River Rouge schools spend big on travel expenses

River Rouge School officials have spent more than $280,000 on out-of-state travel in recent years.

River Rouge school Superintendent Derrick Coleman says money he and other top administrators spend traveling to places like Las Vegas, Orlando, Anaheim, Nashville and Washington, D.C., is educational.

“This is training that we don’t believe we can find locally that’s offered nationally,” Coleman said. “And so we choose to, you know, send qualified people there. They’re bringing that information back.”

The district has spent more than $288,000 on out-of-state travel over the past six years, including almost $23,000 this past year alone.

The district has about 2,300 students, about 75% of whom qualify for free or reduced price lunches because their family incomes are so low. Household income in River Rouge is about half the state average, according to census figures.

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“There is no need to do all this out of state travel,” said Eddie Hejka, a former teacher in River Rouge who quit the district in 2017 because of what he said was mismanagement. “We can get all the training we want locally.”

Hejka, a former teachers union president, said teachers in the district took a 15% pay cut in 2011 and have gotten only half of it back since.

“Teachers are making less than they did 11 years ago,” he said.

State law requires districts to post on their websites certain financial information, including travel expenses. River Rouge’s have drawn the ire of district critics including Hejka, in part because they far outstrip neighboring districts.

Allen Park, Ecorse, Melvindale North Allen Park, Southgate and Wyandotte schools spent nothing on out-of-state travel last year. Lincoln Park spent $2,500.

The Taylor school district spent slightly more than River Rouge, about $25,000, but it has almost three times as many students.

Others spend less

“Our board doesn’t support us traveling out of state,” said Superintendent Kimberly Soranno of the Melvindale-Northern Allen Park School District. “There are so many wonderful professional development opportunities in our state that we don’t have to go out of state.”

Soranno said that occasionally, the district will allow out-of-state travel. For example, some coaches went to Chicago last year, she said.

Instead, the district likes to bring trainers to town to work with teachers, administrators and others for professional development. It has found other ways to keep down costs as well.

The district brought in Dave Burgess, author of ‘Teach Like a Pirate,’ last year, but partnered with the Crestwood School District to split the cost. As a general rule, the district brings trainers in to meet with district employees, rather then sending them out of state to conferences, Soranno said.

“We have state-of-the-art professional development,” she said. “When our consultants come in, they will stay a week and meet with different groups. We bring a lot in.”

‘No cause for concern’

But Coleman insists the travel expenses in River Rouge are not out of line and the district’s budget is balanced.

“There’s no cause for concern, we have a healthy fund balance,” he said. “We believe that the training is desperately needed, because we have a trauma approach to educating our children. The needs in those communities are different than ours. Socioeconomically, we’re not the same. We educate different population of students.”

Among the trips Rouge administrators have taken in recent years are five to Orlando, four to Washington D.C., three to Chicago, two each to Nashville and Kansas City. Other trips have included Boston, Atlanta and San Diego.

Coleman said the district has improved under his leadership, growing the student population from around 1,200 students in 2011 to almost 2,300 now. Teachers have gotten back some of the pay cuts they took when the district was in deficit, he said.

Still, Rouge teachers make less than their neighbors.

The average teacher salary in Rouge is about $60,500, compared with almost $80,000 in Melvindale-Northern Allen Park, $76,800 in Allen Park, $76,000 in Southgate and $74,000 in Wyandotte.