Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Same or new?

Mom,

Hopefully this won?’t get back to just you and me and Grandpa. You?’re going to be told again that the plans you ask for, much as I did are in that huge facilities review committee report. I?’m not stupid and digest reports for a living but do all voters? Synopsis folks. Pictures over words. Communications!

I agree with the bus thing and now, since the drivers have to clean out their buses daily, the schools or the bus company parked a dumpster in the grassy area. I didn?’t see any dumpsters thrown about at the north campus. I agree the buses have to be split up but the board and administration was strongly cautioned by north parents, boosters, etc. that this will not be tolerated. They don?’t want to have to look at them. The bus company and the district are looking at constructing a parking and maintenance facility at north but I can assure you that the opposition groups will never let this happen.

Yes, there is a large area between Taj-type facilities and institutional facilities. Maybe the district can present us with some options of artist?’s conceptions at what they plan before they ask for our money?

The schools will not sit down with the city because they won?’t listen to what the city has to say. They won?’t sit down with the township because the township?’s pat answer is ALWAYS we can?’t do anything or we don?’t have money. Too much negatives and no positives and now we?’re stuck with another 4 years of that. At least at the end of the terms of these new councilmen and same old trustees my kids will be graduated and I can leave. Good riddance to me.

The district?’s numbers are the district?’s numbers. No one knows where they get them but they show explosive growth even when the city should see the lowest growth in 2006 that they?’ve seen in the last 10 years. If they don?’t show continued explosive growth, they will have to explain to the state why they still need all that money each year. Easier to stretch the truth than tell the truth?

One of my kids attended portables and two attended regular classrooms. There is no appreciable difference in the quality of education they received due to facilities. There are differences that Heritage caused but I don?’t want to go there now. A school board member was quoted as saying that they could take all the portables from all the schools and locate them to the land they own down Hill Road at Sycamore Creek development. Give it a go! Again, a picture is worth a thousand words. Show us a picture of how it will look and the cafeteria, gym, and other facilities that will be required to support this. We just might buy it. You don?’t know until you ask.

As to the board member caught in her own web to a councilman, she just got promoted! She is now the board president. Imagine how much better things will get for us now that the very person who talks the most, says the least and never listens is in charge!! Finally the person who just spends her time hiding behind her spreadsheets will have to come out of the Excel closet and face people. Hopefully the next levy will pass and this person can finally show us once and for all that open and honest communication with the district is no longer necessary. Every answer to every issue is right in front of you on her spreadsheets!

To me, it?’s backwards moves such as this that continue to stall this district and keep us from moving forward. Just like any computer program you see ?– garbage in and garbage out. Sorry President but you lost my support nearly two years ago.


By Central Dad

Thanks for Starting

Thanks, Central Mom and Dad, for getting the discussion started.

Let me try to summarize where we are so far:

(1) It appears that you both want the School Board to show more concern with controlling the costs of building projects. You might be willing to approve increased revenue, if you were convinced the PLSD would use it carefully and wisely.

(2) You want the School Board to consider expanding existing facilities as well as building new ones -- again, if expansion is the more cost-effective option.

(3) You want the School Board to make full use of existing classroom space, if necessary through grade reconfiguration, changing enrollment districts, etc., before building more.

(4) You would be open to building fewer, but larger, schools, if we could save a significant amount of money that way, and had adequate lunchrooms, gymn space, lavatories, libraries and other common facilities for the larger enrollment.

(5) You would like to see more, and more careful, advance planning, so that voters will have some idea what they will face in the next decade or so. Do you think it would be a good idea for the School Board to start thinking about what our school needs will be when the school district is fully developed?

(6) As we approach full development of the school district, you want the School Board to be careful not to overbuild, as Columbus apparently has.

(7) You want the School Board to listen seriously to community suggestions, and to speak to the community more openly and honestly about these matters.

(8) You are not convinced that doublewides are always a bad bargain as classroom facilities.

Please let me know if I have missed anything, or gotten anything wrong. Now, what do others think?

Opportunity

Don't forget the buses, Bruce.

This would be a GOLDEN opportunity for the school board to say that they have heard the public and they acted upon what they had to say. This is a prime example for you to say that you are practicing good fiscal responsibility.

I would recommend that you make the move of half the buses to North as public as possible. Get the story to the press. Show the people that the Pickerington School Board is capable of making good decisions! Show the voters that you are listening!

Mom

By Central

Consider this

I'm breaking one of my new year's resolutions here, but have you considered this:

Let say there's 50 buses to be moved back and forth to North. Each one use 1 gallon of fuel for the round trip at $2.00 a gallon. Remember school buses don't pay fuel taxes. So that's 50 buses X $2.00 X 4 trips a day equals $400 a day or $2000 a week. But now you need a rest and preparation facility for the drivers with lavatory facilities, utilities, land rent, property taxes. You need additional office space with furniture, utilities, taxes, etc. Now suppose a bus won't start. Are you going to position a mechanic with tools and equipment at North as well as Central? Does that double that part of your payroll? Are you going to process time cards at each location or at one? Who is going to transport them and what are they paid? We need to make sure we're not spending $5000 a week to save $2000.

There is a reason why large logicistic companies like FEDEX, UPS, Walmart etc., use centralized transportation nodes. This is the sort of problem business school students get MBAs solving so let's not assume we have all the data. Remember, for every problem there's a solution that's simple, cheap and wrong.

By Any Mouse