Broke Michigan district likely to re-open schools

LANSING, Mich. Saginaw County's Buena Vista district soon could reopen its doors after the local school board approved a plan aimed at bringing the district out of its million-dollar deficit.

The Buena Vista Board of Education approved a deficit elimination plan Tuesday night, potentially ending a freeze on state dollars to the district, reports CBS Saginaw affiliate WNEM-TV.

Earlier Tuesday, Michigan schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan said he'd seen a tentative deficit elimination plan and believes the state can approve it.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Flanagan called the district's superintendent, Deborah Hunter-Harvill, after Tuesday night's meeting and indicated that he would sign off on the plan. Students could be back in school as early as Friday.

Buena Vista schools haven't held class since May 3 because the district ran out of money. Under Michigan law, schools can't receive state aid if they don't have an approved deficit plan.

WNEM says confusion lingered after the school board meeting, though, because the board also OKs a plan for summer "skills enhancement camp that would act as a voluntary schooling program for the district's students. But Flanagan told the station all the district had to do Tuesday night was to approve the deficit elimination plan -- the skills enhancement camp was simply a backup plan.