members were, and parents and teachers and staff were asking questions. Instead, they were piecemealing decisions together that upended the lives of folks," he said.

Watch our previous story where moms react to school district budget problems in Ann Arbor:

7 News Detroit reached out to the district as well as board President Bradley Gray for an interview.

Gray said the following in a statement:

“Following a closed session on June 4, 2024, the Wayne-Westland Community Schools Board of Education voted to place Superintendent John Dignan on administrative leave pending the outcome of further discussions. The Board has named Ms. Jennifer Curry, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, as the Acting Superintendent.”

The district said Curry wasn't available for an interview Monday.

7 News Detroit also reached out to Dignan. He has not reached back out yet.