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The Detroit district held a virtual town hall Monday to respond to an influx of questions from the public after a content creator posted a series of viral videos calling out the school system.
The videos, which reach Brandi McGill’s hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, criticized the Detroit Public Schools Community District for poor cleanliness in its buildings as well as contracting work from outside companies.
More than 700 people joined the hour-and-a-half-long session, a district official said, with more than 100 questions and comments logged.
Many of the comments called for better oversight of school maintenance and janitorial services and for the district to make contract information more accessible to the public. Some anonymous users complained about mice in buildings and shortages of janitorial supplies. Others expressed frustration about difficulty getting in touch with school and administrative staff.
“All teachers, parents and staff should be given the budget for the current school year and the budget from the previous school year,” an attendee wrote. “If this district wants us to trust them then we need to know where the money is going.”
DPSCD gives budget presentations each year, but it requires a public information request to provide full line-item lists of expenditures and revenue.
Other anonymous comments defended the district. One chided the content creator for “misinforming the public and inciting uproar.”
Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during the meeting the district has made a lot of progress, but acknowledged that there is “a lot of improvement that needs to happen.”
In her first video about DPSCD, McGill, known as Brandi Thee Millennial Manager on multiple social media platforms, called out the district after she tried to enroll her son at Denby High School. She raised concerns about the administrative staff’s poor communication with her, the building’s condition, and the programming the school offered.
In multiple videos, McGill alluded to the possibility of unethical practices in the district’s contracting, though she did not make specific allegations or offer evidence of malfeasance or impropriety.
In a statement last week, Vitti acknowledged that there were “viral posts made about the district” and said DPSCD “does intend to respond legally to defend itself” against “baseless information.”
The statement did not name McGill or her social media posts. Vitti also did not mention her by name at Monday’s meeting.
The superintendent described the district’s procedures for accepting proposals from contractors, including its policy prohibiting conflicts of interest for the school board and staff.
At a board committee meeting last week, Vitti said the district would prefer not to use contracted services if possible.
The district has made progress in replacing contractors with full-time employees since emergency management ended about a decade ago, said Vitti. During the period of emergency management — when a series of state-appointed emergency managers controlled the district from 2009 to 2016 — Vitti said the former Detroit Public School contracted out many more school operations, such as extracurricular and after-school instruction.
In some areas, such as janitorial work, DPSCD has had difficulty filling vacancies in recent years, he added.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Machion Jackson said in 2018 the district tried to hire its own janitors to service 10 schools. However, DPSCD could only find enough staff for five schools.
McGill told Chalkbeat she doesn’t believe the district contracting services is inherently negative. She understands that it may have been necessary to contract in the past, but wants the district to try again. Doing so could produce higher quality work and high wages for custodians, she added.
At several meetings earlier this year, the board discussed improving cleanliness in schools. LaTrice McClendon, chair of the board, said at last week’s meeting discussions around hiring more in-house custodial staff began around that time.
“I wasn’t aware they were doing that before the meeting last Wednesday,” said McGill. “I already made my videos. I’m glad the board saw there is an issue and the need to address it.”
DPSCD will hold an in-person meeting to cover the same topics from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Renaissance High School.
Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.