Parents come to School Board to ask for mental health lease extension

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
At a May 12 meeting, parents of patients and staff members of the Community Care Services asked the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education to extend the lease for the mental health treatment center which now is scheduled to run out June 30.
Vicki Lyons, a support staff member at Community Care, said the mental health service has been in the school district’s trailer at 416 Sumpter Road, #B, for two years and has been in Belleville at various locations for 30 years.
She said they had a clothing closet that was run by developmentally disabled people from Washtenaw County at that location, but that closed. She said it was the cleanest clothes closet she ever saw.
Lyons said Community Care services more than 300 clients with evaluation and treatment. She said if this location closed, patients would have to drive to Romulus, Taylor, or Southgate to get help.
She said one family walks two miles from their home in Van Buren Township to get mental health treatment.
Lyons said people with untreated mental health problems suffer homelessness, incarceration, become victims of crime, and get depressed and suicidal.
She said early diagnosis and treatment can provide help for these people.
Lyons said as a former township clerk for 12 years, she is aware of financial difficulties for all organizations, including the schools, but, “I beg for your reconsideration.”
School Supt. Michael Van Tassel said there seems to be a misunderstanding. He said the district signed a lease with Community Care in July 2011 that was to run to June 30, 2014. He said Community Care had to let the school district know by April 1 if it wanted to renew the lease for another two years.
“It’s not that we turned it down,” Supt. Van Tassel said. “We didn’t cancel. You didn’t renew.”
Lyons said her CEO told her that Community Care made many calls to the school district and none were returned.
When Lyons asked Van Tassel if he was willing to renew the lease, Van Tassel said he would be “willing to have a conversation.”
Van Tassel said the district will have “extreme costs to replace the trailer.”
“If you can tell me there’s an open door, I’m going to go through it,” Lyons said. “I’m pursuing it for 300 people.”
Board Treasurer Sherry Frazier said Lyons should be advocating for other locations, in Sumpter Township, Van Buren Township, or downtown Belleville.
Frazier said the rent the school district offered wasn’t enough and the district is getting squeezed financially by the state.
“As a Realtor, I say you should have followed your lease,” Frazier said.
“I would have, if I was in charge,” Lyons said. “Ninety percent come from the Belleville schools. Let us help them before they go who knows where … I’ll pursue it.”
Georgette Reid, who has lived in VBT for 25 years, said all three of her children have disabilities and mental issues.
“This would be a devastating loss for me,” Reid said, adding they now walk a half mile from their home to Community Care because they have no car.
Reid said mental illness is very serious and those without treatment end up in jail or worse, depressed and suicidal.
“In your heart, look after these children,” Reid said to the board. “Let them stay … They don’t have nowhere else to turn.
“There are tons of children out here who have mental issues,” Reid said.
It was clarified that there are 300 patients and 80 of them are children.
Ayron Smith-Douglas, a nurse case manager at Community Care, said she has worked at the Belleville Community Care for 30 years and will keep working there until they close.
She said they were seeing 200 patients when it was in downtown Belleville. She has been working with three generations of families with mental health problems, which she said is “a whole underground in Belleville.”
She said one client recently called her from beside the freeway in her car. She was broken down and didn’t know what to do and so called her mental health worker.
“Sometimes they don’t know what to do,” Smith-Douglas said.
In other business at the May 12 meeting, the school board:
• Approved a recommendation from Eric Dumont of Plante Moran CRESA to award a contract to Control Net in the amount of $220,850 from the 2014 Sinking Funds for the McBride Middle School Mechanical System and Controls Upgrade Project. The second bid was from John E. Green;
• Heard a presentation by Principal Aleisa Pitt and staff from Tyler Elementary School on curriculum being used;
• Passed a resolution approving the Schools of Choice program for the first semester of the 2014-15 school year;
• Approved the Wayne RESA Budget Resolution, in accordance with the Revised School Code;
• Approved membership on the 2014 Health Advisory Board as: Co-chairperson Joseph Brodie, health teacher at BHS; Co-Chairperson Dawn Spicer, parents with students at Tyler/BHS; Health Professional Dionisia, health para at BHS; Parent Connie Testorelli, parent/BHS; Students Eddie McWilliams and Brianna Jones, students at BHS; Pastor Jim Richter, local pastor; Angela Scroggie, gym teacher at Tyler; School Board Liaison Kathy Kovach; and Ex-officio members Diane Kullis, Director of Instruction, and Karen Johnston, Supervisor of Special Education. The board will bring a recommendation to the school board;
• Approved the termination of Jacqueline Johnson as of May 9. She had been a custodian for seven years;
• Approved the resignations as of June 20 of four teachers who had served for one year each: Joseph Wyly, BHS; Albert Dancho, McBride; Christa Dolan, BHS; and Jamie Ward, Rawsonville;
• Approved the resignation as of June 20 “for other endeavors” of teacher Angela Zuellig of McBride, who had taught nine years; and the non-renewal of the probationary teaching contract of Kim Roberson, who taught one year at Tyler;
• Heard board vice president Martha Toth give a legislative update. She said she believes the state will not use the Common Core tests expected for next school year and will use the MEAP tests instead, which is a bad idea. Toth said the State of Washington declined Common Core testing, so under the federal No Child Left Behind rules the whole state would have failed the test. Now U.S. Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan said he will grant an extension of NCLB. “I understand why people are so upset with the tests,” Toth said, adding she will be doing her part by being in Seattle on June 14 and demonstrating outside the Gates Foundation;
• Was informed by Trustee Scott Russell that the Savage Elementary Carnival will be May 16 and if anyone has the urge to hurl something at a board member, he will be in his best suit sitting in the dunk tank; and
• Was reminded the next meeting of the school board will be at 7 p.m., May 19, for a work/study session at the administration building and graduation for seniors is May 29.