Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Thursday, February 2, 2006
Dr. Robert Theide
Dr. Robert Theide is superintendent of the Pickerington Local School District.
Running a school system is big business. It is also a public business financed by taxpayers.
The taxpayer/government relationship is one built on trust. The foundation of this trust is built upon free and open exchange of information, thorough exploration and debate of ideas and decisive action that is in the best interests of the entire community.
The Pickerington Local School District (PLSD) is committed to strengthening the trust between taxpayers and the school board. I will admit that this trust with some taxpayers has eroded over the past few years, as evidenced by the failure of school bond issues. I am also confident that this erosion of trust can be reversed.
In any sound business relationship, the parties financing an endeavor expect that the money they have invested is spent wisely and spent in a manner that will accomplish the program for which the money was collected. Investors want assurances that their investments are put to fruitful ends. Money invested must be accounted for. Expenditures must be justified.
Government is under more scrutiny than the private sector in this regard, and rightfully so. Citizens demand that their hard-earned tax dollars are responsibly spent. The school system is a major consumer of taxpayer dollars and must therefore be accountable to the public trust.
As superintendent of the PLSD, I am committed to inclusion of all interested parties into charting the course that the school system will take. This will include facilitating access to all fiscal records of the school district. All options for improving the delivery of education are fair game for assessment, including those that have been previously acted upon or rejected.
Dealing with school funding issues is a very difficult endeavor. These issues are complex and interrelated. The state of Ohio has wrestled with this problem for more than a decade. School districts around us and around the state have wrestled with this problem. No clear solution to the problem has been found yet. However, this does not mean that a solution can't be found.
In order to be responsible to taxpayers, a school board must do three things to assure the community that any request for additional tax dollars is warranted.
First, expenses must be minimized and must stay within budget. Second, a clear case must be made for each new tax dollar. A strategy for procuring outside funding sources, such as grants, must be vigorously pursued. Third, a long-term plan must be put forth that provides a clear vision for the direction of the school district.
It is my goal to address in detail how the PLSD is addressing each of these three points. The school board plans to revamp its Web page to be more informational and more user-friendly. No one who wants input or who wants to track the actions of the school board will be denied access to public information or to debate on current issues.
In short, we want to ease access to all aspects of the operation of the school district. Only through access to all pertinent information and discussion of alternatives can trust be rebuilt. The school board and I are deeply committed to building trust through communication. Please give us the chance to earn your trust

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Biggest Business in Town

I would like to address the first point of responsible action by a school board: minimizing costs and staying within budget. The results of a recent survey, while not scientific in design, conveyed the thought of many that my administration and our school board are not doing their best to keep costs down. If taxpayers must adhere to a budget, so should the school district. Quite right!
The district has taken several cost-saving measures of late. One was moving the school bus terminal from Pataskala (I-70 and state Route 310) to Central High School. This temporary move saves on fuel costs. This is significant in light of today's fuel costs and the number of buses needed to run the system. A permanent fix located within the school district will be forthcoming.
The school district has been staying within budget for the past three years. In order to stay within budget this year, the board recognized midstream that it needed to cut $600,000 in expenditures. The board made significant cuts to technology, capital improvements and community schools to stay on budget for the 2005-06 school year.
An excellent example of good stewardship of public funds involves energy conservation efforts taken to upgrade the lighting fixtures at our five oldest buildings, and HVAC systems at all schools except North and Lakeview. This work was performed in-house, saving the costs of architects, the cost of the bidding procedure and other required expenses.
The net benefit of using school district personnel on this project was significant. The savings associated with the completed lighting upgrades done in-house at Pickerington Elementary, Violet Elementary and Ridgeview Junior High are estimated to amount to $37,991.60 per year.
The use of outside contractors for this project would have required a time period of 15 years to recoup the investment in the lighting upgrades alone. By using in-house personnel, the upgrade cost will be retrieved in just three years. The benefits of the in-house HVAC upgrades have yet to be known because the heating season is just beginning.
In closing, the school board and I are acutely aware that we need to inform and communicate with taxpayers better. The education of our children is so important to all of us. Together we can overcome the shortcomings of the past. Together we can find a solution to school funding.
Let us begin again to realize our shared goal.

PLSD's Turn?

In the spirit of Dr. Thiede?’s ?“open and honest communications?”, I offer this. Tell us just how top heavy you are in each building and the administrative offices.

Audit will help school district run more efficiently
By LAURA VAN HOUTEN
Eagle-Gazette Staff
lvanhout@nncogannett.com



LANCASTER - Lancaster City Schools officials soon will know whether there are too many people working at the top.
Officials from the state are conducting a performance audit on the district. The audit will tell officials whether the district is run efficiently.
''As we move forward, the performance audit will be an important tool to the district,'' said Superintendent Denise Callihan. ''We've tried to work within our means. We can improve, and we must improve in every area, but the audit will tell us how or what we need to do.''
The official report from the auditor's office will not be complete until April, Callihan said.
''This office (the district office) is critical to the district,'' she said. ''People are critical to the district, and our employees are our most valuable asset in this education business.''
When it comes to comparing Lancaster administrator salaries with the state-wide average, the district is close to the average.
The state average salary for a superintendent in a same size district as Lancaster is $117,683. Callihan makes $117,000. The state average salary for administrators - both elementary and secondary - in a same size district as Lancaster is $79,378. The average in Lancaster is $82,206.
''We are a little higher,'' Callihan said. ''But we have so much experience in this district.''
The top management spots include superintendent, assistant superintendent, business manager, treasurer, director of instructional services, director of pupil personnel (also special education) and technology director, who also is head of the digital academy.
Other districts in the county receive special services, such as curriculum consulting and special education program supervision services, from the Fairfield County Education Service Center. Lancaster's school district currently provides these services on its own, Callihan said.
''We do not get any of these services from the county,'' she said. ''It's all in-house, but as part of the reductions, we're looking into what the county can offer us so we can save money.''
The rest of the county schools also do not have a vocational program on their campuses like Lancaster does. Students from other districts go to programs at the Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools.
A portion of the Ohio Revised Code states ''every school shall be provided the services of a principal'' and every school ''with 15 or more full-time equivalent classroom teachers shall be assigned the services of a full-time principal.'' It also states that no principal be assigned to more than two schools.

PLSD's Turn? (continued)

Bob Richards is the principal for Stanbery Freshman Campus and Lancaster High School. The high school also has one associate principal and two assistants. One of those assistants oversees the career and technical program at the high school. Stanbery has an associate principal and assistant principal.
Both junior highs have one principal and share an assistant principal this school year, but the assistant principal position is part of the $700,000 in cuts that will be made at the end of the year. Each elementary school in the district has one full-time principal.
Originally published February 3, 2006


By comparing Lancaster City Schools to other districts in the county, they're average when it comes to the amount of students per administrator.
?• Lancaster has 11 principals, two associate principals and four assistant principals for 6,004 students. With these figures, their student/administration ratio is 353.2.
?• Amanda-Clearcreek has four principals and one assistant for 1,646 students with a ratio of 329.2 students to one administrator.
?• Berne Union has three principals for 979 students with a ratio of 326.3.
?• Bloom-Carroll has four principals and one assistant for 1,568 students with a ratio of 313.6.
?• Fairfield Union has four principals and two assistants for 2,061 students with a ratio of 343.5.
?• Liberty Union has three principals and one assistant for 1,412 students with a ratio of 353.
?• Pickerington has 11 principals, four assistant principals and six deans of students for 9,727 students with a ratio of 463.2.