DETROIT _ Detroit's teachers union and school district have settled a lawsuit the union filed last year over mold, vermin and other problems in run-down school buildings.
As part of the agreement, a five-member oversight committee will ensure that all building repair requests are handled promptly. The deal includes a way to compel the district to act on work orders logged by parents and educators, officials said. It also requires the district to generate a monthly maintenance report identifying every work order request and its status.
"This agreement brings Detroit closer to the great public schools the Detroit Federation of Teachers has been fighting for," DFT Interim President Ivy Bailey said in a news release.
"Beyond just educating our students, we have served as building maintenance, plumbers, pest control, bricklayers and even painters for our classrooms and our decaying school buildings. This settlement will finally allow us to turn the page and devote our time to educating and enriching the lives of our students and their families."
The Detroit Federation of Teachers, its umbrella group and several parents filed the lawsuit in January 2016 in Wayne County Circuit Court. They said the poor conditions in some schools seriously threatened students' health and deprived them of their constitutional right to a minimally adequate education.
They also sought to remove the district's then-emergency manager, Darnell Earley, who was a defendant along with the school district.
The lawsuit said students have been exposed to "black mold, bacteria, freezing cold temperatures in classrooms, rodent and insect infestations, exposed wiring" and other hazards.
Officials from the American Federation of Teachers said the settlement isn't perfect, but provides the beginnings of an accountable and transparent way to log and address building complaints and safety hazards.
"For almost a decade, students, parents and educators have been exposed to, and have fought, increasingly deplorable learning and working conditions in Detroit's public schools. From rodents running across backpacks, to computer labs without access to the internet, the students and families of Detroit have suffered enough at the hands of Gov. Rick Snyder and his handpicked emergency managers," AFT President Randi Weingarten said in the release.
"Under this settlement and with the newly elected school board, the students and families of Detroit will finally have safe and welcoming public schools with the conditions necessary for learning. It establishes a clear process to ensure health risks are identified, prioritized and remediated. This settlement is a result of parents, the community and AFT Detroit coming together and fighting for high-quality public education."
This five-member committee will include two members from the Detroit Public Schools Community District, one parent, one teacher and one nonteacher.
In addition to ensuring that all repairs are done promptly, the committee will be responsible for enforcing the settlement.
The poor building conditions sparked a wave of teacher sick-outs early last year that closed dozens of schools.
The district could not immediately be reached for comment.
