Saline school board approves $6,690 for state group membership after freezing individual spending

Tuesday’s approval of spending $6,690 to renew the district’s membership did not sit well with trustees David Zimmer or David Holden, who voted against the motion. The motion passed 5-2.

Patti Waltz, executive assistant to the superintendent, said Saline has been a member of the MASB for at least 10 years.

Zimmer was the center of an April 10 discussion and took fire from several trustees for spending $1,015 since January on online training courses to become a MASB-certified board member.

President Lisa Slawson recommended freezing discretionary spending for board members indefinitely or until further notice as a means of extending an olive branch to unions. Slawson brought the motion forward before the conversation turned to focus on Zimmer. She said at the April 10 meeting, the school board has repeatedly asked union members for concessions and she thought it was time for the board to share in the sacrifice.

Holden requested more information on trustees’ MASB-related spending, but the information could not be gathered in time. Later, once a five-year analysis of spending was completed, Holden chastised Slawson for presenting partial data to the board that left the impression Zimmer had “excessive expenses, acted in a fiscally irresponsible manner and was setting a precedent,” Holden said in an April 25 email to AnnArbor.com.

On Tuesday, Slawson argued that the motion freezing MASB spending for all board members and spending money to renew the board’s membership as a whole were two separate things.

“That was for individual board members. This is for the district,” she said prior to the vote. Holden and Zimmer, who were elected in November and took office in January, disagreed with her assessment.

Staff reporter Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.