Flint Community Schools

Flint Community Schools is a school district headquartered in Flint, Michigan, United States. For the 2011-2012 school year, the Flint Community Schools had both middle schools, four elementary schools and one high school placed in the bottom 5% of all schools in the State of Michigan based on student achievement and attendance. The school district accommodated a total student population of about 30,000 students. It included two early childhood education centers, 18 elementary schools,and three secondary schools. Other buildings under its operation include the Genesee Area Skill Center,and 2 alternative education facilities.

The current mission statement of "developing a community of learners who are prepared to live, work, and contribute to an ever changing society" was developed by Walter Milton, who became Superintendent in 2005. Milton subsequently wrote a book entitled Me in the Making which included a chapter on his stormy tenure in Flint.

In November 2012, Superintendent Linda Thompson announced her retirement. Thompson, 57, is a Flint native who has worked 36 years with the district in several roles. She worked her way up the ranks from teacher to assistant principal, to principal before coming to the administration building and her eventual selection as superintendent. Linda Thompson, a native of Flint and graduate of the University of Michigan School of Education assumed the Superintendentship in 2008 and set about downsizing the District by closing schools. In late 2011 the District was found to be running a deficit of 3.7 million dollars by the accounting firm of Yeo and Yeo. In early 2012 the Flint School Board opted not to extend Superintendent Thompson's contract beyond the current year, citing the deficit and her previous effectiveness rating of 2.7 out a possible 4.0 points. Mrs. Thompson continued on a one-year contract, but in November 2012, on the heels of the discovery of an even larger budget deficit than the year before, she announced her retirement.

In December 2012, Lawrence Watkins Jr. was selected to serve as the Districts Interim Superintendent. Watkins was a longtime Flint School District employee. He graduated from Flint Central High School in 1971 and then graduated from Hillsdale College on a football scholarship in 1975. He's worked for the district, in some capacity, "since I was 14 years of age," he has said. He was a locker room attendant in high school. After college, Watkins became varsity wrestling coach at Central High. In 1986, he became staff assistant for the district's office of pupil personnel services. He held several other positions in the administration office before retiring as director of pupil personnel services in 2012. He also served as director of school safety and security. Larry Watkins helped the Flint School District usher in a comprehensive educational plan, negotiate concessions from bargaining units and collaborate with community organizations to bring back the community education model that put Flint schools on the map. At the same time, Watkins saw Flint schools' deficit grow from $4 million to $21.9 million in a little over two years, thousands of students leave the district and numerous school buildings closed. On April 8, 2015, Mr. Watkins announced his retirement.

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