Teachers press Dearborn district on building conditions; district to roll out maintenance ticketing next year

Union representative Cathy Martin told the Dearborn City School District board on April 14 that she was pausing a planned slideshow of building problems to allow the district time to address outstanding maintenance issues, but she urged faster action and better tracking.

“I don’t want to be making slideshows of, you know, damage to buildings. I want everything to be great,” Cathy Martin said, noting the time staff spend documenting recurring problems. Martin asked the district to accelerate repairs and improve responsiveness so teachers and students are not exposed to avoidable condition issues.

District operations staff and board members discussed causes and fixes. Administrators told the board that some leaks and HVAC problems stem from aging systems and seasonal constraints — for example, roof leak investigations require consistent outdoor temperatures of around 40 degrees to be effective, and some repairs require man lifts and specialized parts. Operations staff also said limited staffing for HVAC and aging equipment slow turnaround times.

To improve communications and oversight, the district described plans for a ticketing and tracking system modeled on the technology help-desk the district already uses. “What we're currently looking at for our system is very similar to what we use in technology for our help desk tickets,” one operations manager said. The system will allow staff to open tickets with building and room numbers, track response times, and reopen tickets if work is incomplete; the district expects to unveil the system for the next school year.

Board members pressed for clear timelines and transparency. Trustee Berry said some issues are simple to fix and urged immediate action where possible, while Trustee Nizami emphasized that a reliable tracking system would help prioritize and justify requests in bond planning.

Officials also clarified competing statements about building ages. At one point, a board member said a “majority” of buildings exceed 100 years; an administrator later noted that roughly 10 of the district’s 30-plus buildings are that old and that infrastructure issues occur across both older and newer facilities.

No formal board vote was taken on maintenance policy or capital spending at the April 14 meeting. District staff were asked to continue work on the ticketing flowchart, share it with the board and unions, and prioritize safety-critical repairs while preparing materials for future building-and-site and bond discussions.

The meeting included multiple offers from teachers and unions to coordinate with operations staff to ensure problems brought forward in slides or emails are acted upon and tracked.