Local News

A broke school district: Alpena’s “Black Friday” marks 45 year anniversary

ALPENA -- Forty-five years ago, Alpena Public Schools students and the majority of staff, were on a short hiatus after school shut down on "Black Friday," October 16, 1981.

The schools were forced to close due to budgetary issues after three local millages failed. A fourth millage passed on Oct. 30, 1981, which opened the schools back up.

A series of news stories and letters to the editor captured the battle to pass a millage that would finally send students back to school on Nov. 3, 1981. Missed days were made up the following summer.

Betty Werth, who at the time reported for The News on the events leading up to and after Black Friday, said that the millage made it so the schools could reopen but without transportation. Students also could not take electives or participate in sports.

"It was a very difficult time for schools who were struggling financially," Werth said. "And a difficult time for property owners whose property taxes kept going up and up."

She said that the state was not keeping up with the cost of educating kids. The state allotted a certain amount of money per pupil that at the time was just not enough to cover expenses.

Werth said Alpena was not the only school in the state struggling. Schools across the state were trying and failing to pass millages.

"Millages were failing because property owners had had enough of the tax hikes," Werth said.

The conflict came between those two forces: schools needing money to keep things running and taxpayers worn out by high property taxes.

The superintendent of APS at the time was John Taylor. When the shut down happened, the only staff on duty were himself, two janitors, and three secretaries, according to past reporting. Some 500 full-time staff were laid off.

APS was the first school district of many in the nation to shut their doors due to financial issues, Werth said. The district's shutdown made statewide and national headlines.

Werth said the conflict divided people all across Alpena County. People in the city tended to be in support of the school board while those in the rural areas of the country were not. A group called the United Public Voice, UPV for short, formed in protest against the millage proposals and the school board.

Opening schools back up without transportation caused disruption for parents and students, which ultimately led to a recall effort of the school board.

"The repercussions echoed for a long time," Werth said.

According to past reporting, State School Superintendent Phillip Runkel visited Alpena, touting a message of "no state bail-out" The state could not afford to come to the financial rescue of Alpena along with Taylor and Pontiac school districts, who were also both on the brink of financial ruin.

A loan was out of the question both because the state had no money to loan and Alpena had no ability to pay it back.

Former Governor William Milliken also said "the salvation of that district...lies in the district itself" to help Alpena would only lead to similar requests from other districts.

"The national attention we are getting is not the kind of publicity we need or want," Elizabeth Connolly of Alpena stated in a letter to the editor on Oct. 24, 1981. "This notoriety can only hurt the fine reputation we’ve all worked hard to achieve...Our young people deserve and need a good and continued education now more than ever before."

A letter on the same day titled "Day in the life of a special ed teacher" written by Lynn Hartman, walks the reader through a typical school day at the junior high in an effort to convince voters to say yes to the Oct. 30 millage.

"Voters, I don't sit around all day. I only have 19 students in my class at the junior high level, but each is taught individually. I write 23 lesson plans a day."

In a letter to the editor from Oct. 23, 1981, Lorna Litzner was more critical of the circumstances leading up to the district's financial failure.

"To Becky Ulch: Not all people in the area have high paying jobs; many are unemployed and have little, if any money," Litzner wrote. "With inflation pushing the cost of every day necessities out of reach for many, higher taxes are totally intolerable."

"I feel that most people have lost faith in both the Alpena Public School Board and the administration," she stated.

One move the board made in the wrong direction according to Litzner, was making an "agreement" with a school employee, who Litzner names as "Mr. Meeder." Meeder apparently resigned and was given some kind of separation or severance package that was "overly expensive," and "totally unbelievable."

"The second step in the wrong direction was the $40,000 paid out for computerized bus routes when the school district was already in financial trouble," Litzner wrote.

That $40,000 would be worth approximately $142,580 in today's dollars.

The third step in the wrong direction, she says, was not to include budget cuts for administration as well as for the students and teachers.

"Perhaps what we need are a new school board, a different administration, and "back to the basics" in education and classes," Litzner wrote.

Alpena had their homecoming football game, losing 35-0, according to previous reporting. It was the end of the season and the temporary end of school as students, parents, players, and fans played out the final moments of a school system gone broke.

According to Janmarie Kendzorski and Mary Horn in Facebook comments, students wore black armbands to school that Friday.

"For high school seniors, it’s a bitter pill," a previous edition of The News stated.

"Dawn Fitch, thinking about that last moment of the football game and the last moment, for a while at least, of school, said, 'I have a great sense of loss. We have all worked so hard this year, especially the band,'" The News stated.

Before the game Friday, some 200 students gathered in the front oval of AHS to participate in the ceremonial draping of a black banner over the school’s nameplate, according to previous reporting.

Kendzorski also commented that some kids moved to other school districts and didn't come back after the schools opened again.

The News reported that area schools including four parochial schools, Hillman schools, Posen schools, Rogers City schools, and Alcona schools, received many inquiries into enrolling students.

"But moving into “other schools” in northern Michigan isn’t possible for large numbers of Alpena students," The News reported. "The four local parochial schools and the surrounding districts of Alcona, Hillman, Posen and Rogers City couldn’t – or wouldn’t take in large numbers of students if they were to leave the Alpena district."

The Superintendent of Posen schools Ralph Burde said they would only be able to take a limited number of students, according to past reporting.

In a previous edition of The News, Kim Beyer, a junior at AHS, wrote a poem about homecoming, 1981 and its real meaning, “Black Friday.” It ends like this:

A blowing paper

Nothing more

Our hopes and dreams

Behind closed doors.