Good news for the one in five people who have difficulty processing written words: Michigan now has two strong laws governing how schools screen for dyslexia and train teachers to respond to it. And it has them largely because of Ann Arbor school board member and former special ed teacher Susan Ward Schmidt.
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In mid-December, when Concordia University Ann Arbor issued a press release announcing the school would consolidate its operations at its North Building on Plymouth Rd. and away from its sprawling, lush campus along Geddes, few were surprised.
“I feel pretty good,” says AAPS board president Torchio Feaster of the November election results. “We elected a lot of good people in this community.”
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The decline in volunteers adds to the challenges facing the Ann Arbor Public Schools, which are reeling in the wake of a budget deficit and staff cuts. “It’s not like there’s a parent at home anymore,” says Gina Maksimchuk, who teaches kindergarten oung fives at Abbot. And that means “fewer people are available to volunteer.”
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The November 5 election is about the schools’ past, present, and future—the current board’s firing of superintendent Jeanice Swift last summer, the discovery of a $25 million hole the budget in March, the hiring of Jazz Parks as the new superintendent in June, and the need to grow enrollment to keep the schools financially sound in the future.
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After a contentious lawsuit, Gracie the Bernedoodle is back with the teacher she lived with during her stint as a therapy dog at Wines Elementary School.
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Just before kick-off at the AFC Ann Arbor women’s May 19 soccer match against Kalamazoo FC at Pioneer High School’s Hollway Field, fifteen-year-old Izzy Sutton and two U-M students received formal recognition as female leaders and role models. Sutton, tall and athletic, was a 2023 Washtenaw County Young Citizen of the Year, and has won state and national service awards for her work, which has included raising money for bird and turtle rescue by selling her own line of notecards. Sutton has long called for eliminating single-use plastic water bottles at the Ann Arbor Public Schools, petitioning the school board and administration since fifth grade. Most end up in landfills and as trash in the environment.
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A week after school let out in June, the Ann Arbor Board of Education voted to release a devastating report on the mistakes leading to a multimillion-dollar hole in the district’s budget.
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The U-M Law School’s Public Defender Training Institute, led by Primus with assistance from three alumni, prepares students for the realities of work— and life—as a public defender.
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Emerson celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in April at Michigan Stadium. “We raised a significant amount of money,” Beckerleg emails, “with the bulk of it going to support our financial aid program—including a new middle-school scholarship in honor of Jean Navarre.
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The assembly controls a budget of about $1.2 million that traditionally supports dozens of student organizations. Chowdhury and Atkinson, who spent nights at the encampment on the Diag in April and May, want to give it to Palestinian groups instead.
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At a special meeting in early April, the school board voted 4–3 to have superintendent Jazz Parks warn most of the district’s unions of impending layoffs. They did so, president Torchio Feaster says, because they needed “to send a realistic plan to the state” for how to address a $25 million shortfall.
Read MoreQ. The U-M is always growing, and when it purchases property in the city, it is removed from the city’s tax rolls. Does the U-M make any payments to the city for services such as police and fire protection, road maintenance,...
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“Do you have a medical marijuana card?” asked a woman from HireRight, the company the U-M uses for...
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A distraught woman stares into the middle distance against an ominous red background; from a jagged voice bubble comes her anguished cry: “… NOW WHAT?”
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The U-M’s enrollment fell less than 1 percent during the pandemic and it’s been rising ever since.
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The Ann Arbor Board of Education voted 5–2 on September 13 to accept superintendent Jeanice Swift’s resignation.
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“This could be what makes the next rocket to Mars possible,” says Ravi Pendse, his voice sparking...
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On Sunday, August 6, the Ann Arbor board of education canceled its meeting scheduled for the...
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After Affirmative Action: At the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative...
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