Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Does anyone know when or if the results of the survey posted on the Pickerington local school district website will be made public? I was very happy to see the school board make an effort to get an understanding of what the district voters think as they enter the polls and I would love to see the feedback as a whole.

My responses to the survey included that it's my impression that while I think our school board has a handle on the financial issues in the district, they just don't seem to be compassionate with the voters. I very much feel that if our teachers, students, staff and atheletes were to have mobilized this past November to spread the word regarding the importance of the levy, the results would have been much different. The voters have all kinds of perceptions as to why they should not vote for the levy but none as to why they should. Simply putting up a few signs two weeks before the election is not going to get the job done.

The second point I brought up in my survey response as that the district needs to stop struggling to downplay the differences between the schools. What's done is done. Pick North is a much nicer school than Pick Central. Whether that fact is good or bad, I honestly doubt that there is much that can be done about it now. The school board needs to move on. When they do, the public (for the most part) will too. However, I think that the board must do everything in their power to keep the schools on an even suface. A good place to start would be to move half the buses to North. It makes no sense why 50% of our buses travel across town twice a day to service the schools on that side of town. The prices at the pump should make that a no brainer. Also the traffic congestion at Central, trash and damaged trees caused by the buses makes for a terrible eye sore.

Thanks

By Central Mom

Response to part of your posting

Mom,

I like what you have to say on these issues. Just let me point out something that I hope that the schools weighed in the value of their online survey. You went in and made you thoughts known. Hypothetically, I went in and made mine known but to be the eternal antagonist, I then went in and took the survey again with the exact opposite entries. In effect, I cancelled out the first response. While I applaud PLSD for making the attempt, next time they need to seek professional support in offering a survey, perhaps through a third-party source that allows only one input per person. Obviously given the sometimes over-postings by some individuals on this site, some people have way too much time on their hands and could have literally sat and taken the survey a dozen times to sway results in their favor.

On the rest of your posting, I agree that they so not appear compassionate. Again, they do not know their audience. I think it is time they get to know their voters a lot better. As said in previous postings in here, do we not think that new schools aren?’t required? I hope not because then it would seem that the voters are morons. The question is why we will not support what they are proposing.

I also agree with you on north and what is done is done. The wound may heal but the scar remains as a reminder. The challenge is how to make people look you in the eye instead of looking at your scar. How can this board make the voters see them for what they are rather than for what other board members have done?


By Central Dad

Response to Dad

While I believe that many school districts are faced with these same issues as what we're experiencing now in Pickerington, what we have now is not that unlike what the South Western city school went through. The way they resolved the school funding issues was to mobilize the assets they had. They got their students out there banging on doors and making phone calls. They showed the voters why they not only needed to get out and vote but also why they needed to vote for rather than against the levies.

What they didn't do was whine about the past. They realized that previous school board officials likely made some mistakes. They admitted it and they moved on. Once that happened they effectively took away the ammo of the angry residents. The school board should take a page from that district and perhaps we'll pass a levy.

In addition, our school board needs to show that they still value the older schools that we have. The faculty and staff of Central, Ridgeview, etc. should be expected to take tremendous pride in those facilities. Trash needs to collected as soon as it's dropped, student artwork that reflects pride in the school should be proudly displayed. This is not so much as a them versus us propostion as it is an attempt at down-playing the Pickerington Trash versus Pickerington Cash belief.

Mom

By Central Mom

Back atcha

Mom,

I am peripherally aware of what went on in the SW district. A lady I work with lives there and offered her very opinionated insight. I have to ask with no disrespect intended if you are basing your opinion on their approach from the media reports or your more personal information. You won?’t find me defending people like this often, so with that said, former Mayor Randall Hughes is a high school teacher at Central. Mr. Hughes had his students write letters to their parents telling them about a past levy and encouraging them to vote for it. Now I won?’t go in to all the details but suffice it to say Mr. Hughes was publicly trashed on this website and more for his actions. The condemners resented using the kids in this manner. And it you consider that the new schools are to be elementary, do you want those aged children involved in a levy campaign?

Go talk to Mr. Kemper at Central. Ask him what he thinks about the Central facilities, teaching staff and other staff. I did and it was an eye opener. I also believe that outside the North campus the cash-trash opinion has evaporated. There isn?’t a Central parent I?’ve talked to who wished their kids went to North. There also isn?’t a sports parent I?’ve talked to at Central who wishes their student athlete was playing at North. Sure their facilities are better but look at some of the college or pro team with the best facilities money can buy but they can?’t buy tradition or a winning season.

I agree that for the most part, PLSD is out of touch with what the residents and voters want. Before they are embarrassed again with another failed levy attempt, it might be advisable to reach out and see what the problem is and how to best deal with it. Fix it if it is broke and then come and ask for the money.


By Central Dad